GREC Youth Choose RFCS For Grant

Jemma Dooreleyers | Jan 31, 2024

Rural Frontenac Community Services received $5000 from Granite Ridge Education Centre’s 17th Youth Philanthropy Initiative project this week.

Cassie Tyron, Brooke Gunsinger, Matilda Price and Myah Crawford of GREC’s grade 10 year, won $5000 to donate to Rural Frontenac Community Services through the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Project, a project that students in Grade 10 Civics classes, across Canada, participate in to encourage a community perspective and interest in giving back to their community.

“We chose Rural Frontenac Community Services as our YPI focus because it is a place in our community and we know people who work there and access the services,” said the students during a phone call. “They help people in our community and we wanted to give back.”

YPI is a semester-long research project where students research a registered non-profit organisation. They go to the facility, interview the staff and watch how a typical day unfolds at their chosen non-profit organisation. After they compile their research, they present their findings to, first, their class, then their entire grade and discuss what the non-profit would do with the money if they won and why they believe that the non-profit is a deserving candidate for the prize. They present in front of a panel of youth judges and compete against the other groups in their grade and after all of the presentations, a decision is made.

Sarah McCullough is the program supervisor for Rural Frontenac Community Services, a non-profit organisation based in Sharbot Lake, that focuses on allowing people of all ages to live rural life to the fullest.

Their services include mental health support, youth outreach, programs for seniors that include community cafes, awareness workshops, transportation, and meal delivery service, as well as programs for young families, and children, like childcare and Early ON centres. The agency was founded in 1975 and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year.

When she received an email from the students that they wanted to highlight RFCS for their YPI project, McCullough was ecstatic. She said that they were so thoughtful when asking their questions and that she loved hearing where their minds were at when completing this project.

“So when I got the phone call that they had won the competition for their class I was so excited,” said McCullough. “I am so proud of them.”

“They put so much work into their questions and their presentation, and it just means so much to us that kids in our community are thinking about us and wanting to give back to our program.”

Tyron, Gunsinger, Price and Crawford said they were happy about winning YPI for RCFS and are looking forward to the money being used in their community.

According to McCullough, the money will be going directly back into youth programming. The youth program at RCFS is partly funded by the United Way as well as community partners to ensure that rural youth have access to resources and a high quality of life. The funding from YPI will be going into the Youth Hub which is a program for high school-aged youth to attend activities such as cooking classes, craft workshops, game nights and whatever else the teens are interested in.

Ethan Stott, the supervising teacher who facilitated YPI this year, said he was proud of the work the students do, in terms of completing the goal of the initiative.

“Our big goal with this project is to learn how to be a good citizen in an ever-changing world, and I think that was achieved this year,” he said.

GREC has been doing the YPI project in some capacity every year since 2007, raising $85,000 for various non-profits over the years.