Month: November 2024

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Building Economic Development Through Youth Entrepreneurship Camps

Communities across North Carolina are successfully incorporating youth entrepreneurship into their economic development strategies. Community organizations and educators are partnering to offer youth entrepreneurship camps that build entrepreneurial skills in youth. This article shows examples of how communities are recognizing the importance of youth involvement in economic development.

Many youth between the ages of 9 and 18 attend youth entrepreneurship camps across North Carolina. A variety of camp activities include hearing from local entrepreneurs, taking part in hands-on activities to learn about their community, assessing their own skills, and creating a business idea. During the camp, youth complete activities that build creativity, teamwork, leadership, and financial literacy skills.

A remarkable trait of many camps is the partnering that takes place across the community to make the camps a reality. Several community partnerships include Community Colleges, Public Schools, local 4-H Cooperative Extension, and local Boys and Girls Clubs. Many camps are held on Community College campuses to help expose youth to the college environment.

From the very beginning, camp participants are encouraged to “think like an entrepreneur” by being creative and taking risks. The business teams are encouraged to think about what their community needs, what they do well, and what interests them. The teams quickly become competitive about who has the most creative and sometimes most outrageous business ideas. Unfailingly, the adults who serve as judges for the final presentations are impressed by the creativity of the ideas, the quality of the presentations, and the engagement of the students.

Many communities make the decision to select a theme for their entrepreneurship camp and encourage students to create a business around the theme. One theme camp was delivered by a partnership that included Carteret Community College and the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. With funding from the Conservation Fund, the College and Museum created an entrepreneurship camp that taught students about the heritage and history of Harker’s Island and the local community. Campers created businesses that reflected this heritage, including a tool that would help boats stuck on sand bars, and a nature center that would offer guided tours. One student commented, “My favorite part was learning what it took to make a business and manage a checkbook.”

Many counties in western North Carolina are offering youth entrepreneurship camps to teach youth leadership and problem solving skills. Communities are beginning to understand the importance of partnerships and collaboration. Wilkes Community College partners with 4-H Cooperative Extension to offer Youth Entrepreneurship Camps in Wilkes and Ashe Counties. The camps combine entrepreneurship with growing industries in the region including advanced materials and sustainable energy. Students took part in a presentation by Martin Marietta Materials and learned about how composite materials are developed and tested. They were able to handle and test materials such as the blast proof panels that protect U.S. troops. Through the theme camps students were encouraged to think about developing businesses that capitalize on the assets on their community.

Several counties are working together to offer a regional youth entrepreneurship camp. Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College offers the Young Entrepreneurial Scholars (YES!) Camp for high-school students and this year started a Middle School Academy Camp for Middle School students. The Young Entrepreneurial Scholars (YES!) Camp requires interested students to submit a camp application and recommendations. Students who participate enter the camp with their own business idea that they hope to turn into a real enterprise one day.

Many communities across North Carolina are making the decision to include youth entrepreneurship in their economic development strategy. Youth entrepreneurship camps build on the trend and teach young people how to think like entrepreneurs and create a community that encourages entrepreneurship. Students learn about entrepreneurship as a career option, and learn entrepreneurial skills that will benefit them whatever their career choice. Youth entrepreneurship plays a role in economic development as community leaders learn tangible ways to make it part of their larger strategy. Entire regions will benefit through the creation of more businesses and a better trained workforce.

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How To Select Healthy Pet Food?

Just like human beings our pets also require healthy food for the overall well being of these animals. They also need carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and mineral in their food in order to have good bones, coat and to make them free from infections. There are different varieties of food available in the market which claims to be healthy for pets but, in truth most of them are of low quality. It is necessary to select the food for your pet with utmost care. How will you know if a particular food is good for your pet?

The best way to select healthy food for your pet is to read the list of ingredients provided on the pack. If you have cats or dogs as pets your pet food for dogs and cats should contain animal -derived ingredients of good quality. Avoid getting food which contains low quality fish meal or animal fat. Look for precise ingredients like chicken, chicken heart, liver, cod etc. Moreover the food should not contain any chemical additives which will affect the health of the pet badly.

Go for organic food products which are safer. They do not contain any toxic chemicals which are a part of fertilizers and pesticides which are used to grow crops. These organic foods will be devoid of any hormonal content or antibiotic content used for poultry farming. Organic foods have more nutritional value as they contain vitamins, minerals and other essential elements for the normal functioning of the body of the pets.
The nutrient requirement for different species of animals will be different so, select the food for the pet according to the species you own and the age and weight of the animal. Most of the healthy foods available in the market will specify the type of animal and age of the animal for which that particular product can be used. It is better to select food according to the process used to produce the food. Food made by heating or drying will reduce the nutritive value of the food. It is better to select foods which are de- hydrated or fresh- frozen. Give your pets different varieties of food so that they get a good supply of nutrients. Providing a single type of food will not supply all the necessary nutrients.

You can use trial and error method to find out the best food for your pet. Try different products and find out which combinations are liked by them and give them a healthy look and those which keep them free from diseases. Remember, like humans they also have individual choices when it comes to eating. Food liked by one dog will not be liked by the other. The choice of food may change when they are young and when they grow up. So, it is the duty of the owner to find out the best food which keeps the animal healthy and active. Your veterinary doctor will be able to give you more information regarding the healthy foods for your pet and pet food delivery in your area.

