A business opportunity for Cranbrook youth

Until April 30th, locally-owned businesses will have the opportunity to show how much they value youth

The Cranbrook Youth Local Business Competition is a fantastic opportunity. — Photo courtesy the Cranbrook Youth Local Business Competition

CBK Youth is a youth engagement project for the Cranbrook community. It’s funded through the Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Directed Youth Funds and the contract is held by the City of Cranbrook. The project is run by the CBK Youth Action Team, which is comprised of passionate youth leaders ages 12 to 19, project co-ordinator Tara Woods, and a Project Advisory Committee of community service providers.

A part of the CBK Youth project is to improve the relationship between youth and local businesses through education, visibility and celebration. Local restaurants, cafés, retail stores and leisure services will have a chance to prove themselves as youth friendly through reports by youth on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and also “Mystery Shop” tours by the CBK Youth Action Team. Youth will use the hashtag #cbkyouthfriendly to submit their positive experiences at different businesses.  Businesses can also increase their chances of positive reviews by submitting a request to be featured as a guaranteed participant on the CBK Youth webpage: www.cbkyouth.ca

The team at CBK Youth knows that incentive is everything, and we’ve got loads of it for both businesses and youth. For the local business owners, the top business from each category (Food & Beverage, Retail and Leisure Services) with the most shout-outs from youth will win the CBK Youth Friendly 2015 Award, a write up in various media outlets, and free advertising on our Facebook page and webpage, www.cbkyouth.ca, for a year.

For local youth, we’ll be choosing a submission each week and awarding the winner a $20.00 gift certificate to the 2014 winners: Hot Shots Café, The Choice and the Kootenay Roasting Company, and of course a chance to have their voice heard in the community.

For more information, please the webpage www.cbkyouth.ca, or on Facebook (CBKyouth).