Community Foundation Grey Bruce and RBC Foundation are providing a grant of $15,000 to support Grey County Vital Signs Youth Impact Grants and a grant of $15,000 to support Bruce County Vital Signs Youth Impact Grants. The official announcement was made on Thursday, November 14th at the Davidson Centre in Kincardine at the Kincardine Youth Waves Leadership Day.
“Our group is very thankful for the generous financial support from RBC through the Future Launch program. We look forward to the opportunity to inspire more youth in Grey and Bruce and to support initiatives and events that are important to them as they take leadership in their communities,” says Melri Wright of Ledge Leadership, the sponsoring applicant leading the youth-led projects.
As a part of the RBC Future Launch Community Challenge, grants like this one are being made to youth-led projects in 150 small and medium-sized communities across Canada. The goal of the program is to shift the power to young leaders making positive social or environmental change in their communities, while gaining valuable skills and experience.
“Young people are future leaders — they are leading social and environmental change right now. We are honoured to play a role in the bold change that youth are leading across the country through this national initiative with RBC,” says Andrew Chunilall, CEO of Community Foundations of Canada.
The event took place at the Kincardine Youth Waves Leadership Day, with approximately 260 youth attending, which followed a presentation by Blake Fly. The event featured a presentation by Community Foundation Grey Bruce on their Vital Focus on Youth Report, remarks from Michelle Eccles, Community Manager of RBC, and an opportunity to hear about the new youth-led project from Melri Wright of Ledge Leadership. “RBC is committed to the power, vision and potential of youth, and the important role they play in their communities,” says Michelle Eccles. “We are thrilled to see the results of this important partnership with the CFC helping make a difference in communities across Canada.”
The awarded project will target 2 secondary schools in Grey County, and 2 secondary schools in Bruce County. These locations were chosen because each has an operating youth coalition who can support the initiative. Students from each school will receive an hour-long motivational talk from Blake Fly about community leadership and making change. Following the keynote address, all grade 9 and/or grade 10 students will be educated on a community-based granting project where groups of youth can apply for funds to address areas of concern outlined in the Grey Bruce Vital Focus on Youth Report, released in April 2019. In this report, youth were given the opportunity to express their priority topics and these grants will help them take the next step in addressing these concerns through youth-led, community-based betterment projects. Grants of up to $500 will be provided to noteworthy applicants.
source: news release