Local Charities Awarded $35K by Phoenixville-Area Students

Phoenixville, PA -- Several students from area school districts helped to award a total of $35,000 to many local organizations, according to the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation.

The Youth and Philanthropy program was designed to provide area students with an opportunity to learn about philanthropy – giving of one’s self to address the neediness of others, the foundation said.

This student driven initiative meets weekly during school hours. Students have the responsibility of choosing how the charitable use of funds donated by the Foundation will be awarded, according to a press release.

They first have to come to a consensus on what issues in their community they find important and from there develop a mission statement, find charities that meet their mission, set-up site visits, and ultimately choose how they will divide their respective grant budgets amongst their chosen charities. Each school program hosts a reception at year-end, awarding grants and highlighting their experiences, the foundation said.

While there are program facilitators to guide the students through this philanthropic process, the majority of decisions are truly made by the students, which ultimately empowers them to see that they really can make a difference at even a young age. This program also opens doors to friendships amongst students that may never have met before because of their different ethnic, economic and academic backgrounds and how to interact with others in the community that may also come from different backgrounds, the press release states.

Ultimately, the foundation noted that it allows the students to fully learn all sides of philanthropic ethics on their own and additional skills, such as leadership, team building, assessment and decision-making.

At the conclusion of the program, the students are asked to complete evaluation forms and report what they liked best about the program, what they learned, suggestions of changes that should be made to the program, positive results of their participation, and any advice they would give to next years’ students. Overwhelmingly the reports across the districts include how much they enjoyed meeting new people of various backgrounds, learning more about their community and how they could make it better, and ultimately giving of their time, according to the foundation.

The Youth & Philanthropy program has received two awards in the past by both the Chester County Community Foundation called the ACORN Award and also the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Greater Philadelphia’s Youth in Philanthropy Award. This program has also received a lot of attention from Villanova University’s Human Organization Science Institute who wrote an Evaluation Executive Summary on the Youth & Philanthropy (Y&P) program, the release notes.

“Evaluators found the Y&P program to be innovative, well run and effective," the summary reads."Y&P students, compared with their classmates who did not participate in Y&P, were significantly more likely to participate in community service and volunteer activities, to have positive views on their responsibility and future plans to help others, and to have a positive outlook on their ability to make an impact through community service.”

The Y&P program is offered in the following schools: Phoenixville Area Senior High School (10th -12th grade), Phoenixville Area Middle School (8th grade), Renaissance Academy Charter School (8th grade), Owen J. Roberts Middle School (8th grade) and Methacton Arcola Intermediate School (8th grade).

To learn more about this program and how you can bring this to your school district, please contact the Foundation at pchf1@pchf1.org.