There is an age old pattern of the younger generation having strong ideas about what should change or be reformed in society. However, they lack the capital to be able to make significant change. They often have to resort to protests and demonstrations in order to make their voices heard and attempt to make change.

This winter, I joined a program called Young Changemakers (YC2) that’s goal is to give young people the opportunity to make change in the community, by giving them money with which to donate to a chosen cause. Students from four high schools in the area were chosen to be a part of this program, and the program gives the students thirty thousand dollars to donate to two causes, fifteen thousand for each cause. The program is a part of the Community Memorial Foundation, which has over 200 million dollars, which they use to better the surrounding community in the Chicago suburbs. The money came from the sale of a hospital in the region.

The program had an emphasis on philanthropy over charity. They made sure to define the contrast between philanthropy and charity with a few examples. The point was that charity is donating to a cause blindly without building a rapport or connection to the people you are trying to help, while philanthropy is using money to actively fix the root of a societal problem, while building a relationship with the people you are trying to help.

Before we started to think about what casues would be helpful to donate to, we first learned about why there are the problems there are in any given community. We learned how inequalities are a result of a system, and we saw how these systemic inequalities resulted in certain problems for some communities, and completely different problems for other communities. We viewed an interesting cartoon that showed the difference between equality, equity, and justice.

We then began to decide which group we would donate to. We voted on what issues we would try and address, and the result was health and access to nutritious food.

(To be updated following future meetings)