Ripley County Youth Outreach Receives $5,000 Grant

The funds will help develop and initiate a youth-led project within Ripley County

Back row (left to right): GiGi Dreyer (Oldenburg Academy), Morgan Sutton (Jac Cen Del), Riley Schebler (Oldenburg Academy), Abe Streator (Oldenburg Academy), Zeb Streator (Oldenburg Academy) and Ava Ralston (South Ripley).  Front row (left to right): Elizabeth Gigrich (Oldenburg Academy), Abby Knowlton (Milan), Caroline Kellerman (Batesville), Betsy Harmeyer (Batesville), Lilly Esser (Batesville), Abby McCarty (South Ripley), Emma Morris (South Ripley), Taylor Brison (South Ripley), and Lydia Koger (South Ripley). Photo provided. 

(Ripley County, Ind.) - The Ripley County Community Foundation’s youth program, Ripley Youth Outreach (RYO), received a $5,000 My Community My Vision (MCMV) Grant to develop and initiate a youth-led project within Ripley County. The goal of MCMV is to have the youth plan and implement a project that appeals to teenagers in Ripley County. The Town of Versailles has partnered with RYO to assist with the community project.

Sponsored by IHCDA (Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority), My Community My Vision is a youth community planning program that hopes to encourage teenagers to stay, or return, to their hometowns after college. The funders of this grant believe that the more involved a person is within their community, the more likely they are to return to, or to remain, in their hometowns. My Community My Vision hopes to empower the youth of Indiana to become future leaders of Indiana while teaching students about civic involvement and municipal planning.

“We are very appreciative of this grant but more importantly, the opportunity it provides to local teens to be engaged in the planning and development of a community project. Ripley County is fortunate to have young people who want to invest their time and ideas into making our community a better place,” states Amy Streator, Executive Director of the Ripley County Community Foundation.

Over the course of the next six month, RYO will work with an Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI) graduate student who will serve as a college mentor to the youth program. The mentor will assist in creating a vision plan based on the ideas put forth from the students.

RYO will present their final proposal in Indianapolis to the My Community My Vision Board in April of 2020. Past recipients of the grant have completed projects such as community gardens, small business partnerships, community crime prevention initiatives, and public art projects. By the completion of the youth-led project, a meaningful youth involvement bond between students and community leaders will established, along with the greater hope that students will return to their hometown after college. RYO’s community project will be implemented in the Fall of 2020.