After many virtual meetings and interviews with our applicants all done online, our Calgary Youth Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of their fall 2020 grant cycle! Wait, what’s the Calgary Youth Foundation? The Calgary Youth Foundation (CYF) began in 1994 as the first program of its kind in Canada with a purpose to turn dreams into reality. Involving youth in a hands-on approach to philanthropy, the Calgary Youth Foundation provides youth with an opportunity to create positive change in their community by allocating grants to community projects. The next grant cycle will be in April 2021 – stay tuned! Find out more here.









We are excited to see how these projects will come to life and benefit more youth in Calgary! Congratulations to the recipients and thank you to all who applied.






















$2,000 –  Youth Helping Youth YYC















































Youth Helping Youth YYC (YHY) has been providing young women in Calgary with feminine hygiene products through community and personal donations. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many young women face challenges purchasing hygiene products due to financial difficulty. YHY is providing free feminine hygiene kits to support the mental and physical health of young women in Calgary.  The team of volunteers supporting this project are aged 7-19, and will use the granted funds to expand their initiative for the winter months to also provide warm clothing. They are also working with seniors to create reusable cloth bags to package and deliver the feminine hygiene kits. 







































































$2000 – Calgary Friends of the Cavaliers Foundation















































 Loss of companionship due to social isolation is a significant challenge for students in the K-12 school system. St. Joan of Arc School, supported by the Guidance Counselor has created a film club made up of junior high student volunteers to support youth mental health. One of the main goals of the Mental Health Team is to reduce stigma around mental health so that students feel more comfortable seeking help for mental health challenges; this will be realized through the creation of short films. With the grant money the Mental Health Team will purchase film equipment to create short mental health videos that will be made by this video production unit and be viewed by local student and parent communities, as well as submitted to youth film festivals across Canada. Students will creatively express themselves by documenting their experiences during the COVID-19 crisis and will identify coping strategies. 







































































$1,810 – Anti-Oppression Club @ Sir John A. Macdonald School for the Indigenous-centered garden















































This Indigenous-centred garden will be a shared gathering space for students, staff, and community members of two neighboring schools, Sir John A. Macdonald School (SJAM) and John G. Diefenbaker High School (Dief). Coming together they will learn about Indigenous plants and traditions, reflect, and relax. While being part of school and extra-curricular programming, this garden will also help ease transition to high school by providing consistency in allowing the junior high students to stay connected to the same group of peers as they begin high school. This garden project will bring together junior high and high school students from two schools, two YMCA Indigineous student clubs, post-secondary students from University of Calgary’s Writing Symbols Lodge, Elder Saa’kokoto, Calgary Board of Education’s Indigenous Education department, and the students’ parents and guardians. All these stakeholders will collaborate to build a garden that will not only naturalize our urban environment but decolonize our colonial school space.















































$190 – Sunshine Education















































Sunshine Education is an organization that provides students with events and seminars  that offer opportunities to learn and explore areas that they are passionate about. A network of older students who excel in various areas are invited to deliver presentations to younger students. Younger students attending these presentations feel more prepared for future pursuits, gain knowledge about things they are passionate about, and can receive help with areas they struggle with.  Everything from event ideas, planning/advertising, registrations, as well as speaking or teaching other students are all done by youth, with some input from adult supervisors, which reflects our goals of fostering a love for learning amongst other students. While COVID-19 remains a threat, all events and seminars have been shifted to remote presentations.