Youth Leadership 1997

Valley United Way's Youth Leadership Program members met on November 12, 1997 to decide which of the nine proposals it had received in response to its recent Request for Proposal would be awarded grants under Youth Leadership's Venture Funding Program.

"We had nearly $7,900 in requests for funding this year," Ambika Shenoy, Youth Leadership President said. "Because we had so many requests, we had some very hard decisions to make. At the October meeting, evaluation teams were assembled. Each team was assigned on of the proposals to evaluate. Each of the teams spent the last month reviewing the proposal that they were assigned," Shenoy continued. "Team members visited the organization that submitted the request and interviewed key personnel to find out as much as they could about the proposed program."

"At the November meeting, each team made a presentation on its assigned proposal and presented its recommendations to the group. After all of the presentations were done, the floor was open for questions and discussion," Shenoy said. "After extensive discussion, the members reached consensus on each of the proposals, deciding whether the proposal was to be funded and at what level."

This year is the eighth year in which Valley United Way's Youth Leadership Program has made grants to Valley programs that are aimed at teenagers and meet the needs that were identified through the needs assessment that the members did earlier in the Fall. Each year, the group budgets a specific amount for the Venture Grant program to fund proposals that are submitted after a needs assessment has been done. This year, they has a total of $3,000 to allocate.

The allocation process is a major part of the entire Youth Leadership Program's yearly activities. The Program is designed to help train the "future community volunteer leaders."