2025 Youth Philanthropy Council Grants Celebration
It’s celebration time for 15 local charities receiving grants from the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge’s Youth Philanthropy Council. The 2025 SAW Youth Philanthropy Council Grants celebration will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the Staunton Innovation Hub on Wednesday, May 14th.
The YPC is a grant-making body made up of 29 students from the seven local public high schools as well as Stuart Hall School.
“Our YPC program is much more than simply giving teenagers experience with philanthropy,” said Dan Layman, CEO of the Community Foundation. “They are a window into our future, and we learn so much from their deliberations and decision making each year.”
Led by Community Foundation director of educational programs Miriam Burrows – who also oversees similar programs in Highland County and Nelson County – the students met monthly to learn how nonprofits function and about current challenges in the community. This informed the creation of the YPC’s funding priorities, which guided their evaluations and grant decisions.
“I’m so proud of these students!” Burrows said. “They’ve chosen to invest in the most urgent needs of our community—homelessness and access to basic resources. Their commitment to equity and dignity reflects a deep understanding of what it means to care for your neighbors.”
The 15 local nonprofit organizations receiving grants are:
- Augusta Regional Dental Clinic
- Blue Ridge CASA for Children
- Boys and Girls Club of Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County
- EMBRACE
- Housing Emergency Relief Organization
- Love Forward Foundation
- New Directions Center
- Renewing Homes of Greater Augusta
- Shenandoah LGBTQ Center
- The Life Works Project
- The Neighbor Bridge
- Valley Children’s Advocacy Center
- Valley Hope Counseling Center
- Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry
- Waynesboro Public Library
Cabell Caister, a senior at Waynesboro High School, is confident that the council participants were good stewards of the money entrusted to them.
“Through my team with YPC, I’ve learned so much more about nonprofits, specifically how they operate and the good they can do in the community,” Caister said. “I’ve also learned just how many organizations in the SAW community operate on a day-to-day basis. Trying to decide which organizations to fund this year was certainly difficult, but I’m confident we put the money we were allotted to the organizations we thought would have the greatest impact on the community.”
