NYLT Receives $80 Thousand State Farm Grant

Young people are helping their peers address the academic achievement gap in Minnesota and across the country. Through an innovative youth-led grant-making program, the State Farm® Youth Advisory Board has granted nearly $80,000 to the National Youth Leadership Council to support its summer National Youth Leadership Training. The grant is one of three awarded in Minnesota, part of a $5 million-a-year initiative in which young people identify and lead community improvements across the nation and in Canada.

Approximately 50 high school-aged youths will gather in Mound, Minn. July 20-26 for the NYLT, which will emphasize leadership through service-learning with a particular emphasis on youth philanthropy skills development. One outcome of NYLT will be the opportunity for participants to apply for mini-grants of $1,500 to implement achievement gap projects in their home communities.

Like the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, NYLC’s Youth Advisory Council will select the achievement gap-oriented programs they fund, and support and monitor the programs over the course of the following year.

As NYLC Youth Initiatives Manager Sarah Ullmer says, “This funding enables the experience at NYLT to have a real ripple effect.” These community grants will likely reach more than 500 students nationwide.