This summer, we were on the hunt for your local community superstars. While the Coast Capital Community Leadership Team were out and about in our local communities along with our Youth Interns, we heard lots of inspiring stories of how young people are giving back to those around them.

To thank them and to give some of them a helping-hand in their projects, we gave away $10,000 as part of our youth focused Community Investment Program which has allowed us to invest more than $77 million in youth-programs since 2000.

While we wish we could have chosen more recipients, there were four winners of this year’s #ThePowerofYouth contest who were selected to each win a cash prize of $2,500. These recipients are inspiring others and working in their own time to make their community a better place. Here’s a bit about who they are and what they’re doing.

Meesh

First up is Meesh who is going to use their prize to create a gender-friendly guide for healthcare practitioners, to help trans, non-binary and gender-creative youth and others in the community feel safe and accepted when seeking healthcare.

Caleb

At just 15 years old, Caleb created “Project Lightbox”, a project where he creates small handmade Lego car sets for kids at the BC Children’s Hospital. Having spent time in the hospital himself, he is familiar with the feelings of boredom and isolation that come along with it. He’s going to use his prize to help even more young people who need a pick-me-up during a difficult time.

Mark

Next is Mark who started a school coffee drive-through to raise awareness and funds for the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. He plans to use the prize to continue to grow the project and raise awareness for the cause.

Dylan

Finally, Dylan. Dylan grew up in foster care and is very passionate about his work with policy officials to create a system that serves youth and aims to improve outcomes for youth in care. He is going to use the contest prize to get the resources he needs to further the conversations, including launching a podcast, so youth can understand the system around them.

 

We believe that helping a young person brings benefits to the whole community. It’s our aspiration to empower youth to become change makers and inspire them to pay it forward. By lending a little help in the form of these four $2,500 cash prizes through our #ThePowerofYouth contest this summer, we hope that we were able to give a hand up to youth in our local communities to support their existing work as change makers.