Youth Engaged in Philanthropy
—Hamilton County, Nebraska—

The Youth Engaged in Philanthropy (YEP) program in Hamilton County, Nebraska is one of our newest Affiliate programs. Sponsored by the Hamilton Community Foundation, this is their first year running the TPI program in their community. With a strong group of five mentors, they have accepted 20 students from two local high schools to help lead their effort in laying the foundation for future cohorts, starting by granting $10,000 this year.

Although they are new to the TPI Affiliate network, their approach to the YEP program is incredibly well established and thoughtful. Not only are they implementing and operating the program to help engage youth in philanthropy, they understand the importance of youth voice and are perfectly exemplifying what it means to empower those youth. They strongly state, “important community issues…are often those which are immediately impacting the greatest needs in our community, that are surrounded by a sense of urgency and importance, and in which youth input is clearly needed to more fully understand and address the issue”.

Their clear belief in the importance of youth not just for the future health of their community, but to better understand the present issues in the community perfectly represents the values of TPI and we cannot wait for this program to flourish!