By Tammy Van der Kamp
In May, CPABC’s downtown Vancouver office welcomed four students from Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School’s Youth Philanthropy and Initiatives Program. (YPI)
The YPI program was started in 2002 by the Toskan Casale Foundation; its goal is to provide high school students with a practical experience in community development. Students learn to assess the needs of a charitable organization – in this case, CPABC- and then work together with the organization as volunteers. The student team is required to develop a funding request proposal for their chosen organization. Upon completion of the research and service portion of the project, the students present their proposal to an independent judging committee. The winning team’s organization is then awarded a $5000 grant from the Toskan Casale Foundation.
As part of their YPI project, the Churchill youths, under the direction of CPABC staff, engaged in a whirlwind of cleaning, sorting, filing, and eating pizza in preparation for United Cerebral Palsy Organization’s site visit.
The YPI Program serves two main purposes: first, it brings young people, with their fresh intuition and motivation for change, into contact with issues that affect their communities. Secondly, they learn the fundamentals of philanthropy – for example, the challenges of running a not-for-profit organization. Our Churchill students conducted a thorough interview to learn about many aspects of CPABC’s operation, such as how we manage and disburse our funds, how our mission is implemented in day-to-day operation, and who we serve.
CPABC was proud to offer this unique opportunity to involve youth in the greater community, and to provide insight into the needs and issues of the disabled community. Although CPABC did not win this year’s YPI grant, we would be happy to participate in this worthwhile program in the future.
For more information on the Toskan Casale Foundation and its Youth Philanthropy and Initiatives (YPI) see http://www.toskanfoundation.org/ypi.html
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