Dream it. Do it. Supporting young people with $1000 USD to launch social entrepreneurial ventures in Second Life.

[Global Kids]

The Dream It. Do It. Initiative (D.I.D.I.) is an exciting partnership between Global Kids and Ashoka’s Youth Venture. Through January of 2009, the D.I.D.I. Initiative is supporting up to 40 teams of young people to launch ventures that benefit their communities, either within or outside the virtual world of Second Life. This initiative is open to young people and student groups in Second Life.

We would very much appreciate it if you could help us to promote this opportunity to your student groups and networks.

Overview:

D.I.D.I. empowers young people to identify social and health issues in their communities and to create and lead their own social ventures to address these issues. A venture can be a club, organization, business, or program that is ongoing and benefits one’s community in some way. With the D.I.D.I. Initiative’s support, each team of young people develops an action plan to design and launch their own social entrepreneurial projects. When the teams are ready to launch, the Initiative offers:

-Seed funding (up to $1,000 per team)
-Technical allies to provide additional advice and expertise
-Ongoing tools and support sessions

Over the last several months more than a dozen teams on the teen grid have been selected to receive venture funding. Venture ideas are varied with the majority of teens planning ventures to benefit their Teen Second Life community. Examples include:

-Raising awareness of human rights campaigns
-Creating interactive human body health rides that teach visiting users about the risks of smoking and drugs
-Combating bullying and cyber-bullying while raising self-esteem
-Creating peer support centers for teens who are new to Teen Second Life or may have disabilities.



With your help, we hope to launch 40 teams of young Venturers over the next four months. We would like to reach as many young people across the U.S. as possible with this exciting initiative, and hope you will join us.

If you are a young college-aged resident of Second Life or an educator working with young people on SL's main grid you are invited to attend one of our info sessions to be held at the Global Kids HQ in Second Life at the following times:

Thursday 9/18, 1pm PDT
Thursday 9/18, 6pm PDT
Friday 9/19, 12pm PDT

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/222/165/24


For more information please feel free to send a message to Global Kids on RezEd.org



Ashoka’s Youth Venture leads an international community of young people who are powerful now, changemakers now. Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people to create and launch their own sustainable, community-benefiting Ventures and then connects them into a global movement of young changemakers who are together redefining the youth years as a time of leadership and positive social change. This is the foundation of an Everyone a Changemaker™ world - the key factor for success in every part of society.



Global Kids, a non-profit organization based in New York City, is dedicated to developing youth to become global citizens and community leaders. In 2006, Global Kids became the first nonprofit to develop a dedicated space for conducting programming in the virtual world of Teen Second Life (TSL). Within TSL, the organization has established the D.I.D.I. Initiative Island, which hosts interactive, experiential programs for teens from around the world.

[Vanessa Persaud]

Great Venture. Add me in tooo...Our kids are our future !