This school year your child will be taking part in the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI Canada). YPI is an international initiative designed to support young people in developing community awareness. Students are taught about philanthropy and charity through an experience of giving that highlights the positive impact they can have on their community.
Students will work in teams to research the needs of their community and identify a local charity they believe is best placed to make a positive change. They then learn how to assess the charity’s management, strategy, staffing arrangements and services. Possibly the most important aspect of YPI is the site visit students are asked to make to their chosen charity. By visiting a charity, your child will develop a real understanding of some of the challenges facing the community and will, we hope, be inspired to work to change society for the better.
Students will use their research to make presentations on the reasons that their chosen charity is most deserving of support. The team judged to have made the most compelling presentation will be given a $5,000 YPI Grant to award to their charity.
During this process, students develop skills in research, analysis, presentation, and communication, which all contribute to a student’s growth, and confidence.
As part of this project, your child will be asked to participate in a post-program evaluation survey online. This survey was designed by YPI staff to learn about students’ experiences in the program, to improve the program for students doing YPI in the future, and to communicate the impact of the program to stakeholders. The surveys are voluntary. Your child will be asked to decide whether they would like to participate in this evaluation, and they may exit the surveys at any time without penalty (i.e. their responses, and whether they choose to participate will not affect their grades). Responses are anonymous and will be summarized, along with other students' responses from your school, for their teacher. YPI will also summarize their responses, along with other responses from students across the country, for people interested in the impact of YPI's programming. If you are interested in seeing a report on these surveys, please contact me. Last year's report is available on the YPI website: goypi.org.
We are excited to be one of the schools across Canada to be participating in YPI and hope that you will fully support and encourage your child in researching and visiting a local charity. More information about YPI can be found at goypi.org.