YAC Member Eaghan Davis and Eric Evans battle for Treasurer
using the Rock-Paper-Scissors method.

What is the Youth Advisory Council (YAC)?
The Youth Advisory Council is a special "youth as grant makers" project of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County. The Council, made up of adult advisors and student representatives from 16 Muskegon area schools , involves young people in solving real problems affecting their communities and peers. Members of YAC help set policy and guide distribution of over $70,000 a year in grants to promising youth related projects in Muskegon County.

When and why did YAC get started?
In 1989, the Trustees of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County created the Youth Advisory Council in response to a statewide challenge issued by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In order to meet the requirements of the challenge, a new fund was created to address youth issues, and the YAC was established to make grant recommendations to the Foundation Board of Trustees. Since its inception, YAC has made grants to local youth projects totaling over $900,000 .

What do Members do?
Members of YAC attend one meeting a month to make grant making decisions or to learn more about Youth issues in Muskegon County. Three times a year the Council reviews grant proposals for youth projects and determines which projects will receive funding by evaluating the proposals and occasionally making site visits to the agency requesting funding.

YAC Graduating Seniors 2007: Sara Hanson, Lauren Anderegg, Caitlin Lake and Katie Leutscher

Sample grants funded by YAC

• Support to initiate and develop the Youth Volunteer Corp in Muskegon County.
• Support for area teachers to assist with classroom projects.
• Support the Grand Valley State University Lake Michigan Center
• Support the Learning to Give Project, which teaches philanthropy to kids in grades K-12
• Support for the Mock Crash 2002, which highlights the dangers of driving drunk
• Support for the United Way/ Lights on Afterschool Initiative
• More YAC Grants

For more information on YAC or if you have any questions,
please contact Gina Van Bruggen, YAC Advisor
at (231) 722-4538.