Grantmakers for Thriving Youth is a funders’ forum promoting equitable systems, structures and opportunities for young people to thrive in learning, work, citizenship and life. The Collaborative talked with Polly Savitri Singh, Senior Program Officer, Youth Development, at the Wallace Foundation and GTY Chair about the network and the critical role of youth voice in philanthropy. Check out our conversation here; you can also subscribe for updates, and grantmaking organizations and individual philanthropists learn more about membership at our website.
Why are you a member of GTY?
GTY offers its members the opportunity to collaborate with each other and with people who are concerned about supporting youth to thrive, including and most importantly, the youth themselves. Wallace joined GTY because we wanted to be part of a larger collective. We know that we can do more together with other funders than we could ever do alone. GTY has helped us stay abreast of national trends and lessons from the field, as well as solutions coming out of evidence-based practices.
How do you describe the work of GTY to colleagues and partners?
We are a member-led community of practice that represents our diverse philanthropic membership. We are committed to learning and understanding the diverse barriers young people, especially those furthest from opportunity, face every day. All the content presented during webinars and convenings features work directly funded or influenced by GTY members.
Why is a focus on youth-centered philanthropy critical, particularly in this moment?
Centering youth means including them in how we solve the issues they face every day. Young people’s lived experiences today are unlike those of any previous generation. Philanthropy can fund strategies to improve young people’s lived experiences.
We talk about systems—particularly our education and human services systems—as if they cannot change, as if they were not designed, created, and operated by people. Youth-centered philanthropy spotlights solutions and possibilities for change. Some great examples of this are when philanthropy can incentivize homegrown solutions for problems faced locally in communities, such as afterschool programs intentionally connected to schools or locating programs in community centers closer to where young people live. These are just a few examples of how we can center young people so they thrive.
What is next for GTY?
Our work is more important than ever, as young people across the country face challenges in education, mental and physical health, youth development, housing, workforce, and so much more. We are especially called to center the experiences of young people with marginalized identities to ensure that we remove the systems and structures that prevent them from thriving.
This work feels personal because it is personal. As a daughter of working class immigrants raising adolescents myself, there is tremendous uncertainty and fear of what’s to come during these next four years. We are more politically polarized than ever before, and it would be tone deaf to pretend that threats facing young people and their families are not real. There is no masking the reality of what people are experiencing. I know that GTY is a place where I can find and co-create a community to grapple with these issues and co-create solutions.