Youth coalition receives $33,500 in grants

Tools

Story Published: Feb 17, 2009 at 11:27 PM MST

Story Updated: Feb 17, 2009 at 11:27 PM MST

By Anthony Congi

Video

BLACKFOOT - Every year the "Blackfoot-Bingham Country Youth Coalition" files for several grants to keep funding going and develop programs for kids in Bingham county.

One of the grants was the State Farm Youth Action Board Grant.

"The youth coalition is all about serving the young people. So we went back to our student bodies and said, what do we need to do? There's a sub component in the disaster services grant for social disasters which includes a component for teen suicide prevention and intervention," says Coalition Chairman Mark Cowley.

And with the guidance of the teens, that was the area the kids wanted to focus on.

Today, the group received two very large grants from the State Farm Insurance Company, including a service learning grant worth 28-thousand, 500 dollars.

"There were 500 proposals submitted across the nation," explains Scott Peterson, a representative with State Farm. "73 of them were accepted so that shows us the type of quality we have in this Blackfoot Bingham County Youth Coalition"

The group, made up of students from Blackfoot, Snake River, Firth, Shelley and Aberdeen high schools, are still trying to finalize what each school will do with the money, but some are already getting the ball rolling to help save lives.

"We're throwing a lot of ideas around. Most of them are kind are kind of, we hope to incorporate things like texting and stuff, things to make it more accessible to teens rather than an actual phone call where it's almost face to face," says Snake River student Bailey Perschon.

The second grant of five thousand dollars will be used to promote safe driving.
So if a teen is seen practicing safe driving habits, they'll be given rewards like free lunches and movie passes.

Current Weather

Current Temp 44.0 °F

Overcast

Video

More Weather

Current Weather

More Weather

Upload directly from your mobile device.

Learn how

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.