Winners of the $5,000 YPI award at GREC

Julie Druker | Jun 18, 2015

On June 12, students in Mr. McVety's grade 10 Civics class at the Granite Ridge Education Centre competed in the finals for the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) Award, a $5,000 grant awarded to the winning students to fund a local charity of their choice.

The program teaches secondary school students the fundamentals of philanthropy by giving them the opportunity to play a direct role in making a financial grant to a local social service organization in their own community. Four groups of students who made it to the finals of the competition took to the stage in the school’s cafetorium and gave presentations to a panel of judges made up of staff and students from the school. Also in attendance at the presentations was Steve Humphries, the final presentations coordinator from YPI Canada.

The program, which is run through the Toskan Casale Foundation, takes place across Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom. It is a philanthropic initiative that aims to engage grade 9 and 10 students in local social issues by asking them to choose an issue and then to research a local charity of their choice. They then create an in-depth presentation and make a case as to why their chosen charity should receive the $5,000 award.

The four groups who competed chose four different charities: Almost Home, a Kingston-based charity that supports sick children and their families; Dawn House, a women's shelter in Kingston; the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa, which supports women who are or may become criminalized and their families; and lastly Ottawa Therapy Dogs, an organization that trains and uses therapy dogs to assist individuals with disabilities and other special needs. The judges definitely had their work cut out for them as they made their final decision following the presentations, and after a long deliberation, they announced the winners.

Representing Dawn House, Grace Cumpson, Summer Kennedy and Emalee Ridell were called to the stage and presented with the $5,000 cheque. Randy McVety, who has been running the YPI program at the school for the last seven years, said that YPI encourages students to become actively and passionately involved in creating better communities by researching the organizations that exist to fulfill those needs. “At certain points in our lives we can need help from other people and organizations and this program is an incredibly tangible, authentic and relevant one that encourages students to identify those social needs and to actively connect with the organizations that address them”.

Over the last seven years, students at the school have raised $40,000 through the YPI program, which has helped to fund a variety of local charities. This year alone across Canada, 150 YPI awards will be given out totaling over $1 million in grants to grassroots social service organizations.

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