Jackson Hole Youth Grant $37K to Local Nonprofits

April 19, 2023

JACK­SON, WY – The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole announced today that its 2023 Youth Phil­an­thropy pro­gram award­ed $37,500 in grants to 21 local nonprofits.

Youth Phil­an­thropy pro­vides stu­dents at the five Teton Coun­ty, WY high schools with a hands-on learn­ing expe­ri­ence in phil­an­thropy. Par­tic­i­pat­ing stu­dents review grant pro­pos­als, dis­cuss their com­mu­ni­ty impact, and make dif­fi­cult grant­i­ng deci­sions to fund non­prof­it ini­tia­tives. Last Decem­ber, local non­prof­its sub­mit­ted grant appli­ca­tions, and the high school Youth Phil­an­thropy com­mit­tees met through­out the win­ter to review appli­ca­tions and decide which projects to support. 

This year, near­ly 50 stu­dents from Jack­son Hole High School, Sum­mit Inno­va­tions School, Moun­tain Acad­e­my of Teton Sci­ence Schools, Jack­son Hole Com­mu­ni­ty School, and Jack­son Hole Clas­si­cal Acad­e­my par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Youth Phil­an­thropy pro­gram. The grant pro­pos­als they reviewed rep­re­sent­ed a broad array of arts, con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion, recre­ation, and health and human ser­vice pro­grams in Teton County. 

Youth Phil­an­thropy appli­cant Climb Wyoming was grant­ed $3,000 for its pro­pos­al enti­tled Dress for Suc­cess: Giv­ing Low-Income Sin­gle Moth­ers in the Tetons the Tools to Start New Careers. ​“As our Climb par­tic­i­pants are start­ing new jobs, the last thing we want them to be wor­ried about is if they have the right equip­ment or cloth­ing for the posi­tion,” said Climb’s Teton Area Pro­gram Direc­tor Christy Thomas. ​“The Youth Phil­an­thropy grant will help our par­tic­i­pants get the nec­es­sary cloth­ing, such as steel toe boots and hard­hats for com­mer­cial driver’s license train­ing, or scrubs for a Cer­ti­fied Nurs­ing Assis­tant train­ing, or pro­fes­sion­al office cloth­ing for an admin­is­tra­tive posi­tion. The right cloth­ing also helps par­tic­i­pants feel con­fi­dent and pre­pared for their new career!” 

Youth Phil­an­thropy saw a record ask this year with 27 orga­ni­za­tions request­ing a total of $72,800, and local stu­dents rose to the deci­sion-mak­ing challenge. ​“Our review­ers engaged in thought­ful, high-lev­el dis­cus­sions over a com­pelling set of pro­pos­als, and they ulti­mate­ly fund­ed those they believe will most ben­e­fit our com­mu­ni­ty,” said Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion Direc­tor of Grants Annie Riddell. ​“Youth Phil­an­thropy gives teens a unique lens into the work of our non­prof­its and helps light their fire as next-gen­er­a­tion philanthropists.” 

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion is pleased to rec­og­nize exem­plary stu­dent lead­ers in the Youth Phil­an­thropy pro­gram. The Future Old Bill Award is giv­en to a stu­dent from each school who, in the exam­ple of Mr. & Mrs. Old Bill, demon­strates lead­er­ship, thought­ful­ness, com­mit­ment, and a char­i­ta­ble spir­it through­out the grant-mak­ing process. Each win­ner receives $400 to allo­cate to the local nonprofit(s) of their choice. This year, the Future Old Bill Award win­ners are: 

• Jack­son Hole Clas­si­cal Acad­e­my: Jack­son & James Neishabouri (joint prize) 
  
• Jack­son Hole Com­mu­ni­ty School: Dylan Visosky 
  
• Jack­son Hole High School: Sayre Jorgenson 
  
• Moun­tain Acad­e­my of Teton Sci­ence Schools: Sophie Neilson 
  
• Sum­mit Inno­va­tions School: Hugo Loaeza 

Youth Phil­an­thropy 2023 Grant Winners 

• Ani­mal Adop­tion Cen­ter | Canine Behav­ior Man­ag­er | $500
  
• Art Asso­ci­a­tion of Jack­son Hole | Avery Math­ieu Schol­ar­ship Fund | $2,500
  
• Asto­ria Park Con­ser­van­cy | Launch­ing Place-Based Edu­ca­tion at Asto­ria to Inspire Nat­ur­al Com­mu­ni­ty Con­nec­tions | $1,000
  
• Bound­less | Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Chil­dren | $1,500
  
• Cam­i­na Con­mi­go | Library Gear | $1,000
• Cen­ter for the Arts | HAC­ER | $1,000
  
• Climb Wyoming | Dress for Suc­cess | $3,000
  
• Coombs Out­doors | Back­coun­try Ski Club | $1,800
  
• Ener­gy Con­ser­va­tion Works | Com­mu­ni­ty Mobi­liz­er Fund | $1,500
  
• First in Fam­i­ly Jack­son Hole Schol­ar­ships | Books for Local First Gen­er­a­tion Schol­ars | $3,000
  
• Girls Active­ly Par­tic­i­pat­ing (GAP) | Munger Ele­men­tary Lead­er­ship Pro­gram | $500
  
• Good Samar­i­tan Mis­sion | Totes of Hope Food Pro­gram | $3,000
  
• Jack­son Hole Con­ser­va­tion Alliance | Con­ser­va­tion Lead­er­ship Insti­tute Speak­er Equi­ty Fund | $1,500
  
• Jack­son Hole Pub­lic Art | Art Mak­ing Mate­ri­als for Com­mu­ni­ty Art | $1,000
  
• Jack­son Hole Writ­ers | Almost Authors Kids Free Writ­ing Work­shops | $1,950
  
• Off Square The­atre Com­pa­ny | Off Square Play­ers | $1,500
• Pro­tect Our Water Jack­son Hole | Teton Coun­ty E. Coli Mon­i­tor­ing | $3,000
  
• Teton Coun­ty Search and Res­cue Foun­da­tion | Get­ting You Home Ani­mat­ed Video | $1,000
  
• Teton Rap­tor Cen­ter | Recov­er­ing from High­ly Path­o­gen­ic Avian Influen­za | $3,000
  
• Vista 360° Inc. | Schol­ar­ships for Hands-On Work­shops in Cow­boy Craft Tra­di­tions | $2,250
  
• Voic­es Jack­son Hole | Lat­inx Pro­fes­sion­als Empow­er­ment Series | $2,000