Youth as Resources

Nurturing Children and Youth has been the number one priority of our donors over the past five years.  One of the goals in our current strategic plan is to develop community awareness activities for K-12 students.  The Board of Directors of the United Way believes that through the Youth as Resources Program we can focus on our number one priority of our donors and also implement part of our strategic plan.

The goals for Youth as Resources are:

• Increase the leadership skills of youth
• Support youth in developing voluntary and cooperative projects that benefit others in the community, have clear goals, and measurable success
• Increase the awareness of the positive results of engaging youth as leaders and decision makers, while highlighting the invaluable contribution they make to local communities. 

This is done through a Youth as Resources Board of Directors that consists of two-thirds youth and one-third adults.  Youth will be recruited through UWKC funded agencies and the middle and high schools in Kandiyohi County.  Youth will represent the diversity of the community, will not necessarily be pre-established leaders, and will be between the ages of 13 and 20.  The board will allocate grants to youth-led (ages 5-20) initiatives (up to $1000) in Kandiyohi County. 

We will be modeling our program after the Youth as Resources operated by the United Way of Central Minnesota in St Cloud.  They have agreed to mentor us through our start-up and operations during our first year.  We will evaluate the outcomes of this program with:

• The Youth as Resources self-assessment tool
• Youth as Resources board members will conduct a self evaluation annually
• Coordinator evaluation
• Progress reports submitted by people or organization directly benefiting from the funded projects. 

The total first years operating cost of this program is $31,350.  We received$15,000 from the Southwest Minnesota Foundation, $12,250 from the Otto Bremer Foundation and $1,500 from the Willmar Area Community Foundation.  The $31,350 does include $10,000 for the Youth as Resources Board to allocate into the community.  The rest of the grant dollars will cover salaries and general operating expenses.   The United Way of Kandiyohi County will be providing in-kind support as the fiscal host and managing organization.