Established in 2003

The Youth Innovation Project is designed to encourage young people to create new solutions to important community problems. The program, administered by the Oasis Center, with support from The Community Foundation and the Mayor’s Office of Children and Youth, is one of only eight selected in the country to receive a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Youth board members investigate and learn about local concerns, resources, power structures, service-learning, and youth philanthropy, awarding grants to young people for innovative civic action projects of their own design.