Arizona Teens Distribute Funds to Local Community Organizations
Nineteen Arizona teens completed Valley Leadership’s Youth Leadership in Philanthropy program last week, and distributed nearly $10,000 to three different community organizations, including: A New Leaf, Civitan Foundation, Inc., and Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
“Designed to empower youth to lead, our innovative and experiential Youth Leadership in Philanthropy workshop series helps high school students gain a deep understanding of the significance of philanthropy,” said Christy Moore, Valley Leadership President & CEO, “Through time, talent and treasure, we cultivate change agents early in their leadership careers.”
The group of 19 participants was equally split between males and females, represented home schooling and 11 different high schools around the state, and were aged between 15 and 17 years old. These youth not only have passion for Arizona and learning how they can support the community, they aspire to become surgeons, nonprofit leaders, bioengineers, among several other careers identified by participants. This program is designed to help them include philanthropy in any career path they choose.
In addition to introducing students to the basics of philanthropy, the program guides them through the grant making process—creating a request for proposals (RFP), collecting and reviewing proposals, and distributing funds. After careful review of more than 25 grant proposals and thoughtful deliberation, the students decided to grant funding awards to three community-benefit organizations and their work to end homelessness and special needs programming. The money was distributed at a grant ceremony held Thursday, May 14th at the Ellie & Michael Ziegler Fiesta Bowl Museum. Click here for photos.
One participating teen, Mohammed Hossain, was selected at random to receive a $1,000 scholarship courtesy of Arizona Community Foundation.
Youth Leadership in Philanthropy is a program of Valley Leadership, and is sponsored by Arizona Community Foundation (ACF), Arizona State University (ASU) College of Public Service and Community Solutions, Cox Charities, Fry’s Food & Drug, and Ellie & Michael Ziegler.
