Wendy Callander of Wellbeing Works outlines her advice for other charities engaging in the YPI process. She has welcomed many pupils to their Dundee centre over the years and has been represented at six YPI Final Showcases since 2019/20, and secured £9000 in that period.  

Visibility 

When young people are looking to choose a charity for their YPI project, they need to be able to find you. They are most likely to be using search engines as part of their research, so having a website or social media presence will make your charity more visible to them. 

First contact 

When young people contact your charity by phone or email, you need to be able to respond. Can you identify someone in your organisation who can be a YPI point of contact and provide the information and support for young people involved in YPI? 

Information pack  

Put together a pack of information that will give young people material to put into their presentations. You might include some background information, some statistics, important aspects of your work, news articles, reports, promotional materials, or case studies. 

Meet the group 

Arrange for the group to visit the organisation and give them a tour. This helps them to understand how you work, see the environment, feel the atmosphere, and see the tools, and visual prompts you use in you work. Encourage them to take photographs that they can include in their presentation. 

Why your charity? 

Ask them why they chose your charity. Often, it’s because someone in the group has a connection with your cause, with a friend or family member who has a disability or health issue or has needed help.  

What’s the plan? 

Ask them to tell you about the plan for their presentation. Help them to think about how to make their presentation interesting and innovative. A dull PowerPoint presentation is not going to get them far in the competition.  Some of the best presentations include music, drama, quizzes, animation, and film. 

Business case 

Think about how you would use the money if the group were to win for your charity. Are there any tools or resources that would help you in your work? Is there a new project you would like to start? One of the best buys for Wellbeing Works was a greenhouse that we have set up in the shopping centre where we are based. It means our participants are able to get involved with growing and looking after plants, but also means we continue to raise funds through plant sales. This is one of the criteria young people are judged on and providing a local, tangible example of what the funds would achieve is important.