Good Success

The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes seeks nominations for its 2010 awards. The Barron Prize honors young people between the ages of 8 and 18 who have made a significant positive difference to people and our planet.

Each year, ten national winners each receive $2,500 to support their service work or higher education.

“Each year, the Barron Prize honors twenty-five winners nationwide. Half of the winners have focused on helping their communities and fellow beings; half have focused on protecting the health and sustainability of the environment.

These young people reflect the great diversity of America. They are female and male, urban and rural, and from many backgrounds. Examples are Michaella, who organized a rodeo for disabled kids; Carter, who led the effort to conserve a local river; Ashley, who created a scholarship fund for African girls; Kyle, who organized a reading mentorship program; Joying, who cleaned up South Carolina’s beaches; Ryan, who helped provide clean drinking water to more than 70 African villages; and Barbara, who created a successful oil recycling project in Texas.

The goal of the Barron Prize is to celebrate such heroic young people—and to inspire others to do their part. Like the woman for whom the prize was named—my mother, Gloria Barron—these young people demonstrate the power of one person to make a difference to the world.”

T.A. Barron
Prize Founder

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The Miami-Dade Community Action Agency is offering Micro Enterprise Grants to help low-income small business owners throughout the county.

The agency is able to offer the $5,000 grants with federal stimulus money.

Grants will be awarded to eligible small business owners through a competitive process, in each of the 13 Miami-Dade County Commission districts.

To qualify, applicants must be a low-to-moderate income small business owner (200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines) and have a business with no more than five employees including the owner.

The owner must also be able to provide proof of “for profit” business designation and be located within one of the 13 Commission Districts.

Grant applications will be available at all CAA Community Service Centers as well as on the CAA Web page at www.miamidade.gov/caa, beginning Monday.

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Source: The Miami Herald

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced $4 million in grants to the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families, and seven cities to boost college graduation rates by better coordinating the services that colleges, schools and communities provide to students. Reuters reports that, “Enrollment at the nation’s 1,200 community colleges is at an all-time high, yet two-thirds of those attending will not graduate within three years.”

The grants will help cities and colleges in New York, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and California dramatically increase the number of young people who earn a degree beyond high school. These grants recognize that successfully reaching that goal will require education, business, and civic leaders working together to coordinate and streamline the guidance and services young people need to get into, and through, college.

Source: The Distance Daily

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A Reno girl who collects toys and books for young disaster victims across the country has won a national award.

Ashlee Smith, 10, will receive a Founder’s Youth Award from the nonprofit group World of Children in New York on Thursday, the day after appearing on CBS’s “The Early Show.” The award includes a $15,000 grant, which Ashlee is hoping to use to attract matching funds and expand her nonprofit organization Ashlee’s Toy Closet.

“All my family is blown away,” she told The Associated Press. “Getting this grant is amazing. We’re asking people to match it so we can get more toys and books.”

The only other recipient of a 2009 Founder’s Youth Award is Jessica Markowitz, 14, of Seattle, whose charity currently sends 22 Rwandan girls to school.

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Source: The Seattle Times

PricewaterhouseCoopers. We are thrilled to support MIND Research Institute and Girl Scouts of the USA in their innovative approaches to help youth become financially literate and strong citizens who can have a sustainable impact on communities.

A key element of PwCs partnership with MIND Research Institute includes supporting its unique approach to math education that engages learners visual reasoning abilities in order to understand and solve multi-step problems. PwC will provide both financial contributions and employee volunteers to improve students math comprehension and enhance their financial literacy.

We are confident that PwCs support will greatly enhance our ability to serve more schools and students nationwide and improve math proficiency, said Andrew Coulson, president of the education division at MIND Research Institute.

PwCs partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA will consist of supporting the organizations mission to build girls character and skills as well as educating girls on businesses role in sustainability, beginning with an interactive exhibit in Chicago that enhances experiential learning by embracing real life scenarios and teaching girls valuable lessons for the future.

PricewaterhouseCoopers commitment to leadership development and youth education closely aligns with our values, said Maria Wynne, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. We look forward to leveraging our partnership to further empower girls across the country.

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Source:  Trakin PR News

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ — Students from New York City public school PS 165 assisted Procter & Gamble’s Bounty brand along with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation co-founder and entertainment mogul Russell Simmons, hip-hop pioneer Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons, American fashion designer and humanitarian Tory Burch, and artist Amanda Williams in unveiling the completed Building Bounty-ful Bridges 33-foot painted mural.  The mural is a compilation of all the completed pieces of the traveling arts program that toured the nation sponsored by Bounty in partnership with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.

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