Youth and community philanthropy: reflecting on the GFCF’s Youth Civic Engagement Programme

In 2010, the GFCF made its first grants under a new programme targeted at community foundations working with young people. One of the reasons behind our decision to introduce a focus on a particular issue like youth was that all the data collected over four years of grantmaking had pointed to the fact that well over half of our community foundation constituents had some kind of youth programme. What made community foundations and youth such a natural partnership, we wondered? How were community foundations engaging with young people – as donors, as partners, as decision-makers, as beneficiaries? And was there a distinct value that community foundations – and other community philanthropy institutions – brought to bear in engaging with young people which was distinct from that of other types of youth development organizations?

Well, two years on and we’ve made grants to some 30 organizations, co-hosted one global peer learning event, held two webinars and produced some resource materials too. And through our grants and our convenings we’ve begun to see some interesting results. They include some broad findings across the cohort: for example, from data collected through our grantmaking (both applications and reports) we have seen how our community foundation partners are particularly interested in engaging young people as decision-makers or leaders. And we have also seen some specific outcomes and developments which include:

–        A strong interest in YouthBank: YouthBank offers a unique way of involving young people in grant-making within their local communities and it has proved particularly popular among community foundations. A number of our YCE grant partners already have or are interested in establishing YouthBanks (or something similar).  A webinar on the subject (at which Simona Serban from Cluj Community Foundation and Vernon Ringland from Community Foundation for Northern Ireland spoke) proved very popular (and led us to produce a written resource on YouthBank, Getting to Grips with YouthBank). In September 2012, three of our grantees from Brazil, Moldova and Romania joined others in a workshop organized by the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (which has recently received support from the Mott Foundation to establish a YouthBank Support Model).

 –        Pushing new boundaries in the education sphere in South Africa: Our peer learning event in Cluj, Romania, in November 2011 also resulted in a new and exciting international collaboration between the Community Foundation for West Flanders and West Coast Community Foundation with the MyMachine piloted outside Belgium for the first time, in South Africa. The inventors, designers and builders of Scrappy, the recycling robot recently revealed their final product, the culmination of a project that brought together a primary school, a university and a community foundation to work in a partnership the likes of which had never happened in South Africa before.

 –        The power of the local: The Nitra Community Foundation (Slovakia), which has been working successfully with young people for a number of years, used a grant from the GFCF to produce a film which follows the Young Nitra Philanthropists over the course of a year.

 –        Meeting young people in online spaces: And in Brazil, the Florianopolis-based community foundation ICom (Instituto Comunitaria Florianoplis) has developed an online game, Conecta, which provides an opportunity for young people from all walks of life to engage in their communities. Conecta already has 200 gamers playing.

MyMachine: Scrappy the recycling robot, South Africa

Continuing the learning and sharing: SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR NEXT WEBINAR!

In 2013, the GFCF will once again pick up the youth theme. On January 23^rd 2013 at 13:00 GMT, representatives from Nitra Community Foundation and ICom (see above) will be presenting their work with young people. The webinar is open to all and will be of particular interest to those working in community foundations and other community philanthropy institutions and / or working with young people. Details of how to register will be shared in early January 2013.