2012 was a wonderful year for The Pegnim & Ivancich Youth Foundation and for the youth supports. Though the foundation is in the early stages of being a non-profit organization, the PIYF was able to positively affect many youth in East Contra Costa County as well as additional youth in Alameda County. The foundation was able to provide Art Shows for local East CCC High Schools, Backpacks with school supplies to Marsh Elementary School, backpacks for 3 schools in Oakland, begin a Video Surveillance System project for Marsh Elementary School, and held a Holiday Season Fundraiser to help purchase gifts/toys for youth in Oaklanda and East CCC youth.

     The Pegnim & Ivancich Youth Foundation has been able to provide its' services as Projects to local schools and youth in need. As a nonprofit organization, a project would indicate a one-time benefit for an entity that is in need. These projects have supported numerous youth throughout the year, but the PIYF intends on providing these benefits to local youth year after year. If these projects can become sustainable through the foundation year after year then they can be implemented as Programs. A program would indicate a benefit that is provided to an entity year after year for the purposes of creating a lasting effect on the entity in need. For instance, the PIYF would like to be able to provide backpacks with school supplies for the students at Marsh Elementary every year. Not only would we like to make sure that Marsh Elementary School is supported, but we are hopeful to extend our reach to include other schools within the program as well.

     The PIYF is working in multiple ways to help facilitate growth of the foundation and an increased outreach into the community. One way in which the PIYF has done this is by utilizing the help of a Grant Writer. By doing this, the PIYF is learning how to prepare and submit grants to local corporations in order to receive much needed funding. While grants can be an immense source of funding for a non-profit organization ranging anywhere from $1,000 - $50,000, the ability to qualify for these grants and prove that our foundation is more deserving than another is a very tedious process. Grants will undoubtedly become a large source of funding for the foundation, but until the PIYF can start receiving these grants, we need to utilize other forms of support.

     The largest form of support that the foundation will be utilizing is our local community. A community is defined as a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists. For our purposes, East CCC youth is the common characteristic or interest that we are focusing on. The youth in our communties should have every opportunity to succeed but it is clear that they currently do not. The PIYF would like to allow youth to have more freedom to access these tools to success, but we cannot do it alone. We all make tremendous efforts to support our children, but as individuals there is only so much that we can do for them. However, by coming together and sharing a common interest, as a community, we can make a resounding and lasting difference in the lives of youth in Antioch as a whole.