YAC Corner

Arial Leeper attended the Council of Michigan Foundation’s Youth Grantmaker’s Summer Leadership Conference at Eastern Michigan University. The three day conference, entitled, “Be Aware...Be Engaged...”, focused on specific youth-oriented community social issues and how youth can affect those issues through philanthropy.

Students and advisors from Michigan, New York, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Russia took part in a welfare simulation from the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice of Ann Arbor, experienced a performance by the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, and dug further into tough community social issues in breakout sessions dealing with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, gay and lesbian community issues, teen pregnancy, solutions to racial and ethnic problems, community literacy, and the environment.

Arial and Tim Leeper at the 9th Annual Community Celebration

Participants also attended sessions on the different aspects of grantmaking, took part in the “Great Grants and Initiatives” competition, and learned how to draw comics from comic artist
Reuben Negron, whose work appears in the W.K. Kellogg anniversary comic book, Everyday People Can Lead Extraordinary Lives. Miss Leeper presented grants made by the YAC of the Mackinac. Thirty-three youngsters representing community foundations in northern lower
Michigan and the Upper Peninsula met in St. Ignace Friday, October 6, to study how public policies relate to their roles as grant writers for Youth Advisory Committees (YACs).

The training took place at Little Bear East Conference Center and included 13 YAC members from the Les Cheneaux Community Foundation, 12 from the St. Ignace Area Community Foundation, two from the Mackinac Island Community Foundation, and five from the Charlevoix Area Community Foundation.

YAC organizations get students involved in philanthropy and community service, which helps them develop leadership, said training facilitator Mike Goorhouse, who works for the Council of Michigan Foundations. Youths focus on the needs of young people in their communities and coordinate with other organizations, such as schools. The groups advise community
foundations and help determine how grants are distributed from endowed youth funds.

Mackinac Island was represented by Kyle Sweet and Woody Beardsley at the training.

Island Community Foundation and was selected to present our YAC’s grant to the Mackinac Island Public School for the purchase of a handicapped accessible swing as a “Great Grant” to the full attendance. Arial gave her presentation before 150 of her peers and although not selected for a “Great Grant Award” we are very proud of Arial’s work at the conference.