The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is an active citizenship programme that raises awareness amongst young people about philanthropy and their local community. Each participating school, each year is responsible for directing a £3000 YPI Grant to a local charity through a unique programme of team work, research and competition.
We were delighted to be chosen by a group of S2 students from Mearns Castle High School as their charity to research and represent in the programme, and we visited in May to discuss RST’s work and the impact winning would have on the people we support.
Volunteer Coordinator Katherine headed out to visit the students, who really impressed by having done a great deal of research beforehand. It’s really inspiring to see young people engaging with refugee and migration issues in such a compassionate and engaged way, and it was a real pleasure to have the chance to meet and speak to these students about our work.
Our champions will first present their research on RST to their class, alongside other charities, and the winners of a class vote will go through to an expert panel of judges who will assess the presentations and award the prize to the most well-researched and persuasive group. Fingers crossed for team RST!
All fundraising from events as well as direct donations and applications to relevant trusts and funds goes directly to fund our destitution grants – staff time and project work is funded through separate income streams. A £3000 YPI donation would cover the cost of 35 emergency destitution grants for refugees and asylum seekers, covering essential costs like travel to Home Office appointments and basic necessities like food and clothes. We have seen demand for these crucial grants almost double in the past year; you can read more analysis of our grant distribution for 2017-18 here.
