Have you ever wanted to truly change something negative in your community? Every person, especially youth 12-20, sees an issue they would address and change if only they had the funding and backing from fellow peers and organizations that felt the same passion to create and correct. Well, here is the chance to receive all that and more! Usher’s New Look Foundation announced an international initiative at the Clinton Global Initiative this past month, Powered By Service! Through the Powered By Service Campaign, youth in 6 cities: Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans; can apply for grants to implement long term impact youth led service projects. Currently there are 400 grants of $500 a piece up for grabs. Applications are available on the www.poweredbyservice.org site.

Some tips for youth thinking about applying, make sure you have a group of around 5 people willing to take on leadership roles and a youth oriented organization; thoroughly think through the issue, its causes, and possible solution(s) you may accomplish through your project. Make your project unique by employing the talents and skills of you and your team in order to hike interest and make service fun! Put on a play, design in an all-charity fashion show, or even create a song about service and sell it on iTunes! Also contact local resources such as news stations and local politicians to help you spread the word and bring attention to your issue. Include proof of preparation with your application to show how serious you are about changing your community. Once your application is reviewed by fellow youth of the Mogul In Training Youth Advisory and Philanthropy Board, and approved, the Board will continue to contact you personally, and help you meet deadlines and create goals to make your service project more effective. The grant applications are approved every two weeks and the deadline for submissions is November 6th.

Through this youth lead movement, 500,000 youth with mobilize 500,000 peers and impact the lives of over 5,000,000 people worldwide. These grants are only being issued to those that truly want to erase a problem and not put a temporary fix on a long lasting issue. So if you have an issue that needs to be addressed in your community, gather some friends, connect with an organization such as; Boys and Girls Clubs or City Year and apply for a grant to create a change and correct that issue!