Project Re-Generation: Ending Teen Idleness

Teens in Brooklyn turn away from guns, drugs and gang life thanks to the volunteer-based nonprofit founded by Barnabas Shakur. Since 2001, Project Re-Generation has attracted 5,000 volunteers who assist with legal services, career guidance, interview skills, and after school tutoring.  Shakur says the goodness of the community is what has made Project Re-Generation work.  While giving teenagers guidance is a priority, adults are encouraged to participate.
Programs for Teens:

• Foot Soldiers Program
• Knicks Poetry Program

Homeowners & Professionals Can Get Involved:

• Foot Soldiers Property Maintenance Services
• 1000 People whoBANG Professional Group Community Pride Day

Citywide, New York City faces a staggering 50% dropout rate. However, those involved in Project Re-Generation have 96% graduation rate, and many go on to pursue a university education.

The World Peace Game: Teaching Kids to Save the World

Devoted teacher, John Hunter found a way to allow students to resolve military conflicts and economic crisis in a classroom setting.  Hunter's The World Peace Game has "the goal to extricate each country from dangerous circumstances and achieve global prosperity with the least amount of military intervention." Students play on teams that represent different nations.

Children must wade through highly charged philosophical issues, identify ambiguity and bias in the information they receive.  They have to learn to understand what provokes antagonism and how to successfully deal with powerful enemies. Effective collaboration and refined communication becomes a skill for students navigating their way through the game.

The World Peace Game Foundation aims to help develop self-awareness in children and elevate their concept of world citizen:

The Foundation seeks to foster the concept of peace not as a utopian dream but as an attainable goal to strive for, and to stimulate the creative development of tools for this effort. It supports development of collaboration and communication skills for resolving and transforming conflicts, and the development of the skills of compromise, all while accommodating different perspectives and interests.

You can find out more about the Foundation's projects by visiting their website.

Harlem Children's Zone

Serving 17,000 children in a hundred block area, Harlem Children's Zone implements a new method to end the cycle of generational poverty. An entire community is empowered with information at the same time that the educational needs of the community's children are being met.  Parents learn developmental milestones to watch for and discover ways to turn ordinary life at home into an educational experience.

The Harlem Children's Zone sees families through a child's college experience.  Ninety percent of the nonprofit's high school participants go on to study on the university level. This incoming freshman class obtained over $6.4 million in scholarships and grants.

Mama Hope: Community, Hope & Progress in Africa

Africans and Americans come together in celebration of Mama Hope's Campaign: Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential. The organization believes the essential first step in changing the world is telling the story of connection instead of contrasting images of wealth and developing nations and showing human potential instead demoralizing poverty.

People everywhere have talent and capacity, and people everywhere share a desire to be able to use those gifts to improve their lives and the lives of the people they care about. To learn more about the projects we undertake to unlock this potential and get involved: ‪http://www.mamahope.org

Mama Hope was founded after Nyla Rodgers lost her mother and visited Kenya to visit a young man whose education was made possible by her mother's sponsorship.  Rodgers learned hundreds were actually helped through her mother's efforts.

Thus far, 76,000 people have benefited from Mama Hope projects in agriculture, food security, water, health, education, shelter, women’s empowerment and the environment.

Patrice Millet: a Life Rededicated to the Service of Haiti's Children

Patrice Millet survived life-threatening bone cancer and decided to do something different with his life.  The successful businessman sold his construction company to dedicate his life to the service of Haiti's children.  He founded the Foundation Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours (FONDAPS).

Millet's nonprofit organization uses sports to educate kids on fair play, teamwork, respect, love, and how to become a responsible, contributing citizen.  Poverty is pervasive in Haiti; so, FONDAPS offers a food program that addresses health and nutrition.  School tuition is also paid for youth whose parents cannot afford the fees. Besides offering sports, nutrition, and opportunities for education, FONDAPS makes regular donations to Haiti's orphanages and youth soccer clubs.

Millet has been nominated as a top 2011 CNN Hero.

