Students of St. John’s High School on a site visit at New Directions.
It’s been another successful year with my Youth in Philanthropy (YiP) peers at St. John’s High School. In fact, this group of active students who want to make a difference in our community and in our city has increased.
For those who have been a part of this YiP journey, it has been a year of success, of growing friendships and of cultivating teamwork. We shared laughter, as well as some different and interesting ideas on how we can make our community a better place for everyone.
We also shared what we discovered on the different site visits we embarked on, exchanging ideas on how we could best help the various charities we explored.
For example, our site visit to New Directions was a unique and wonderful experience for all of us. We learned so much from this agency that is focused on children, youth, adults and families.
From New Directions’ long history of helping people (since 1885); to their mission to offer everyone the same opportunities to achieve the life they’ve dreamed of – a life full of promise, potential, respect and self-worth; to their vision to bring their person-centred approach to the services they specialize in, namely Counselling, Assessment, Support and Prevention Programs, Training and Education Programs, and Residential and Support Programs; learning about all of this was incredibly inspiring for the students who took part in this site visit.
It was heart warming to know we could help the people working at New Directions in achieving their altruistic goals.
Lastly, on our visit, we met people who taught us important values and ideas that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.
Students of St. John’s High School exploring Winnipeg Inner City Mission.
This year’s YiP experience for the students of St. John’s High School was tremendously rewarding and showed us the real value of being a young philanthropist.
We tried new and different things; we communicated more and we learned how to know and express ourselves as young individuals; we explored what our city has to offer for young people and came to understand how non-profit organizations work and function; and we realized how we could help out by supporting charitable agencies.
At the same time, we had the opportunity to work with so many different and amazing people with whom we share this magnanimous effort.
It’s always fun being a Yipper not just because of the good feeling we get when we know we’ve done something good in our community, but because of the people we work with and the great experiences we share.
Our journey might not be much to other people, but for us, it is full of laughter, teamwork, friendship and experiences that we will never forget.
