Students’ community project pitch wins Kids4Kids $5000 grant

At the annual ‘Kids4Kids Powered By Youth Forum’ a team of students pitched their idea to address elderly loneliness, to a panel of judges and won a $5000 grant, on 21 September, 2019.

Powered by Youth is a 2-day forum where students connect with industry leaders, discussing and formulating solutions to a variety of social issues. Through the forum they are then able to participate in Act!on For A Cause (AFAC). Winning AFAC teams receive seed funding to run their community project, as well as guidance from a professional mentor.

The winning team built on a project they conducted last year – community art sessions for children. The team decided to do something similar with the elderly swapping art for knitting. Their group is called ‘One Stitch One Heart’.

After becoming one of the 12 teams to enter the final round, the students then pitched their ideas to an audience and were judged on six sections: Community Needs and Solutions, Community Engagement, Impact, Innovation and Creativity, Budget and lastly, Overall Presentation. In the end, 5 groups were picked to have their projects funded.

Grace Zheng, a member of the winning team said: “It was an intense but highly fulfilling experience. We only had 3 minutes to convey our idea so the pitch had to be concise and to the point. It was very nerve-wracking to answer the questions from the judges but we were thrilled when we found out we were chosen.”

The team will now work to implement their project for the coming year.

The winning team comprised of students from Year 11:
Celina Shin, Sara Postacchini, Yanisha Chung and Grace Zheng

Photos by Kids4Kids