Peer2Peer Tutors Impassioned in Education

Erik Kimel launched Peer2Peer Tutors as teenager.  At 16, he knew fellow students entrenched in academics were the best resource for struggling students.  Throughout college Kimel kept at the organization he founded and is now the CEO at age 25.  He not only provides academic help for kindergartners though college age but continues to employ youth as tutors starting at $12 an hour:

Peer2Peer also offers a sorely needed employment opportunity for young people, in an economic climate that has been especially tough on teens and college students. The tutoring company is poised to create 500 youth jobs. 

The organization is for-profit with a social mission.  Philanthropic efforts include donating 1% of its revenue to the communities it serves with free tutoring and services in Virginia and areas of Maryland and Connecticut tutoring Title 1 students free of charge.

Kenya Help, "Can ya help us?"

"Can ya help, us?" quipped Margo McAuliffe at a recent lecture for TED.  Http://kenyahelp.us is the website for the nonprofit McAuliffe established to address the educational needs of girls in Kenya.  After losing her husband, the recently retired math teacher began to daydream--seeing herself teaching in Africa.  She acted on her dreams and eventually raised more than a million dollars to open a girl's school in Kenya.

McAuliffe's first step was to visit a Catholic parish in the Naivasha District:

I interviewed 6 students whose circumstances were so dire that they were being sent home for lack of school fees. Their stories were heart wrenching: several had a single mom with no work; another’s mother worked in a stone quarry where she had been injured, breaking stones by hand. Her father was also unable to work. Several were orphans who had been taken in by family members unable to pay fees. One boy, highly recommended by his math teacher, had lost his father at about age 10 and had already been sent home. His mother had died at the exact time he was sitting for a crucial exam taken at the end of grade 8. His sister had tried to keep him in school, but had sickened while working at a flower farm and hadn’t been able to find other work. I told these students I was making no promises, but I would try to find sponsors for them.

Within a week after my return home, I had sponsors for all six! Even while I was in Kenya, “miracles” like that began to happen. Right before I left, I met a British woman who was a volunteer for Manos Unitas, a foundation based in Madrid whose mission was to fund programs for women and girls in Africa. It was just a few days after the still, small voice had spoken. Eventually Manos Unitas awarded us $55,000 to build 2 science labs.

McAuliffe credits a lot synchronicity and miracles in making the school possible.  She spends summers in Kenya teaching math.  Find out how you can help.

Starlight Children's Foundation

Starlight Children's Foundation has devoted their 30 year history to raising the quality of life of children facing serious diagnoses and devastating injuries.  Their programs center on entertainment, education, and family acitivities all offering coping strategies for the pain, fear, and isolation that often companions prolonged illnesses.  The foundation depends on the expertise of pediatrics, technology, and the arts to lift the lives of sick children and their families--seeing a child through diagnosis through the end of medical treatment.

Programs include:

• Starlight World-Teens connecting with other teens that are at home or in the hospital
• Great Escapes-Families enjoy ball games, cruises, picnics, spa days, and movie premieres
• Mobile Entertainment Centers-hospitalized children get access to DVD players and video game consoles
• PC Pals-laptops with educational software provided to hospitalized children

See more of the programs offered at Starlight (dot) org.  The foundation helped more than 4 million children in 2010.

Jones Valley Urban Farm: Seed 2 Plate Education

Seed 2 Plate from Edwin Marty on Vimeo.

Jones Valley Urban Farm grows more than fresh produce and flowers.  The nonprofit is sowing seeds of knowledge and harvesting a bounty of food literate young people in the Birmingham, Alabama area.  The organization developed more than 3 acres of vacant city property dedicating it organic farming and education on healthy food.

Jones Valley Urban Farm sells its produce at local farmers markets, restaurants, farm stands, and grocery stores.  The proceeds are used to support:

• Educational programs for children and adults, including: an accredited high school Agri-science program
• a K-8 nutrition education field trip program
• teacher workshops
• organic gardening and healthy lifestyle programs
• preschool gardening
• adult workshops
• community and nutrition programs
• internship opportunities for high-school, college, and graduate students
• community partnerships focusing on preventing childhood obesity
• hunger and access to healthy foods 
• sustainable agriculture 
• farm to school markets community composting

Jones Valley Urban Farm seeks to be "a model sustainable urban farm that teaches youth and the Birmingham community about sustainable agriculture and nutrition through outdoor experiential education."

