AAACF's Youth Council provides high school students with a unique opportunity to engage in philanthropy and community service.  

While serving on Youth Council, students gain a deep understanding of our community's needs and issues related to youth, our local nonprofit sector, and how philanthropy and volunteering can make a meaningful difference in strengthening our community.

Youth Council brings together a diverse group of 25 students from public and private  high schools in Ann Arbor.  They spend a lot of time together, working to improve our local communities for youth. 

Youth Council members  . . .

• Review and evaluate grant applications to award $60,000-70,000 in grants each year to support  projects and programs that serve youth,
• Participate in state-wide leadership training opportunities - including a summer grantmaking conference hosted by the Council of Michigan Foundations,
• Contribute time toward community service projects, and
• Conduct a community-wide needs assessment every 3 years.

One Youth Council member serves as a youth representative on  AAACF's Board of Trustees - with full voting privileges.

AAACF's Youth Council was established during the 1989/99 school year. Since that time, nearly 200 Ann Arbor area high school students have served on Youth Council - overseeing nearly $1.5 million in grants to support a broad range of programs  that have expanded opportunities for young people throughout our community.

"Youth Council forged an enduring recognition that active, civic engagement - sharing in the heavy lifting of building community -
is an obligation, not an extracurricular activity. 

Most important, it taught all of us fortunate enought to serve that we share opportunities and responsibilities to lead lives of good, for ourselves and our communities, for ever."

                        - Jonas Kieffer, YC 1999-2001
                           Rockefeller Foundation