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How Do Leaders Define, Create and Support An Organisation’s Culture?

A recent International survey by Cubiks suggested that today many recruiters are increasingly concerned with finding candidates that fit with their organisation’s values and beliefs. 82% of people responding to Cubiks survey said ‘cultural fit should definitely be part of the recruitment process.’ However only 54% of employees surveyed felt their organization had a clearly defined culture. This presents a huge challenge for today’s leaders – both existing and emerging – when a company’s culture, as expressed in the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of it’s people, is vital to differentiation in an increasingly crowded market place. So who’s responsibility is it to define, create and support a company culture?

I think most people would agree, that it absolutely has to start at the leadership level.

As the global economy continues in a state of flux we are seeing increasing levels of economic migration as the good and the great of developed and developing nations begin seeking new opportunities. If they are not available in their own country they will go where the action is. From a leadership perspective embracing cultural diversity will be an absolute must in order to create a sustainable, organisational culture supported by a globally focussed business model.

However, it can become extremely challenging when people holding differing belief systems, worldviews, and levels of complexity of thinking encounter each other in the work place. The main challenge being that people are often only able to understand concepts, models and ideas based on the perspective of their own value systems. And it is widely recognised by any psychologists claiming a level of expertise that we the people will nearly always process information through the lense of our own world view.

This can make communication between people difficult and as a result trying to establish an aligned culture may become a fruitless task. Especially when dealing with non-negotiables in the work place.
This challenge requires a new type of leadership. Integral Leadership.

But what is Integral leadership?

It means being able to take an integrated perspective on leading and managing diverse groups by establishing an integrated culture that recognises the values and beliefs of individuals and how an authentic culture emerges through natural synergy. A leaders responsibility is to nurture that emergence and guide it towards it’s natural evolution. This begins with acknowledging that everyone has something of value to say about the nature of reality and the given life and work conditions within a community. But this is not pluralistic leadership. Neither is it leadership by consensus. The Integral leader listens to everyone’s opinion and then applies relational systems thinking to identify who should do what with whom, when, where and why based on a systemic perspective that considers the culture as a whole.

What follows are some key capabilities that, for us define Integral leadership, beginning with:

A high level of self awareness – This means having a clear and thorough understanding of the 4 dimensions and two perspectives of human development and expression.

A Flex and Flow mindset -This means being able to creatively adapt and respond to the rapidly changing conditions of life and work today.

A Network mindset- This means developing the capacity for systems thinking, understanding the emotional dynamics of networked relationships and how intrinsic values like trust, integrity, empathy and spirituality constitute human networks.

Communication Skills- How to communicate in a way that inspires and motivates a diverse group of individuals by communicating 4 dimensionally.

A clear and compelling vision – about who should lead whom to do what, how and why? It might not always be you.

Understanding how and why different people are motivated by different values.

Understanding why values, ideas and beliefs take hold and spread in an organisation.

Understanding what personal and professional development really means to each and every person you lead.

Understanding when to lead a diverse group of people through change.

Understanding how to communicate with people in ways that reflect back to them their deepest values.

The ability to model leadership behaviours that empowers and motivates people to take responsibility and achieve their full potential.

The intention and commitment to build an innovative culture that aligns the values and drives of individuals, and teams. An Integral leader is able to encourage, support and develop others towards generating and releasing their energy and creativity in alignment with a leadership vision and the organisation’s purpose, values and drives.

Our approach to leading, creating and supporting organisational culture is inspired by (and based on) the theory of Spiral Dynamics – an evolutionary, developmental model and map that outlines how people living different value systems will look for different modes of leadership.

For example:

Purple Leaders are nearly always part of a direct lineage of succession and are often the ‘elders’ of a group as Purple communities are close knit and fearful of others who are different. Leadership is driven by appealing to tribal loyalities.

Red leadership is about the absolute ‘power’ and rule of the individual. Leading from the front the Red leader demands respect and always comes first, even if it’s at the expense of those being led. Leadership is dictatorial and ego-driven.

Blue leadership is driven to serve a higher authority and observe and obey absolute laws and rules. While offering a degree of order, authority, predictability and stability this form of leadership can sometimes be inflexible and pedantic in today’s shifting market place.Blue leadership is compliance driven.

Orange Leadership is entrepreneurial and innovative but can sometimes be Machiavellian. This energy is driven to succeed at all costs. Showing emotion may be considered a waste of time and money. Similar to Red, this mode of leadership is primarily self-seeking. Orange Leadership is achievement driven.

Green leadership seeks interpersonal relationships. Honesty, empathy, authenticity and trust is highly valued. However this mode of leadership on it’s own can lead to challenging levels of “political correctness”. Green Leadership is primarily people driven.

A leader energised by the Yellow value set is able to see the whole spiral of human differences within an organization from a values perspective, and knows how to communicate with people at their respective levels. Cultural barriers such as race, religion, gender, age and lifestyles that can divide and create conflict are managed, transcended and included in a syngergistic approach that serves the whole system. A leader expressing Yellow asks who is best suited to do what and why? Yellow Leadership is flex and flow driven and therefore Integral.

In summary – Integral leaders Define culture as an interconnected system of values, Create networks of shared commitment, reciprocity and trust and Support culture through communication, flexibility and openness.