Publicolor: Brightening Hopes, Inspiring Futures

Publicolor uses "color, collaboration, design, and the painting process to re-engage students in their education, schools and communities to ultimately transform them into productive members of our workforce."

Publicolor offers a full range of opportunities through their programs.  The nonprofit sponsors a Paint Club.  Students who participate in the Paint Club can become part of the COLOR Club which provides opportunities for leadership, learning to think critically about the future, and the opportunity to earn a stipend. Next Step Prep involves  middle school through high school kids in literacy immersion and SAT preparation.  Next Step works with high school juniors and seniors on college placement and mentoring..  The Fresh Coat Club revisits former Publicolor projects for touch-ups and allows students to earn an income.

You Can Adopt-a-Classroom

The nonprofit Adopt-A-Classroom (dot) org wants student success and sees empowering teachers as a way to make it happen.  With community partners and donor funds Adopt-a-Classroom sees that teachers have purchasing power to get the resources needed to make the most of the learning environment.

Donors have the opportunity to interact with a teacher throughout the school year.  So, people can see the difference they've made in the lives of students.

"In most instances, donors receive thank you packages, artwork and other student created projects. Donors may choose to support the classroom in ways beyond the financial contribution, such as visiting the classroom, chaperoning field trips and other activities that are coordinated directly between donor and teacher."

Adopt-A-Classroom directs 100% of all donations earmarked for classrooms to the classroom teacher

Loans for Impoverished Students Worldwide

Striving people of modest means inspire Kushal Chakrabarti.   His own parents taught him that education is the foundation for building a life.  As a tech developer for Amazon.com, Kushal was moved by the story of an Indian rickshaw driver devoting 30% of his income to put his children through school.

Kushal began brainstorming about how he could help finance the education of students in impoverished regions of the world.  Vittana was born.  For as little as $25, a college education can be financed.  And anyone can help make it happen by following these steps:

• Search for and choose a student in the developing world you would like to lend money to. 
• Make a loan for as little as $25 to the student through the Vittana website where 100% of your funds are delivered to the student.
• Using your loan, the student finishes college (or vocational school), gets a degree, and then gets a job.
• When the student repays, Vittana repays you the full amount of your loan. Use the money to make another loan.

Click here to get started.

Since 2008, Vittana has financed 1,000 students in 11 nations. And as Kushal believed would happen, 99 percent of the students have repaid their loans in full. 

Educational Opportunities for Child Laborers

Lotus Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to the education, health, and safety of vulnerable women and children in the developing world.

One area of focus is rural India where thousands of children work up to 16 hours a day making bricks.  The little ones are often migrant workers and overlooked for education because of their poverty.

Lotus Outreach funds scholarships for enrollment kits which buys school supplies, fees, uniforms, shoes and ensures transportation.

"Education is not only a fundamental right, but is the most powerful catalyst for human development: children with even the most basic levels of education have better life options, earning potential and health, and raise healthier children".

Lotus Outreach now also helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking and keeps at-risk students in school.

Children Without a Voice USA

Unlike cancer and a host of other diseases, child abuse is completely preventable.  In spite of the this, an American child is abused every ten seconds, and every 6 hours one dies as a result of abuse.  Children Without a Voice USA champions the cause of the nation's most vulnerable citizens, kids, because they deserve better.

Parenting classes, pre-school and elementary classes on staying safe, teen parenting classes, and free educational materials are part of the Children Without a Voice USA prevention effort.

Lin Seahorn, CWAV-USA's founder and a survivor of horrible abuse as a child, dedicates her life to raising awareness and preventing crimes against children, child abuse and neglect through advocacy and education. organization.

