Youth Leaders Begin Allocations Process
Click here for the on-line application
Thirty members of the Valley United Way’s Youth Leadership Program are currently
putting their leadership training skills to work as they seek to distribute
small venture grants to community organizations in Ansonia, Derby, Oxford,
Seymour and Shelton. The Youth Leadership Venture Grant Program is targeted at
assisting organizations that either have or are planning on implementing
programs or services that serve the needs of Valley Youth.
The following issues were identified as areas of critical concern to Valley
United Way Youth Leaders: texting and driving, bullying, dating violence, drugs,
underage drinking, stress, arts, recycling, mentoring and after school
activities.
A “Request for Proposal” (RFP) is available
on-line to Valley Organizations that work with Valley Youth.
Once the RFP is submitted the Agency/program director will be contacted by a
Youth Leader to set up meeting to discuss the grant request. Recommendations are
then brought to the full Youth Leadership membership for discussion and
approval. Grants are awarded to those that are determined to be appropriate and
worthy. This “allocations process” is modeled after the procedure followed by
local United Ways throughout the country when they distribute campaign funds to
their member or partner agencies.
Last year, a very successful weekend retreat was held at Camp Jewell in
Colebrook CT through a grant from Iroquois Gas Transmission. This year, Pitney
Bowes is providing the funding for this very important leadership weekend. The
emphasis of the weekend will be to break into groups and fully discuss strategy
for presenting their interview findings. They will then enter into a focused
allocations meeting which normally lasts a half day of sincere conversation.
After hours of deliberation, the end result will be the list of programs and
agencies who will be awarded the grants.
Since 1990, when the program first began distributing grants, Valley United
Way’s Youth Leadership members have distributed over $50,000 in funding to the
Valley community for new and innovative programs.
If you have questions you can email
patricia.tarasovic@valleyunitedway.org or call Valley United Way at 203
926-9478.
Applications must be submitted by February 1, 2012. (We will notify you within
48 hours of receiving your grant request. If you do not receive this
notification please call 203 926-9478 as we have been experiencing problems with
our email.)
The Youth Leadership Program is made possible through the generous support of the Raymond P. Lavietes Foundation which provides core funding.
