~~Young people are the future of Crittenden County. Crittenden County’s population has declined over the years as well as many storefronts throughout Main Street have become vacant.  Many youth that go onto college are not returning to Crittenden County due to the decline of opportunities within our county.  Concern has been voiced that many of our youth need more opportunities to step into leadership opportunities to develop useful life skills to become successful adults and change agents.  Concern has also been expressed that our schools do not have a diverse mix of youth involved in leadership roles and opportunities.  The Crittenden County Extension Service learned of an opportunity to help fill these voids by introducing YELP (Youth Engagement Leadership Program) to our high school students.  The Extension Service partnered with the high schools 21st Century coordinator and launched the program last year with 18 youth participating.  Youth were nominated from their teachers and were identified as A-B students and exhibiting leadership potential, but not having the opportunity to step into leadership roles at the school level. YELP seeks to equip youth with the civic engagement and entrepreneurial skills needed for them to engage as change agents in their community. The youth learn about state and local government and how to write a business plan. Through their participation in the program, the youth demonstrate to their community the importance of youth engagement in the community’s development efforts. Importantly, the program also seeks to connect rural and urban youth with one another to create a shared learning environment. (taken from https://cedik.ca.uky.edu/content/yelp)Crittenden County youth had the opportunity to discuss local issues, identify assets and challenges within the community, conduct a 1st Impressions survey, and meet with local and state government officials to learn their role in our community and state.  The youth learned about their individual personalities and strengths and were divided into groups based on this information to develop ideas that they would like to see in Crittenden County.  Independently all four groups created the same idea expressing the concern that there was no place for them to just go and hang out.   Youth were also given the opportunity to visit the State Capitol and meet with our State Representative Lynn Bechler and another YELP group from an urban area.  Youth discussed the concerns of Crittenden County with representative Bechler and enjoyed a roundtable discussion with other urban YELP youth discussing their similarities and differences. Because each group came up with similar ideas, we saw a need to allow them to see this idea happen.  When youth were told that their idea of was going to be a possibility, we saw youth step up into leadership roles that would not have normally done so and created a youth night called The Hub.  The youth planned and coordinated a successful event at a local restaraunt in which they were able to take ownership and create something that they were proud of. When asking youth what they got out of YELP, we heard responses that “I would have never been brave enough to lead something like this”,  “we have talked to people we would normally not have ever talked to” , “I was scared to talk in front of people but now I’m not”, “I now see how important it is to give back to my community”, “I understand why I need to come back and do something good for my community”.  Of the 11 youth that we took to Frankfort, only 1 of them had ever been to the Capitol before.Because of YELP, youth were able to learn more about our community, the importance of becoming a change agent in our community, learned about local and state government, and were given speaking and leadership opportunities that they would have never had taken if it wasn’t for this program. YELP is now in its 2nd year and we had students ask us at the end of the year last year if they were going to be able to participate again this year. All but one of the students that participated last year that were able to participate again this year were eager to return.  We will continue to evaluate the success of this program by measuring how youth become aware of the importance of becoming change agents, see them become change agents, and evaluate if students continue to give back and become involved in our community after graduating high school and college.