Aith Junior High School’s annual Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) final has seen £3000 awarded to Shetland Foodbank to help improve their disabled access.
YPI is a national initative in Scottish schools that aims to raise awareness of social issues by engaging students to research and then present to their peers. YPI is an independent initiative, first introduced by The Wood Foundation in 2008 and has engaged more than 230,000 young people who have taken responsibility for £5m of charitable giving.
Secondary Three pupils at Aith JHS researched local charities and competed in groups to try to gain £3000 for their chosen charity, with presentations last week to an audience of S2 and S3 pupils. Five local charities were represented - CLAN Shetland, Mind Your Head Shetland, RNLI Aith, Shetland Foodbank and Shetland Pride.
After much deliberation, the independent judging panel of Carole Smith (Police Scotland), Zoe Thomson (Shetland Islands Council), Gus Young (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service) and Alex Reid (YPI Scotland) chose to award the funds to the group representing Shetland Foodbank. The money is earmarked to improve disabled access at their premises in Lerwick.
James Garrick, Deputy Head Teacher at Aith JHS said: “This is our seventh year taking part in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative, which fosters active citizenship in our community, and develops our pupils’ research and teamwork skills. This year’s presentations were both captivating and humorous, and accurately described the needs being addressed by local charities. We’re grateful to the YPI for their funding and to all the charities involved who have supported the research by our pupils. Special thanks also to our teacher Mrs Mercer who has supported our pupils throughout their YPI projects this year.”
For more information about the Youth Philanthropy Initiative, please look up - https://ypiscotland.org.uk/about/