| Microgrant program helps youth venture into business |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Friday, October 3, 2008 9:44 pm
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NORTHFIELD — This fall, enterprising Northfield students and youth will have an opportunity to create and operate their own business ventures, thanks to a program initiated by the Northfield Union of Youth and the Healthy Community Initiative.
The Northfield Youth Microgrant Program will provide grants of up to $1,000 to youth under the age of 19 who apply for the grant and submit a detailed business plan. The intention of the Youth Micro-Grant program is to help young people learn marketable skills, form lasting relationships with adult members of the community and potentially form a profitable business, says St. Olaf College senior Wade Hauser, coordinator of the project.
“The intention isn’t necessarily to form the next Fortune 500 [company],” Hauser said. “Hopefully the project will be something beneficial to Northfield.”
A summer intern with the Healthy Community Initiative, Hauser saw the HCI was considering creating a microgrant program for local youth entrepreneurs. He took the project under his wing, and decided to model it after St. Olaf’s Finstad Entrepreneurial Grant, a program that Hauser participated in during his junior year at college.
From there, Hauser and Zach Pruitt, co-coordinator of the HCI, approached Union of Youth Director Josh Hinnenkamp with the idea.
Hinnenkamp felt the microgrant program would be a natural fit with the Key. He decided to pair it with Mainstream Mentors, a long-running program offered by the Key that is designed to bring a knowledgeable adult member of the community and a local high school or middle school-aged youth together with the goal of forming a mutual learning relationship.
“It makes sense because the Key has a history of doing entrepreneurial projects,” Hinnenkamp said.
To apply for the grant, youth must submit an initial business proposal to a six-person review board at the Key by Nov. 1. After receiving the initial application, the board will pair the applicant with an interested mentor, who will work with the applicant to develop a much more detailed proposal.
The board will make their final decision based on the merit of the project and whether or not it will contribute something positive to the community, Hinnenkamp says.
The grants are made possible by a $5,500 donation from the HCI, though no more than $1,000 will be granted to any single project. If any available funding remains after the deadline, or if additional funding is secured, there will be a secondary deadline on Jan. 15, followed by a third April 15. |
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