United Way of Amarillo & Canyon Youth Leadership Cabinet:
The 2020-2021 Youth Leadership Cabinet (YLC) is comprised of more than 70 students from Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, Highland Park and River Road high schools. The YLC, along with numerous companies and volunteers, hosted a virtual version of the United Way of Amarillo & Canyon’s annual Youth Day in October 2020. The virtual Youth Day was attended by over 680 students from area middle schools and high schools through both in-school and online classrooms and acted as the catalyst for a successful youth-led campaign. The funds raised through the Youth Campaign are donated entirely by students from grades K-12 at campuses across our community. As members of the Youth Cabinet, the students allocate this money to United Way of Amarillo & Canyon’s partner agencies.
This year, student leadership partnered up with the United Way of Amarillo’s community impact allocation process to create a bigger impact for all programs in a year where many programs struggled. Youth Leadership Cabinet added $55,195.10 to the United Way allocations for 2020. United Way of Amarillo & Canyon is proud to partner with these young adults to help plant the seed of philanthropic principles to our future leaders. United Way of Amarillo & Canyon was one of the first United Ways in the country to coordinate a youth program.
The goal of the Youth Cabinet is to teach philanthropic principles to students and provide opportunities for them to become more involved in their community.
The Youth Cabinet is designed to replicate the United Way general campaign, but at the school level. The students are tasked with raising awareness for the community programs supported by their local United Way, raising funds at their “workplace” and then allocating these funds through a grant application process to the most critical areas of need.
The Youth Leadership Cabinet is comprised of student representatives from each of the local high schools. In addition, each high school also has one sponsor at the campus who helps coordinate the students’ fundraising efforts and communicates with the United Way staff person.
Youth Cabinet members are selected by their school sponsor. Currently, there are no restrictions placed on the number of students who may participate. They are expected to attend weekly meetings, help coordinate fundraising efforts at their campus, and help with additional events that might come up during the year.
For more information about the Youth Leadership Cabinet, please contact United Way of Amarillo & Canyon at 806.376.6359.
Schools who participated during the 2020 Youth Philanthropy Programs (either preregistered for Virtual Youth Day, participated in Youth Cabinet, raised funds either through C4C (Change for Change) or independently)
High School
Tascosa Amarillo Palo Duro Caprock Canyon Randall River Road Highland Park Bushland
Middle School
Bowie Horace Mann Austin Bonham Crockett Johnny N. Allen Lorenzo de Zavala River Road MS Bushland MS
Elementary
Whittier Humphrey Highland Park Hills Ridgecrest Avondale Alice Landergin Olsen Park Sunrise Coronado Wolflin South Lawn Puckett Oak Dale Forest Hill Pleasant Valley Paramount Terrace South Georgia Lamar San Jacinto Lawndale Will Rogers Eastridge Hamlet Mesa Verde Sleepy Hollow Wills Bivins Carver EC Woodlands Tradewind Travis 6th Grade Bowie