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The Midland Area Youth Action Council is a group of energetic 6th-12th graders from our county who come together to assess and meet the needs of young people in our area.  The Youth Action Council promotes youth philanthropy, volunteerism, leadership, and is overwhelmingly youth-led.   Members advocate for, volunteer at, and undertake grantmaking to organizations and programs in our county that improve the lives of our young people, while fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and fun environment.  Our Youth Action Council meets once a month during the academic year and they take the stewardship of the funds entrusted to them very seriously.  Annually, our members research, discuss, and vote about where to invest around $100,000 per year in response to community requests.  Additionally, they are able to invest both time and funds into projects they themselves design and implement.

The Midland Area Youth Action Council was started in the early 90s when the W.K. Kellogg Foundation offered matching grants to any community foundation that was willing to host a fund that would enable youth-directed philanthropic investments.  The resulting 86 funds and Youth Advisory Councils that were established are structured just like the community foundations with which they are associated. They have governing boards, and operations are carried out by a number of committees. The members develop and continue to modify their own operations.  The Midland community maxed out the matching grant amount, and our Youth Action Council is still funded by that initial $2million endowment.

What Do We Do?

Meetings, which take place on the third Thursday of most months during the academic year, usually start with dinner and some social time and move to Council business.  This could be anything from meeting with a Community Foundation staff member to learn more about our leadership in Midland County, to voting on Mini-Grants designed and administered by our membership, to welcoming guest speakers from area charitable organizations in order to get to know their services better.  

Important work also takes place in committee meetings on other Thursdays of the month – the Grants Committee helps ensure we have the tools and the knowledge we need to make informed decisions about grant requests, follows up with past grant recipients, and keeps track of the funds we have to invest throughout the academic year.  The Project Committee is where we design and implement a philanthropic project designed to removing the obstacles faced by local young people according to our membership’s observations.  These projects vary wildly year by year; past projects include contributing financially and through a canned food drive to local emergency food pantries, 100 Changing Places backpacks filled with basic needs and journals and art supplies for young people involved in the foster care system, public art murals undertaken by young local artists, new apartment baskets with basic supplies for setting up a new residence for families leaving Shelterhouse for their own house, and a mental health fair designed to connect area teens & tweens to area mental health services.  The Council also invested our largest single grant ever into the Foundation’s response to COVID restrictions and helping our residents stay safe, we regularly contribute to youth-focused activities within the Midland Area River Days Festival, and have a Ready for School Preschool scholarship that enables area preschoolers to access high quality preschool.

What Can You Do?

For more information about the Youth Action Council, contact Sara JacobsCarter at sjacobscarter@midlandfoundation.org or 989.839.9661.  Share this page with philanthropy-minded young people in your life!  Contribute financially to the good work we do by clicking the button above!

Are YOU a 6th-12th grader in Midland County?  Apply to be a member of the Midland Area Youth Action Council by clicking here!

Existing members looking to come back, click here!