Venture Description: Our venture provides party packages for disadvantaged children. Each package contains the nessessary parts of a successful party, including streamers, plates, a cake, frosting, and even a present for the birthday girl or boy. Also, the second part of our venture involves helping more fortunate families in our communities throw birthday parties for their own children by offering our supplies, services, and entertainment to make this year's the most memorable party ever. We charge for these parties in order to sustain the non-profit parties.

Venture Origin: One of our teachers in our school, did a presentation about youth venture and encouraged us to get involved. We got a group of friendstogether and decided that we wanted to do something to give back to the community. We thought providing birthday parties would be fun for kids and that there's nothing better than helping create memories.

Innovation: Birthday wish makes life easier for parents by taking care of their child's party so that they can on pay for other pressing needs and expenses, such as finding a job or paying this month's rent. A woman at SHARE, a charity in our area, told us that often people come in filled with worry that their child's birthday is tomorrow and that they need some stuff, whcih make's their life easier.

Impact: Although we haven't begun distributing our party packages, our venture has already greatly impacted the lives of the six of us involved. Before starting this project, none of us realized how near these underprivilaged families are to our lives. Besides the members of the group, we have impacted many of the adults in our community by raising awareness of those in need. We hope to impact at least 20 families each year, both needy and privileged.

Engagement with the community: Birthday wish has engaged some of the youth in our school by asking them to help sell raffle tickets as a fundraiser. Also, we will give families the opporunity to become involved by paying for a low-cost birthday party for their children. Meanwhile, we will be engaging businesses in our cause by asking for their donations. This way, everyone can help give back to the community.

Impact and engagement progress since launch: Since our launch only about a month and a half ago, we have futher developed our youth venture idea. We are now very close to it's execution and our careful planning will surely pay off in the long run. We've attended several meetings and spoken to different people. These people have also helped further develop our idea. We've worked hard and as a result, earned a grant from youth venture.

Impact and engagement strategy: We are all happy to be in this group and have younger siblings to whom we have explained our venture and they are happy to help carry on the idea once we've graduated. We believe that our idea will grow through word of mouth because help with birthday parties is a popular demand by mothers in our area. We will also work on getting the word out through presentations and posters.

Money raised: We had a fundraiser where we raffled hockey tickets within our school, and we have been offered planetarium tickets. In addition to those fundraisers, we are participating in the SESL challange.

Creative ways of raising resources: In addition to the non-profit side of our venture, we are planning a profitable birthday wish to support our non-profit birthday wish. We already have offers and are sure this will help secure money income.

Expansion plan for next 6 months: Over the next six months we plan to distribute at least 7 party packages to families. We also are planning to contact party stores and ask for deals on their products. This will help greatly with our business expansion by getting the word out.

Plans for sustaining the project: Will will be sustainable in terms of funding because our profitable birthday wish will ensure a steady income. Our younger sisters are very excited about this venture and are happy to carry on our venture. They will be well-infomed and therefore capable of carrying on the venture

Vision for three years from now: Three years from now, we hope our venture will have expanded to the towns surrounding our community. We hope that more people will be aware about what we do so we will get more paying customers and be able to help more families who cannot pay for things like birthday parties. We hope to remain self-sustaining and well-off in terms of new members and financial account.

Project impact: At this point in time, its not really about what our venture has impacted, but what it will impact. We hope to reach out to the community and make life easier for people in many ways. First of all, we are helping financially struggling families give their children the memory of a birthday party. Second, we are helping paying customers get rid of the stress of preparing for their child's birthday. We will also impact the community by allwing profitable businesses to have the opportunity to become involved in our organization, and we hope this idea giving some of our luxuries to those who can't afford them will spread. Our venture has shown kids in our school that you don't just have to be an adult to get involved--kids like us are just as capable and can make a difference. We know that something that seems as simple as a birthday get together is really a day full of happiness and memories that will stay with the child forever. We want our venture to impact the community in all these ways, and open people's eyes to the possibilities of what you can accomplish and the people you can help if you take the time to care.

Youth Venture movement - what it means and how you can contribute: Being part of the youth venture movemet makes me feel like we really are defying the stereotype that young adults are lazy and cannot change things in the community. Also, it feels good to be part of this huge movement in our country that really is making a difference in our world. Our team can definitely contribute to the movement by showing adults and teenagers that youth can do positive things to help their communities. Our team can contribute further by getting word out about our venture and convincing people that they can help be the difference in the community. We believe that our venture will raise awareness for the youth venture organization, and maybe even convince other people to start their own venture. Our idea will hopefully spread around our community and the communities around it, and our goal is to end up helping as many families as possible.