Youth Ventures (YV) started in 1992 on the Northern Peninsula, NL with two participants. Since then, the program has grown and now has 25 Community-Based Coordinators across Newfoundland and Labrador who help youth start businesses throughout the summer. Designed for students aged 12-29, Youth Ventures works with 300 students each year and helps them start 200 businesses each year. Since 1992 the program has helped over 7000 young people explore entrepreneurship. 

Youth Ventures empowers young people to turn their hobbies, interests, and passions into money-making ventures. The original intent was to support summer-based businesses and the very first business started was a car wash. Since then, the participants themselves have helped shape the program. Today, there are businesses that are open year-round and employing other people, such as hydroponic greenhouses, tutoring, dog training, and indigenous beadwork.  

“15% of clients that accessed the youth business microloan program offered by the CBDCs were once YV participants! Getting young people exposed to entrepreneurship can help plant the seed of small business ownership!” 

Getting youth aware of and engaged in entrepreneurship is important to grow the future community of small business owners that the CBDCs will support. Working with schools and community groups has been successful, but the CBDCs in Newfoundland and Labrador wanted another means of getting the attention of youth. During the summer of 2022, the YV Venture Box was launched. Venture Box is a simple business-in-a-box! Each box contains fun and interactive activities to guide youth through starting their own business and the materials to create products. 

 Interested youth could choose from five different Venture Boxes, all created in partnership with Youth Venture Alumni, to select cake pop, candy kabob, lip balm, tie-dye, and beadwork. The Beadwork Venture Box was created in partnership with a local indigenous entrepreneur and those boxes were reserved for Indigenous youth and Indigenous youth-serving organizations. More than 200 Venture Boxes have been distributed to youth across Newfoundland & Labrador. It created a great deal of online energy as many of the businesses that were started because of this tagged the YV program and their local CBDC.  

The next step was to provide an opportunity for youth to experience selling and learn about customer service, packaging, pricing, etc. The YV Night Market was hosted at a local farmers market and provided 55 youth vendors with the opportunity to sell to 400 market attendees. For some, it was their first selling experience, and for others, it was an opportunity to cater to a much larger customer group than normal.  

Even though the CBDCs have been delivering this program for more than 20 years, it is constantly evolving to continue to grab the attention of the youth in their communities. Not all youth who work with the program end up becoming small business owners, but they do learn the value of hard work, customer service, fiscal management, and an appreciation for supporting local businesses.