Fund Type: Open to all granting areas
Community: Prince George
The Prince George Community Foundation, with encouragement from the Vancouver Foundation, established a Youth Advisory Council (YAC). The Vancouver Foundation gave a $5000.00 donation to begin a Prince George Community Foundation Youth Endowment Fund. A YAC was formed from a group of volunteers from various High School Student Councils and the Prince George Youth “HYPE” Council was created. These concerned and dedicated youth are between the ages of 13-25 and represent a cross-section of the youth population in Prince George. During a workshop to study the purpose and meaning of Philanthropy and some brainstorming, the council developed the HYPE acronym for their YAC. HYPE stood for Helping Youth Progress Endowment. Their role was to recommend grants from a permanent Youth fund after assessing local youth needs, and be involved in fund development, fundraising and support systems for involving youth in philanthropy.
The Mission Statement from HYPE read as follows:
The Prince George Community Foundation’s Youth HYPE Council is dedicated to “Youth Helping Youth by Giving Something Back” to make our community a better place for all. In pursuit of this mission, the council believes in:
The HYPE council continued for several years, meeting regularly, and working on projects to support these mission statements.
The aim of establishing the Youth Endowment Fund was to give a place for donors to support the Community Foundation through targeted youth projects. The Youth Advisory Council involved students and supported them in gaining skills and knowledge of philanthropy, service and volunteering while learning to give back to their community of Prince George. Through your donation to the Youth Endowment Fund, you can “give something back” to provide the opportunity for Youth Helping Youth to become a reality.
