Ypi Scotland

The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is a programme encouraging secondary school pupils to engage with their community through philanthropy.

The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) is an active citizenship programme that raises awareness among young people about philanthropy. Scottish pupils taking part in YPI work in small teams in their year groups, to consider the needs of their local community and identify a grassroots social service charity they believe can make a positive contribution. Having been guided on how to analyse the charity’s management and strategy, they are encouraged to build relationships with the charity and then exercise their skills in advocacy and public speaking to make a case as to why their proposed charity should be awarded £3, 000. The long term vision of YPI is to develop a sustainable model which can be delivered across all secondary schools in Scotland.

The programme is delivered in Scotland by the Wood Family Trust – the charitable foundation set up by Sir Ian Wood in 2007. Originally a programme of the Toskan Casale Foundation in Canada, YPI was introduced in Scotland in 2008 and has since engaged with tens of thousands of pupils across the country.

The participating schools select a year group to deliver the programme (between S2 – S6) which is then split into teams. Each team researches a local social service issue about which they feel passionately and identify an appropriate local grassroots charity related to the issue. The pupils then work together in their teams to visit their charity, develop creative presentations and participate in a structured programme before the finalist teams advocate for their charity in front of a panel of judges. From each school, the group with the most discerning and impassioned argument wins £3, 000 for their chosen charity.