June 2008
Young people have been in the national news a great deal this year – and not always for the best of reasons. We've read reports of growing levels of violence, particularly in London; elsewhere, we've heard less dramatic, though no less tragic, tales of teenage disaffection.
But to paint a picture of universal doom and gloom would be to indulge in falsehood. In 2007, there have been very many good news stories for young people, and we are happy to have one of our own. Our Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) has come to the end of its inaugural year in the UK, during which it was piloted in ten London schools, and where it reached over fifteen hundred students.
YPI began life as the brainchild of Julie Toskan-Casale, a Canadian alumna of our Philanthropy Workshop programme and the co-founder of MAC Cosmetics: the aim of the initiative was to get secondary students actively involved in their communities, by making them realise just how effectively they could make a difference. It has found a home in 200 schools in the Toronto area, and has this year alone resulted in the distribution of $1,000,000 to local charities: given its rapid expansion, and the cultural similarities between Canada and the UK, we thought it only logical to introduce YPI here.
The main reason for the success of YPI is that its premise was, and remains, a simple one. Pupils between fourteen and sixteen years of age work in small groups to research the needs of their local community, and identify the grassroots charity they believe is best placed to drive positive change. They then learn how to analyse the charity's management, budget, strategy and staffing arrangements. Pupils visit and build relations with representatives from their chosen charity and, following skills training in advocacy and public speaking, present on the reasons their proposed charity is most deserving of support. The group judged to have made the best presentation in each school is granted $5,000 (or, in the UK, £3,000) to award to their charity.
With the generous support of the Toskan Casale Foundation, the Wood Family Trust, Credit Suisse, and the Royal Bank of Canada, we are rolling YPI out in 50 UK schools next year, and are looking to take it to a further 50 schools the year after that. Nor, in terms of the quality of this initiative, are we resting on our laurels; we're having YPI independently assessed by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, so that it will return yet stronger in 2008. Most importantly of all, though, we're looking forward to another year where young people aren't seen as part of the problem of society's ills, but part of the solution.