State Farm Youth Advisory Board Grants Due Oct 2nd

$5 million in Service-Learning Grants Now Available

Societal Issues Added to List of Service-learning Grants

 

Bloomington, Ill., July 29, 2009 – This year, State Farm's Youth Advisory Board expanded its disaster preparedness issue area to include grants addressing societal disasters like nutrition, exercise, bullying, abuse and diversity.

 

Applicants may request any amount from $25,000 to $100,000 based on a required budget which outlines project expenses. Request for Proposals (RFP) must be submitted online by Oct. 2. Complete details and contact information is available at www.statefarmyab.com.

 

The five issues that grant requests must focus on are:

·        Natural and Societal disaster preparedness

·        Driver safety

·        Accessing higher education/closing the achievement gap

·        Financial education

·        Environmental responsibility

 

To be eligible to receive a grant from the Board, applicants should be either an educator who currently teaches in a public K-12, charter, or higher education institution, or a school-based service-learning coordinator whose primary role is to coordinate service-learning projects in a public, charter, or higher education institution. Non-profit organizations are also eligible if they are able to demonstrate how they plan to actively engage students in public K-12 schools in meaningful service-learning programs.

 

The number of grants awarded will depend on the number and quality of requests received. Grant amounts will vary according to the nature of the proposal and availability of funds. At least one service-learning project will be funded in each of the 13 State Farm zones. As of June 2009, four years after the initial launch of the YAB, the board has awarded more than $12 million in grants to organizations in the U.S. and Canada and touched about 1.8 million lives.

 

Thirty high school and college aged youth oversee the granting of $5 million for student-led service-learning projects in the United States and in the Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario provinces of Canada. The process is unique in the responsibility and resource decisions that the youth are given. It is the Board who come together to research issues they would like to solve, review grant applications, and ultimately decide the grant winners.

 

- 0 -

 

About State Farm:  State Farm® insures more cars than any other insurer in North America and is the leading U.S. home insurer. State Farm's 17,000 agents and 68,000 employees serve more than 78 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 32 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com® or in Canada statefarm.ca®.

 

About Service-learning: Service-learning is a teaching method which supplements classroom studies with hands-on projects that address pressing community issues and problems. To learn more about service-learning visit www.nylc.org, www.ysa.org, www.service-learningpartnership.org and

www.statefarm.com/about/part_spos/community/ed_excel/servlrng.asp.