Youth Service Fund (YSF)

What Every Youth Group Needs to Know about Youth Service Fund

What is it?

Youth Service Fund is an organization which collects donations and distributes them in support of mission projects focused on youth, locally in the East Ohio Conference as well as nationally and throughout the world. It is administered globally by the Division on Ministries with Young People within the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church; and locally by the East Ohio Conference Council on Youth Ministries (CCYM).  YSF provides a way for youth to be in real ministry with each other-not only do youth contribute money and receive the money for their ministry projects, but they also decide which projects are chosen. Youth Service Fund really is youth in ministry!

How does it work?

Each year at your district caucus, your district nominates one senior high and one junior high to run for the YSF committee within the CCYM. Each nominee then gives a speech at Youth Annual Conference (YAC) and a vote by the entire body of YAC determines who will serve on the YSF committee.  The YSF committee reviews all the project grant applications at their March meeting, and proposes a budget at YAC in June. Upon approval, the budget becomes the financial goal for the fiscal year beginning the following January.

Where does the money come from?

YOU!  The largest form of funding comes from benevolent giving from the local churches.  In addition, the YSF committee has fund raising activities including the sale of merchandise at events such as Youth Jam and YAC.

What can YOU do?

• Plan regular fundraisers for YSF in your church.  Does your church have youth Sundays? Consider a special offering for YSF at that time.

• Challenge your youth group to give a Biblical tithe (10%) of the money they raise for their own activities to YSF.

• Encourage individual youth to pledge-Did you know that if every United Methodist teenager across the nation gave 50 cents to YSF every 3 months, we would raise $1,500,000 from that source alone! 

Competition!

The YSF committee has proposed a competition among the districts of the East Ohio Conference.  The district that has the highest percentage of their churches to contribute to YSF will be recognized at Youth Annual Conference this year.  You must submit each of your contributions with a YSF Contribution Form in order for it to be credited properly.  To assist your youth and the rest of your congregation to understand YSF, each district youth coordinator will receive an YSF video that gives an explanation of who we are. Our hope is that it will be passed from church to church to increase awareness of our ministry.  

What if our church has a project that could use YSF support?

Submit a grant application to the conference office by the March, 2007 deadline. Applications can be obtained from the conference office, or downloaded from the conference website. The YSF committee will review all applications, and determine which projects they plan to fund.  Final approval will be given at YAC in June, 2007.  Funds to support the projects chosen will then be generated Jan, 2008-Dec, 2008.  Checks will be disbursed Jan, 2009.