Youth Entrepreneurship Program

The Youth Entrepreneurship Program is designed to expose at-risk youths between ages 15-19 to business skills in an after school program. Students who successfully complete level I and II will obtain future employment, discipline, and will be less likely to alienate themselves from future employment and other self-gratifying decisions, based on prior behavior. Students have in the past, improved in areas of communications, self-esteem, school attendance, motivation, professional mannerism and dress.

Tunica County Community Development Coalition will serve the needs of at-risk and adjudicated juveniles throughout the Tunica County Mississippi area. National statistics show that each year an unacceptable number of at-risk youth in rural and underserved communities fail to develop the academic, social and economic skills necessary to succeed.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that youth development programs can produce individual protective factors that increase successes and decrease problem behaviors (Benson and Saito, 2000). The YEP curriculum is designed to facilitate an environment of positive youth practices and programs. The program is an additional education opportunities through an after school and summer job incentive program. YEP is presented three times during the regular school year and supplemented by a summer job program.