Rocking Music Education

Despite research which proves playing an instrument boosts overall academic performance, music education is often first to feel cuts when school budgets get lean.  Educator David Wish began offering after-school guitar lessons when music programs were eliminated at his school.  His efforts became wildly popular and eventually blossomed into the nonprofit, Little Kids Rock.

Wish dedicates his life to the restoration and revitalization of music education in U.S. public school systems.  His organization provides free instruments and music instruction to underserved schools around the nation.  K through 12 learn musical forms like rock, rap, blues, hip-hop.  Composing is stressed as much as recitation to inspire student creativity. The lessons interface with material on the Little Kids Rock website so that children have unfettered access to musical instruction.

Khan Academy: Free Worldwide Homework Help in Math

Former Hedge Fund analyst Sal Khan put homework help in math on YouTube for his cousins, and a funny thing happened.  Students around the world started responding that they appreciated the explanations, they understood.  The virtue of video help in Math is that kids can rewind to review.  There's no feeling bad for not understanding the first time.  Students advance at their own pace.

What started out as help for family has grown into a library of 2,100 videos and 100 self-paced exercises ranging from basic math to vector analysis, physics, chemistry, finance, and history.  The website is Khan Academy. 

The Khan Academy won Google's Project 10 to the 100 of ideas to change the world and is now an IRS-recognized 501c3 not-for-profit organization.

Kaboom! Ready, Set, Play!!!

Less than half of American children have a playground within walking distance of their homes, and 61% of Americans say simple lack of access is a barrier to their children frequenting a playground.  Did you know playtime is essential to child's well-being?  Play promotes learning, physical fitness, social development, and creativity according to experts.


Darell Hammond and Dawn Hutchison started KaBoom! with the vision of a play space within walking distance of every child in America. The organization has built close to 2,000 playgrounds promoting playtime for 3.5 million children.  The video spotlights just one of KaBoom!'s many endeavors. 


Learn more about KaBOOM! at kaboom.org.

Education to Empower: How Philosophy Opens Intellectual Horizons for Children

Imagine young scholars, your own children, or kids you know engaging in a philosophical discussion. Education to Empower brings philosophical inquiry to classrooms allowing teachers to empower and inspire students by encouraging them to reason, communicate, and think creatively.

From the Education to Empower website:

Clackmannanshire Council in Central Scotland pioneered the teaching of philosophical inquiry in primary schools when it introduced the subject in some of its most run-down areas six years ago.

An initial study carried out in 2003-04 showed that children aged five to 11 who were taught so-called "philosophical inquiry" showed intelligence gains of more than seven IQ points.

Here you can view elementary school age children doing philosophy. 

Since education serves as the very foundation of society, Education to Empower believes good academics necessarily include excitement and the full flourishing and realization of a child's intellectual potential.

You can follow Education to Empower on Facebook.

Education to Empower is an emerging 501 (C) (3) nonprofit.

Gridiron Heroes: Life After Spinal Cord Injuries

Life after catastrophic injuries can seem insurmountable for the young athletes who survive such trauma.  One in every 100,000 high school football players faces a serious spinal cord injury each year. Gridiron Heroes Spinal Cord Injury Foundation aims to help students face the challenges that come whether it's physically, emotionally, mentally, or financially.

Gridiron Heroes founders have a very personal story that led to the creation of this 501 (C) 3 Non-Profit.  They provide immediate and long term support to individuals sustaining a catastrophic spinal cord injury associated with high school football.  The organization, although based in Texas, has made efforts to expand their support around the U.S.

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Skater Girls in Afghanistan

Being a girl in Afghanistan can mean few opportunities for education, but Skateistan is helping to eliminate gender inequalities. The project draws children away from lives spent begging and into an educational setting where devotion to academics earn a student the chance to train as skateboarders.

Australia's Oliver Percovich and Sharna Nolan introduced skateboarding to youth in Afghanistan, and it never occurred to the girls they met that skateboarding couldn't be for them.  Percovich now directs Skateistan as a co-educational and sports complex.

Check out the website to find out more about the program, or to volunteer, work, or donate.