Bulletin Board

Panhandle Project Target Rural Youth

Small towns and rural communities in the United States know many of their young people will leave their areas due to inadequate employment opportunities. The Panhandle Youth Entrepreneurship Project, operating in an 11-county area of Nebraska, hopes to reverse that trend.

The program targets seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade students in Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Kimball, Morrill, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan and Sioux countries, offering them the opportunity to develop their own business and obtain financing for it.

Business plans can be submitted to the Panhandle Youth Project by the 10^th of each month up until March 10; a review committee will evaluate them for feasibility by the 25^th of the same month. Students whose business plans are approved then make a presentation to a banker for a loan of $5 to $500. They must also invest their own money, equipment or expertise, and they must put up something they value as collateral.

In April, the young entrepreneurs will have a chance to showcase their business successes during a special expo.

The project office can provide a business plan outline, a list of questions the students will need to answer, and assistance in writing the plan. For more information on the project, contact coordinator Diana Harms at (308) 632-1367.

This article was originally published in the January 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Bulletin Board.