Empowering Young Social Innovators

This a short update on the activities and work being undertaken by TakingITGlobal to empower the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Your continued support is invaluable and we want to share with you some of our most recent programming outcomes.

Since the beginning of 2013, over 180 young people in Washington, DC, New York, and Toronto have participated in an event-based program called Sprout Unplugged - which in partnership with Microsoft Innovate for Good - has helped them learn and execute the building blocks of social venture development. This unique team-based action learning program was designed with the intent to bring together large numbers of youth to leverage the ingenuity within themselves and during the event, actually build the foundation for new social ventures. This event-based program has also been implemented at various Innovate for Good events around the world and facilitators within ech region have been trained on this exciting and highly-practical curriculum.

Through the delivery of 2 more cycles of the Sprout E-course, 20 social innovators from Argentina, Egypt, India, Italy, Philippines, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and United States, emerged having successfully completed the rigorous curriculum with readiness to embark on launching their ventures. Following the e-course, graduates shared their thoughts on the connection between the supports offered by TakingITGlobal and their enhanced ability to successfully implement their projects. Themes that surfaced from their feedback included a greater sense of self-confidence and empowerment along with the take-away of a practical toolkit of process and skills they felt they could transfer toward both personal and professional development.

In March 2013, a pilot program utilizing an innovative model of online mentorship was launched to support 9 of the best and brightest individuals and teams from the Sprout E-course cycles who required targeted guidance from experienced mentors. Mentors valued the opportunity to give back while mentees realized the importance of an objective third-party in further developing their projects toward effective launch.

Most recently, TakingITGlobal in conjunction with Microsoft Citizenship hosted a Project Launch Funding Competition whereby Sprout graduates from within the Microsoft Innovate for Good community could apply for a $1,000 USD grant, receive tailored coaching and access to a crowd funding opportunity - all to enable the implementation of their now polished social ventures.  A total of 11 entrepreneurs with projects based in Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, United States, and Vietnam have now received 8-weeks of coaching and advising. Of this group, 8 have launched crowd funding campaigns on Giveforyouth.org to raise key financial resources.

One such innovator is Ramses Lozano Rueda. Ramses is a tech-savvy socially-conscious youth from Mexico who is passionate about creating a culture of blood donation in his country. Hundreds of people die every day throughout the world because they are kept waiting for a blood transfusion that was never received. In Mexico out of one hundred and thirteen million Mexicans, 3% donate blood and from that 97% do it out of necessity. Solidariza-T is a mobile app that will help health institutions connect with prospective blood donors and offer cool rewards like discounts in restaurants, bookstores, cafes, and cinemas in order to raise the blood donation index. Ramses wants to break down the myths and fears about blood donation to ensure those who are in desperate need of this life-saving intervention can benefit. By giving rewards to donors, Solidariza-T will encourage people to donate, increasing the blood donation index and consequently, the capacity of hospitals to help patients.

Your financial gift has made it possible for young innovators like Ramses to create change in their communities. We are looking forward to sharing the outcome of their ventures with you. Thank you for your continued support.