The Foundation is pleased to announce that Youth for Community Improvement (YCI), a young person-led grant-making committee of the Foundation, has been selected as a recipient of the Powers of Youth Challenge grant for a pilot project they have designed to empower young people.

This is a national grant provided by America's Promise Alliance and Peace First to catalyze leadership of young people. YCI members spent five months developing “Understanding Youth Philanthropy,” a program that will address the barriers young people face when it comes to engaging on issues they care about. This grant program has provided start-up funds for YCI members to deliver this program through a leadership conference held in partnership with a local high school. If executed successfully, they will be eligible for an accelerator grant of $5,000 to scale the program.

“We decided to use the skills we learned in YCI-grant writing, reviewing, event organizing, networking, and public speaking-to start a program of our own, addressing an issue that is very important to us,” said Devin Kelly, a student member of YCI. “It is absolutely essential that voices from all backgrounds have access to the table and can be amplified when it comes to making decisions that affect them.”

“The Foundation's role in YCI wraps up in December, but completely on their own, last year's cohort has taken what they learned and are doing exactly what we hoped for, said Sarah Shugrue, GWCF Program Officer. “We are excited to watch what they continue to do together.”

To learn more about YCI's project, click here.