A group of local teenagers raised and awarded $500 to the Flint Public Health Youth Academy this year through the Center for Arab American Philanthropy's Teen Grantmaking Initiative, a youth philanthropy program run locally by the Arab American Heritage Council. The Community Foundation of Greater Flint matched the gift dollar for dollar.
The group of ten Genesee County high school and college students is in its second year, growing in part through a partnership with Genesee Academy. Students meet bi-weekly to identify community needs, raise money, and research potential grantmaking partners. The program is supervised by Sarah Tahboub, a Grand Blanc native in her fourth year at the University of Michigan studying meteorology.
The cohort started by conducting a needs assessment through a Google Form, sharing the survey with peers through social media and schools. After gathering 65 responses from youth ages 15 to 22 across Genesee County, students identified community safety and gun violence as a top concern.
"Through the needs assessment, students are able to get a holistic view of issues and concerns that they might not be aware of," Tahboub said. "We felt that community safety was a prominent factor we wanted to focus on."
From there, students went out to fundraise, giving speeches to community members detailing what the Teen Grantmaking Initiative is and what a donation would support. They pitched to community members, including the board of the Arab American Heritage Council.
"Students got experience with leadership through this initiative," Tahboub said. "It was the most successful avenue that we had. I think our students really excelled in doing that."
With $500 raised, the group researched organizations in Genesee County working directly on community safety. They came across the Community Safety Collaborative, a group that brings together community organizations, residents, and local leaders to reduce violence in Flint.
By working with Moses Bingham, director of strategic initiatives at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, in April, they identified the Flint Public Health Youth Academy, another youth-centered organization, as their grantee. The Community Foundation of Greater Flint then matched the donation with an additional $500.
Bingham and Tahboub saw the Flint Public Health Youth Academy as a strong fit because of its direct engagement with youth, prevention, education, and public health approaches to safety.
“The Community Safety Collaborative believes that community safety is bigger than policing or intervention alone. Safety is also about prevention, mentorship, opportunity, education, belonging, and helping young people see themselves as part of the solution,” Bingham said. “In many ways, the partnership is especially meaningful because it reflects young people investing in and supporting the development of other young people.”
The grant will support youth-centered programming like the Flint Public Health Youth Academy's upcoming Gun Violence Youth Summit on Saturday, June 13 at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, and other engagement efforts.
“Community safety is strongest when everyone sees themselves as stakeholders, including young people,” Bingham said. “Initiatives like this help cultivate empathy, responsibility, and civic leadership while reminding youth that they have both the power and the responsibility to positively impact their community.”
The match brought the total award to $1,000, directing combined funds toward youth safety programming in Flint.
"I felt really proud of the students for finding everything," Tahboub said. "They did the research and found an organization that would work. We really want to be able to support initiatives that are doing real work in the community to support people."
Interested students can email staff@aahcflint.org with their information, and the staff will get them connected with the initiative.
