Youth Advisory Committee
Thank you YAC for sharing your time, talent, and treasure this past year. The Youth Fund granted $8,000 in 2025 based on your expertise!
Mission: To provide the youth with a voice to empower the community through positive impact and growth, one grant at a time.
The Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) is a group of student representatives from Otsego County high school districts and adult advisors from the schools and the Otsego Community Foundation.
Members of the YAC are empowered:
- To create a positive role model for youth as philanthropists and volunteers.
- Assess local youth needs.
- Promote positive youth development.
- Increase community awareness.
- Review grant applications and make recommendations to the Board of Directors of the Otsego Community Foundation on the distribution of grants that impact the youth of the county.
The Otsego Community Foundations initially created YAC in 1994 with a $1 million dollar challenge grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the Michigan Community Foundations Youth Project. The purpose of the Youth Project was to encourage youth development in local communities throughout the state while strengthening community foundation leadership and grantmaking capacity. The OCF YAC was established to oversee a permanently endowed Youth Fund and to make grant recommendations to the Board of Directors. Since its inception, the Youth Fund has granted more than $50,000 to projects that impact the youth of our county.
The YAC will meet about once every other month, virtually for trainings and in person for activities, to learn and assess the needs of the youth in Otsego County. These dedicated students:
- Attend training sessions.
- Work on fund development.
- Engage with community engagement and volunteerism.
- Administer the Youth Needs Survey and the Teacher Needs Survey in the community.
- Review grant proposals.
- Participate in site visits to grantee organizations.
- Make grant recommendations.
To learn more about YAC or to join, please contact DeLayni Brown: delayni@otsegofoundation.org or Dave Beyers: dbeyers76@yahoo.com. To apply for YAC membership by July 1, 2026, click the link below.