Engaging our youth: it's essential for any community to grow and thrive. Our very own Grand Rapids Community Foundation has been doing this for years in several capacities, one of which is their Youth Grant Committee.
This group of public, private and home-schooled high school students from the greater Grand Rapids area meets and assesses youth issues, develops a request for proposals, follows up with previous grantees, conducts interviews and site visits and presents grant recommendations to the Foundation's Board of Trustees.
"Being on the Youth Grant Committee has been an eye-opening experience. I get to find out what the major issues for teens in my community are and, better yet, I get to help pick programs to help my peers," explains member Khayriyyah Muhammad Smith.
"I feel honored to be able make a difference for the youth in my community. [The] Youth Grant Committee has also taught me how to write a good grant, how to figure out what my opinion is and how to firmly state it and defend it," Muhammad Smith says. "But best of all, I feel that out of all the people affected by the Youth Grant Committee, I have benefitted the most. [It] has brought me some of the best friends I will ever have. I love getting to go to meetings with people my age who all have the same goal in common: to help others."
Not only does it benefit the students who reside as members, but it benefits our community too. Nearly a quarter million in funding has been granted to local organizations by the Youth Grant Committee annually. Not to mention, this program is grooming our future leaders as well as instilling an appreciation of our community and the great accomplishment of doing good.
Want to help put the good back in do-gooder? Here's how…
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Source: Cris Kooyer, Grand Rapids Community Foundation; Khayriyyah Muhammad Smith, Youth Grant committee
Writer: Jennifer Wilson, Do Good Editor
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