The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is the largest independent initiative in Scottish education. Through a unique programme of teamwork, research, and competition, each school directs a grant of £3000 to a local charity championed by its students, and our Grade 9 students had the amazing opportunity to take part.

By participating in this programme, students developed skills and confidence through a contextualised learning experience. As a result, it has enabled them to raise awareness of social issues and provide local charities with funding.

To complete this programme, seven groups of students were required to complete four parts: Understanding social issues and their community, exploring the third sector, charity selection and active research, and finally presentation development and YPI showcase.

At the final presentations, the groups presented their findings and how the £3000 would benefit their chosen charity to a judging panel. Finally, the judging panel selected Grampian's Women's Aid as the beneficiary of the grant.

Luke Klopp, our Social Studies teacher running the programme comments:

"It was wonderful to see the students become involved in charity work and get closer to the local community in Aberdeen. The confidence and the countless skills our students have learned thanks to YPI is just fantastic, and I am so proud of them all!’

In recognition of the students' tremendous efforts, ISA was invited to create a video about what skills they had learned throughout the programme. This video was shown to more than 1000 young people, teachers, and stakeholders at the YPI National Event held during Impact Week in Perth.

YPI's Partnerships Manager, Lucia Giuntoli said,

"The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative is designed to benefit both students and charities, and it's wonderful to see what the ISA students learned from their experience with us. The video the students produced for our event was the perfect addition to the skills section and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work”.

Check out the video for yourself below to learn more about YPI and what the students have achieved…