A local Cowal Charity will soon be £3000 better off thanks to the pupils of Dunoon Grammar School.

An innovative school based project, designed to encourage young people to think about prominent social issues and build strong partnerships with local charities was launched in Dunoon Grammar School on Monday, 24 August 2015.

S2 pupils at DGS will be working in teams during Business & Computing periods on the Youth & Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) until the October holidays. YPI is an interactive enterprise and citizenship programme which aims to empower young people by giving them the skills and the social awareness required to elicit positive change in their local community. Teams will be challenged to identify and research issues which affect their local community. Pupils will then investigate and select the grassroots social service charity who they believe can make a positive contribution towards change. Finally, the project culminates with each team presenting their findings to a panel of judges and the team deemed to have given the most impassioned and creative presentation is awarded a fantastic £3,000 to donate to their chosen charity.

Pupils involved will soon be making contact with local charities to find out more on their activities and to determine whether they will adopt the charity as their focus for the YPI and to champion their cause.

David Mitchell, Head Teacher of Dunoon Grammar School commented
“We see our school at the heart of the community and this initiative is certainly in keeping with that vision. YPI offers our S2 pupils a rich and deep learning experience allowing them to evolve core skills including creativity, team working, communication and ICT. I am confident our pupils will fully embrace this project and I look forward to viewing the final pitches. It is fantastic that through their efforts a local Cowal charity will be awarded £3000. I would like to thank YPI Scotland for including us in this year’s programme.”