Our program will promote a sense of responsibility, respect, and a commitment to building compassionate communities.

There is a force for change that to date has been relatively untapped. It is the power of youth. The Directors of the Toskan Casale Foundation and its President, Julie Toskan-Casale are convinced that youth can bring fresh intuition and an unfettered desire for change to social issues and problems in our communities.

We all share the hope that our youth will become responsible future community leaders, but few hands-on opportunities to learn social responsibility are readily available to them. How can we alert youth to current community problems – how can we inspire them to be part of the solution?

The Toskan Casale Foundation launched the Youth & Philanthropy Initiative in 2002. It is a program that will help young people in our communities harness their creative and philanthropic energies, become active agents of positive change, and prepare for community leadership through education and practical experience. The objective of the program is to prepare youth to effectively change their world – starting now, starting with their own surroundings and communities.

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However, the most interesting aspect of the program is that the students through research will learn about the problems facing their own communities. As part of the course, participants are required to choose one charity within the social service sector after reviewing many candidates in their communities. Next, the students are expected to thoroughly research that charity and complete a site visit. The students then prepare a proposal for a request for funding. Using presentation skills, each student or team then introduces its local candidate organization to their own class. One proposal is selected to represent that class in a subsequent intramural competition. The final element in the complete program has each class team presenting proposals on the charities they are championing to an independent judging panel. One of these finalist teams will be given $5,000 from the Toskan Casale Foundation to grant to the charity they represented.

Combining classroom learning with practical community experience, the students will gain skills in the art of researching grassroots organizations, proposal writing, public speaking, evaluation, analysis and logical decision-making.