The Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is an active citizenship programme that raises awareness about philanthropy amongst young people at 256 schools across Scotland. Each school has the opportunity to direct a £3000 YPI grant to a local charity through a unique programme of teamwork, research and competition. In taking part in YPI, pupils develop a wide range of new skills including interviewing techniques, video-editing and presenting in addition to gaining an understanding of social service issues and the work of local charities. As part of PSE during the Summer Term, all Senior II pupils developed a pitch in their houses for the charity they wished to support.
· Craigmarloch chose Quarriers, a leading social care charity which provides practical care and support for vulnerable children, adults and families who face extremely challenging circumstances.
· Duchal chose Loveleigh, a charity set up by a grieving mother who lost her daughter to suicide. The charity aims to tackle the stigma of mental health one act of kindness at a time.
· Kilallan chose Inverclyde Recovery Café, a social hub for people in recovery which is run by people in recovery.
· Stratehgryffe chose Riverbrae School, a school in Linwood for pupils with additional support needs.
A humbling experience in many ways, the initiative is invaluable for our young people. As Mrs Reilly said ‘this is a unique opportunity to walk in other peoples’ shoes and is an experience pupils should treasure. Charity is not just about money – volunteering and awareness raising are equally important and our pupils appreciate that now having participated in both. In most schools, YPI is undertaken by S6 but at St Columba’s our S2 pupils’ confidence, maturity and responsibility allows them to take this challenge in their stride.’
On the day of the final, representatives from the Wood Foundation (which funds and manages the YPI) said that standard at St Columba’s was the best they had ever seen. This made their decision all the harder but we are were delighted to hear that Kilallan’s pitch for the Recovery Café won the £3,000 grant which they will use in the following ways:
· To take the place of other difficult fundraising methods
· To improve the café's comfort and homely feeling
· To fund social evenings for struggling families
· To fund extra training for the volunteers
· To fund therapy sessions and calming treatments
· To find and fund new resources to improve the wellbeing of families
Addiction affects 1 in 20 people in Inverclyde. In 2020 the number of deaths due to addiction was more than double that of 2014 and 6% higher than 2018. As a worsening problem, we congratulate Kilallan and those who secured this much-needed support - Fraser Reid, Kathryn Reid, Libby McCarey and Amber Martin.
YPI is all about creativity and passion, leaving the four walls of the classroom behind, and supporting the issues young people care most about. To date, YPI Scotland has engaged more than 140,000 students, providing them with the essential skills and confidence to grant over £3.2 million to hundreds of local charities.