<p>Getting a youth program off to a good start is tricky. First, you want to make it fun, so that the children stick with it. Then you want to make sure that you are offering a program that they can’t get anywhere else. For instance, if your school doesn’t offer Home Ec, that is a hole you can fill by teaching sewing and cooking in your program.
<p>Once you’ve come up with a program plan, the next thing you’re going to need is money. There is the option of dues, but many programs encourage the youth to earn the money themselves.<p>
At our school, there were so many fund raisers going on that it was difficult to sell much of anything. Whenever a door closes, a window will open. Our school had a craft show in the fall, and we used this as a means of getting our start-up funds each year. First we worked on an art achievement, and took our time making as many of the items as we could. Instead of making one large project per person, we chose smaller items, and made as many as possible. <p>
When we finished making our wares, the youth work on the business achievements, with the craft show being their business. They made the posters, practiced dealing with customers, priced the items, and decided how to set up the display.
These business basics are done at a meeting where first the youth decide how to display the wares, and arrange them on a table. Then I made up cue cards; each card having a different type of customer written on it. The cards said things like "An old lady who thinks you remind her of her daughter", "A man who wants to make a donation but doesn't want to buy anything", "a child without money who picks everything up", "a boy who thinks your stuff is stupid" and so on. Each youth took a turn being a seller or customer. The customer picked a card from the deck, and acted out that part. After the turn was over, we critiqued the seller's performance. We tried to discuss all the things that could possibly go wrong, and what we should do about it. If you're prepared, there's no need to be scared.
Everyone is asked to come to the show and do the actual selling, but since some of the youth completed the activities last year, the new youth are asked to schedule the shifts, and do the set-up and clean-up, and be responsible for the money.<p>
As a leader, I am at the show all day, but the youth are only to come and get me if they have a problem that they can't handle. If they need to make a decision, I tell them it’s their business, and while I’ll offer advice, it’s up to them to agree on what to do.
<p>After the show, we wrap up the requirements by subtracting the cost of the parts from the money brought in, paying me back for the items I bought, and discussing the difference between gross and net gains. Gross is all the money you bring in, net is another word for profit. <p>
Our first year, we made toys, and found that our efforts weren't quite good enough at this age level to make presentable items. The next year, we made jewelry, and not only made more items for less money, but doubled our sales total, even though the items were priced at half to a fourth of the cost of our toys.<p>
<p>If your group isn’t into crafts, you can also consider a plant sale (making cuttings and growing seeds for a wildlife activity), having a car wash (auto maintenance ), or a bake sale (cooking).<p>
Some youth programs give automatic approval for any type of fundraising that involves recycling, so we concentrated our efforts on using items that were destined for the dump, and gave them a new life and a new home instead. This not only helped us get approval for the event, but it helped increase our profits. The other crafts on this page focus on recycling throw-away items.<p>
Remember, that in order to keep the youths' interest up, you need to offer skills that they cannot learn anywhere else. Today, schools are not teaching students how to make change. I’ve seen girls at the drug store who have to get out a calculator when the computer is down. This is a skill that everyone needs, and a hole that you should consider filling with your program. After all, the whole idea of running a program for youth is to help them grow into productive citizens. That means that sooner or later, they will need to get a job, and dealing with customers is a basic skill that all businesses use.<p>
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