Charities attend Blair High event

Blairgowrie High School launched its involvement in the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) for this academic year with a special event at the school.

Representatives from a number of local and national charities attended an open event at the Beeches Road school to give pupils taking part in the initiative an opportunity to find out more about the work they do.

Mark Asensio is principal teacher of religious and moral education at Blairgowrie High School.

He explained: “YPI is an active citizenship programme that raises awareness among young people about philanthropy.

“Blairgowrie High School pupils have taken part in the initiative for a number of years now, working in small teams to consider the needs of their local community and identify a grassroots social service charity they believe can make a positive contribution.

“Having been guided on how to analyse the charity’s management and strategy, they are encouraged to build relationships with the charity and then exercise their skills in advocacy and public speaking to make a case as to why their proposed charity should be awarded a donation of £3000.

“One of the first steps in their YPI journey was to attend the school’s ‘charity speed date’ event which helped them decide on a possible charity that they could pick.

“Last session the winning group chose Guide Dogs for the Blind and the school now sponsors a puppy in training.”

Pupil Flora Dobb added: “Many charities had representatives at the event including SCYD, PKAVS, RASAC, Guide Dogs, Foodbank and Vision PK who provided more information about the work they do.

“We were able to ask the representatives questions about their charities and gain more indepth knowledge about them before we have to decide which ones to support. The event was certainly an eye-opener for us.“

“The Guide Dogs stand was very popular as they had brought in a dog and allowed us to pet it.”