After Reviewing Community Needs Assessments, The Nelson County 4-H Teen Council decided to provide teens with an opportunity to develop entrepreneur and community engagement skills. Partnering with their CES Agent for 4-H YD, Danielle Hagler, the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Nelson County Community and Economic Development Agency, Downtown Bardstown, The Small Business Development Center,the Nelson County Chamber of Commerce, local businesses and local non-profits, the Teen Council created an intensive Entrepreneur and Community Engagement program for teens.  The Teen POP Up program focuses on partnerships, outreach and possibilities, allowing teens to either start their own business or to develop a community engagement project, which was planned to be showcased at a culminating Pop up shop in a vacant downtown storefront.  

For their first meeting, program participants worked with CEDIK to do a first impressions tour of downtown Bardstown, learned about what makes doing business in Nelson County unique from NCEDA, visited and did online reviews of new and iconic community restaurants.  They had the opportunity to talk with new, seasoned and failed entrepreneurs.   All members indicated that they learned that being an entrepreneur can be risky but often after failed attempts business owners find their niche and find success. During this session, the teens identified their desired POPup shop location, a very well positioned building in the heart of the downtown shopping district.  The building owner agreed to allow the participants to set up their event after learning about the program objectives. 

The second meeting, which was open to all entrepreneurs in Nelson County, allowed the participants to complete the Smart Start Small Business Basics course offered by the Small Business Development Center.  Participants indicated that the program provided them with the essential knowledge to start a business following the local and state guidelines.  Many indicated that the portion about whether to set your business up as LLC., Sole Proprietorship, or Corporation was the most helpful in helping them to structure their business in a way that help them minimize the finical risks associated with starting a business. The adult entrepreneurs who attended indicated that they were very pleased to find a one stop shop for all their small business questions and resource needs. 

The third meeting allowed the program participants to learn about what it takes to starting a non-profit and alternatives to doing so to still reach your community engagement goals.  They visited and volunteered at the local community clinic and food pantry.  Their lunch was provided by the Guthrie Opportunity Center,  a local non-profit that serves adults with special needs and came with a wonderful guest speaker who talked about how the incredibly successful non-profit began with his mothers vision for helping his special needs brother. The learned about the business of running a non-profit (reporting, funding, relationships with the community) from CASA of Nelson County.   They concluded the day by working on their business plans by working through the 4-H Be the E curriculum.

A fourth meeting allowed for the teens to create marketing materials for their POP Up shop and scripted and filmed a commercial.  

Although the 2020 Pandemic did not allow the participants to compete their program, the participants are looking forward to holding a culminating event, in the fall if possible. A variety of business models were created by the youth.  Some focused on donating their profits to causes important to them, some created community engagement projects, while other worked on for profit business and partnerships.  In a fourth month follow-up, one participant starting her first business stated, "Teen Pop program has helped me get out of my comfort zone to try new opportunities.  It has taught me about basic business management skills, advertising, marketing and has opened many more doors for me down the road."  Another member who has a thriving Ice Cream Truck Business says, "The Teen Pop Up program impacted me by teaching me about advertising and better business skills.  It also provided me with new opportunities to market my business." A participant who created an art business with her brother as a partner stated, "Teen POP Up provided me an opportunity to work through my shyness and taught me to organize my art inventory to create a business and the importance of a good business partner. " Her business partner indicated that, he learned stock managements, marketing and also the importance of teamwork within a business.