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City Year Gets Air Time

September 30, 2008

Recently City Year announced that it has teamed up with Arnold Worldwide and Comcast to create and broadcast several public service announcements spreading the word about City Year’s work. (See one of the PSAs here)

The PSAs feature City Year corps members in meaningful moments that convey the impact they have as young people engaged in citizen service: tutoring in schools, mentoring students, cleaning up neighborhoods, and ultimately working together for a common purpose.

“The more you learn about City Year, the more you are inspired by the energy, passion and optimism that shine through everything they do,” said Brian Hayes, creative director, Arnold.  “We hope that these new ads convey this feeling and motivate more young people to get involved in the program.”

The PSAs will be shown almost 2,500 times as part of Comcast’s three-year commitment of $27 million to City Year. 

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In the News, Social Entrepreneurism

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Encourages Outstanding Nonprofits

September 30, 2008

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has announced the 2008 recipients of its National Leadership in Action Award, recognizing excellent work by nonprofit organizations and philanthropic institutions in communities of color.

The award recognizes organizations with a wide range of missions and visions, but all of those awarded are making significant change in their communities.  Winners this year include ACCESS, “for its commitment to provide economic and social services to Arab immigrants, Arab Americans, and non-Arabs alike, while breaking down the barriers of linguistic and cultural differences;” Native Americans in Philanthropy, “for its work to promote, facilitate, and celebrate philanthropic giving to Native communities, while providing professional development opportunities and support for Native Americans working in the field of philanthropy;” and The Twenty-First Century Foundation “for its efforts to facilitate strategic giving for black community change, working with donors to invest in institutions and leaders that address challenges within black communities across the country.”

The National Leadership in Action Award Program promotes high-level performance of philanthropic institutions and nonprofit organizations and the award honors innovative approaches to connecting resources of time, money and expertise to the philanthropic work of communities of color.

For a full list of recipients or to learn more about the award, click here. 

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Social Entrepreneurism, Workplace Diversity

Social Entrepreneurs Offer a Lesson on Education Innovation to Presidential Candidates

September 03, 2008

In the 8/31/08 edition of the Los Angeles Times, national education entrepreneurs, including our partner Ted Mitchell of NewSchools Venture Fund, laid out the imperative for the next president to support the work of education entrepreneurs in transforming the lives of low-income children. The piece argues for a major expansion of innovation funding and an entrepreneurial mindset in federal education policy. Such expanded efforts—in charter schools, human capital, and tools that improve education—will speed the pace of positive change for systems, for schools, and for children.

Among the calls to action for our next administration are:

1. Expand innovation incentives and free them from the earmarks and conditions that have blunted past initiatives. Adequate incentives, coupled with rigorous accountability, would remedy this.

2. Use influence over state and local policy to sweep away regulations that hamper innovative thinking, such as caps on the number of public charter schools allowed and excessive restrictions on how teachers are trained and credentialed.

3. Continue the strong push of two efforts already underway. One is the move toward a common set of standards for what students should be expected to know and be able to do. Then, to make shared standards work, a national data infrastructure must be built to assess educational progress.

This op-ed also featured the outstanding work of other Commongood Careers partners such as KIPP, Teach for America, and New Leaders for New Schools.

Read the full article.

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In the News, Innovations in Education, Social Entrepreneurism

Commongood Careers Partners Deliver in a Pinch!

September 02, 2008

So, what do you do when you have flown in staff from around the country for an annual retreat, only to find out at the last minute that your off-site location has fallen through?  Well… if you’re lucky, you can call-up two amazing partner organizations and host your retreat at their places!

Last week, Team Commongood Careers enjoyed the good fortune of being able to hold our annual retreat in beautiful new boardrooms and training spaces within the offices of City Year and Citizen Schools.

They say everything happens for a reason.  In this case, not only were City Year and Citizen Schools able to provide some great space to meet our logistical needs, but it was also a tremendous inspiration to be discussing sector-wide impact in the national headquarters of these two outstandingly successful and entrepreneurial organizations.

And if you don’t already know all about these two leaders in their fields, please check them out and help us return the favor by doing all you can to support their efforts.

City Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. As tutors, mentors, and role models, these young leaders make a difference in the lives of children and transform schools and neighborhoods across the United States and in South Africa. More than 1,500 corps members serve in 19 City Year sites across the United States and one site in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Citizen Schools has built a creative and effective learning model that addresses community needs while building student skills through hands-on experiential learning activities. Citizen Schools operates a National Network of apprenticeship programs for youth that connects middle school students with adult volunteers in hands-on learning. At Citizen Schools, students develop the academic and leadership skills they need to excel in school, build self confidence, get into college, and become leaders in their communities. Citizen Schools currently enroll 2,000 middle-school students and engage 1,500 volunteers at 30 school campus sites nationwide.

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Social Entrepreneurism