Project Youth Training - Proposal draft

RainbowVI: Empowering Youth through Free Online Well-Being & Life Skills Education

1. Proposal Summary

Project Title: RainbowVI: Empowering Youth through Free Online Well-Being & Life Skills Education

Requested Funding: $15,000

Co-Contributions:

• In-kind volunteer hours from a youth-led team of learning designers
• Existing web app infrastructure (MVP) developed with BCIT collaboration
• Mentorship support from professional instructional designers
• Partnerships with community organizations contributing outreach and content expertise

Summary: RainbowVI is a youth-led nonprofit building a new model of accessible, peer-driven education. This proposal seeks funding to support the creation and launch of 5 short online courses designed by youth, for youth, focusing on essential well-being and life skills. The grant will directly support the training of 5 youth course designers, content development, and implementation of our “Sponsor a Course” pilot program. The project aims to reach 5,000 young people across Canada, empowering them with knowledge and confidence to thrive personally and make a positive impact in their communities.

2. Introduction to the Applicant

RainbowVI was founded to address a crucial gap in youth education: accessible, engaging, and meaningful learning on topics that matter, mental health, emotional literacy, financial resilience, digital skills, and climate awareness.

We are a youth-led, volunteer-driven nonprofit guided by experienced learning designers. Our founders bring over a decade of experience in instructional design and nonprofit leadership. Though young as an organization, we’ve already:

• Developed demo courses piloted on a custom learning platform built with BCIT support
• Recruited and trained a dedicated team of volunteers with diverse skill sets
• Built partnerships to co-create courses with community and subject matter experts

RainbowVI operates lean, but with a clear plan for impact, sustainability, and scale. Our track record shows thoughtful planning, rapid action, and high potential for growth, with youth at the center.

2A. Approach and Innovation

RainbowVI’s approach merges youth empowerment with high-impact digital learning. At its core is the belief that young people should not only consume educational content but also shape it. This model addresses a major gap in the education landscape by recognizing youth as agents of change, capable of designing peer-informed, emotionally resonant, and socially relevant learning experiences.

Our instructional design strategy prioritizes simplicity, relevance, and accessibility. Courses are intentionally short, mobile-friendly, and centered around real-world well-being and life skills. We use Tally.so as a lightweight course authoring tool, allowing rapid, low-cost content creation. This technical simplicity enables us to scale quickly while maintaining high usability for learners.

RainbowVI also promotes a mentorship-based co-creation model. Youth receive foundational training and work alongside experienced learning designers to produce their first course. This hands-on, scaffolded approach builds skills and confidence, while ensuring content quality. Furthermore, our “Sponsor a Course” model offers an innovative revenue pathway that aligns funders with topics they care about, supporting ongoing free access for youth.

2B. Why RainbowVI is Original and Positioned for Success

RainbowVI represents an innovative and timely approach to youth education by combining peer-led course creation with accessible digital learning tools. This model directly addresses the limitations of conventional education by empowering youth not only as learners but as active creators of content.

Unlike most educational nonprofits that deliver content designed by adult professionals, RainbowVI trains youth to develop and teach short-form digital courses to their peers. This youth-as-creators approach enhances relevance, relatability, and learner engagement. Further, the dual-impact framework simultaneously benefits the youth developers (through training and mentorship) and the broader youth community (through open-access learning).

The originality of the RainbowVI model lies in its focus on:

• Peer-led content creation: A rarely implemented model in the nonprofit education sector
• Microlearning format: Short, modular, accessible courses designed for immediate application
• Community integration: Open peer support communities centered around each course topic

RainbowVI is positioned for success due to several key factors:

• Foundational expertise: The organization is led by professionals with deep instructional design experience, ensuring a pedagogically sound foundation.
• Demonstrated early success: Within a year, RainbowVI has developed a learning platform MVP, completed pilot courses, and built a multi-disciplinary volunteer team.
• Sustainable growth model: The organization is structured to scale, with repeatable training cycles and a lean operating model that leverages volunteerism and professional mentorship.
• Revenue innovation: Its "Sponsor a Course" model creates a pathway for long-term sustainability by engaging corporate, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners.

Collectively, these factors provide a compelling rationale for investment. RainbowVI is not only innovative but also equipped with the structure, talent, and vision to generate lasting impact across diverse youth communities.

