ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Creating and participating in effective grant-making requires a considerable range of skills; knowledge; insight and understanding on the part of the young grant-makers who comprise local YouthBanks. Each step involves a spectrum of activities and requires informed decision-making on their part.

Grant making

Below a series of bullet points represents a synopsis form of sequential flow chart to provide readers with a baseline understanding of what is involved:-

• recruitment of group of prospective young grant-makers;
• orientation and capacity building training provided for prospective young grant-makers to be augmented over time by a skill and personal development training programme;
• facilitation of young grant-makers to undertake research into the nature and scope of met and unmet need amongst peers;
• facilitation of young grant-makers to analyse research findings and make decisions concerning priority themes for future grant- making programmes;
• creation of specific grant-making programmes in terms of adopted theme(s) and in relation to application; assessment; decision-making and evaluation systems, protocols and associated paperwork;
• design of communication, information and publicity strategy detailing how awareness of a YouthBank’s activity is to be achieved;
• enabling young grant-makers to publicly launch their grant programme;
• young grant-makers undertake assessment of eligible applicant groups’ projects;
• assisting young grant-makers to make decisions based on assessments and in the light of available resources;
• facilitating young grant-makers to undertake administrative, monitoring and evaluation activities relating to their decisions concerning applicant projects;
• enabling young grant- makers to successfully organise celebration events showcasing projects their YouthBank has supported;
• assisting young grant-makers to draw on their experiences and what they have learned from them to inform and refine their future grant-making activities.

A fuller outline of this process can be obtained from the ‘Nuts and Bolts’ section of the ‘Beyond Borders’ publication.

This outline sequence is intended as a baseline overview only as a detailed understanding of all aspects of youth-led grant-making can only be fully developed by engaging in the work. Full information, training and technical assistance for those wishing to undertake such activity is available on a consultancy basis from the Community Foundation YouthBank office.

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