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How will a childhood packed with school work, extracurricular activities and access to the internet differentiate the Millennial generation from others? How are the issues faced by Millennials different from previous generations? What is it like to have high-achieving Baby Boomers as parents?
The Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Youth Grant Committee (YGC) recently surveyed teens from local private and public middle and high schools to evaluate the issues that are impacting their peers and identify the programs they feel would help. The YGC will use the results of the survey to guide their grantmaking decisions this spring.
Among other findings, the YGC found that many of their peers identified pressure to succeed among the top issues impacting their lives. When asked the same question in 2000, teens identified alcohol abuse and drunk driving as the top issue.
“The amount of pressure that teens face today is getting more and more enormous every year,” says Emily Vanden Berg, YGC member and senior at City High School. “It can come from a number of different things: school, college, family, and of course, friends. The surveys we conduct are the most helpful tool in making sure we are granting the right programs. Finding changes in important issues that teens face will help us to continue making our grants most beneficial.”
The YGC, which includes high schools students from Kent County’s public, private and homeschools, administers this peer survey every other year. Since its inception in 1994, the YGC has awarded 127 grants for programs that benefit youth, totaling $638,926.
How will this year’s results impact the YGC’s grantmaking? Could the shift in issues since 2000 be a sign that Millennials are becoming overwhelmed with their fast-paced, structured lives? Please join us to hear a complete report of the findings and answers to these and more questions straight from YGC members:
What: Youth Grant Committee 2006 peer survey results press conference
When: Wednesday, January, 17, 2007 at 11 a.m.
Where: West Catholic High School—Room 103, 1801 Bristol Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
For more information, please contact Amanda St. Pierre, PR & Marketing Associate at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation at 616.454.1751 x132.