3. The Need / The Problem Statement

Many young people in Canada face challenges they were never taught to navigate stress, anxiety, financial insecurity, and uncertainty about the future. Traditional education systems often overlook these essential life skills.

There is a clear gap in free, relatable, and youth-centered online resources that address:

• Mental health and emotional literacy
• Financial literacy and independence
• Digital and environmental awareness
• Peer connection and community empowerment

Without timely intervention, youth risk growing up without the tools to care for themselves or contribute meaningfully to society. Marginalized and low-income youth are especially vulnerable.

Case in point: “Susana,” 19, struggled with anxiety and decision paralysis after high school. Through one of our pilot well-being courses, he shared, “This is the first time I’ve seen someone talk about mental health in a way that feels like it was made for me.” Susana now volunteers as a course tester and hopes to join our next training round.

Now is the moment to act. Young people are eager to learn, connect, and lead. This grant will allow us to harness that momentum and turn it into a scalable impact.

4. The Objectives and Outcomes

5. Program Plan

6. The Capacity

RainbowVI is well-prepared to deliver on this proposal, supported by:

• A committed volunteer team of 10+ (admin, design, development, outreach)
• A co-developed learning platform with BCIT, now in the MVP stage
• An advisory group of experienced learning designers and youth workers
• An agile workflow and clear project structure, already tested in prior course pilots

Our organization runs efficiently, using cloud tools, asynchronous collaboration, and tight coordination despite being volunteer-led. The founder directly oversees program execution, ensuring accountability and timely delivery.

Our growing network of youth and partner organizations ensures we can quickly recruit, test, and scale the program.

7. Evaluation Plan

RainbowVI will use a mixed-methods approach to evaluate success, focusing on both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights.

Key Evaluation Tools:

• Baseline & Post-Surveys for youth trainees and learners (confidence, skills, knowledge)
• Course Analytics (completion rates, engagement time, interaction levels)
• Feedback Loops via learner reviews, polls, and reflective journaling
• Community Participation Tracking (forum activity, event attendance, peer support metrics)
• Portfolio Review of youth-created courses by mentors and advisory team

Success Indicators:

• 4 youth complete training and develop four courses (electrical safety, water safety, environmental conservation, and reducing carbon emissions)
• 1 expert completes a course (Protecting Your Online Identity)
• 5,000 youth engage meaningfully with the courses
• 80% of youth report increased confidence and knowledge
• Active peer community engagement sustained for 6+ months

We will produce a public impact report at the end of the grant period, sharing findings and highlighting stories of change.

8. Program Budget

*Honorariums recognize youth and mentor volunteer contributions, and a contingency fund ensures flexibility for unexpected project needs.

In person workshop x 1

Chrome book x5

Mentors x3

60/40 women to men ratio

other (food and travel for trainees, mentors)

Another thought: 4 2b 2gyouth trainees, 1 female expert in STEM

Co-Contributions:

• Volunteer time valued at ~$10,000
• Use of MVP learning platform developed in-kind with BCIT
• Pro-bono mentorship and instructional design support

This budget reflects a lean, high-impact model focused on youth empowerment, co-creation, and scalability.

9. Sustained Impact

Accessibility and Inclusion Strategy: RainbowVI is committed to ensuring that its platform and courses are inclusive and accessible to diverse groups of youth. Our ongoing platform development includes features such as captioned videos, simplified language for low-literacy users, and mobile-first design to reach youth who primarily access content via smartphones. We also aim to implement language translation options in future iterations to better serve multilingual communities.

To reach underrepresented groups, including Indigenous youth, immigrant families, and youth with disabilities, we are exploring collaborations with community organizations, schools, and cultural centres. These partners can help us localize outreach, adapt content to meet cultural needs, and provide critical feedback to refine our inclusion practices. Our training also incorporates accessibility awareness so that youth course designers develop content that reflects diverse needs and perspectives.

This grant funds a catalytic phase in RainbowVI’s growth. The results, trained youth designers, launched courses, and an engaged learner base, will create momentum we can build on.

Sustainability Strategy:

• Launch of a “Sponsor a Course” model to fund future learning experiences
• Continued use of volunteer training cycles to expand course offerings
• Partnerships with schools, nonprofits, and employers for course distribution
• Open-access publishing to maximize reach and reuse
• Crowdfunding and microgrants to support community-led content

With this funding, RainbowVI moves from pilot phase to proven model, creating lasting value by equipping youth to teach, learn, and lead their peers across Canada and beyond.