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2006 YouthBridge Award
Created in 1995, St. Louis ArtWorks has served more than 1,200 teens by providing a unique job opportunity in the visual, literary and performing arts. Youths are hired for six weeks each summer and 10 weeks in the fall and spring as apprentices with some of the region's most notable artists. During the inaugural YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition (SEIC) program, the St. Louis ArtWorks’ team developed the concept of the Boomerang Press, a teen-powered social enterprise to create, produce and sell a line of note and greeting cards. The proposed Boomerang Press would employ at-risk youths in a year-round training and apprenticeship program, teach them art and business skills and provide an earned income stream for ArtWorks.
After winning the 2006 competition, the Boomerang Press became a reality, and YouthBridge invested in the social enterprise. ArtWorks has grown by 60 percent with plans to employ 210 young artists by 2010. “While the numbers of youth are significant, the real value of the program is the positive impact it has had on the apprentices, 70% of whom have gone to college or art related careers, including the Art Institutes of Kansas City, Chicago and San Francisco.” ArtWorks Executive Director Priscilla Block said of the new social enterprise.
In 2008, the St. Louis region was named one of ten "All America" cities by the National Civic League. St. Louis was cited for three projects - one being St. Louis ArtWorks/Boomerang Press. This recognition resulted in additional commissions for cards and other work.
Read student testimonials at www.stlartworks.org/About/Testimonials.aspx for the full impact St. Louis ArtWorks is making on its student apprentices or to read more at www.stlartworks.org.
miriam Learning Center
Miriam Foundation has operated an elementary school in St. Louis for children
with special learning challenges for many years. CEO Andy Thorp attended the YouthBridge
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition at Washington University
with the concept of using their current building to provide off-hour speech,
vocational and physical therapy for their students. The need was obvious to Andy after he
observed that many families were driving their children to multiple locations around
the city to get these services after school.
The Miriam
Center became a reality
after Andy and his team were prizewinners at the YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and
Innovation Competition (SEIC). The
Center, now a successful social enterprise, operates after school, in the evenings
and on weekends to provide much needed services to families with the extra
benefit of producing much needed operational revenue.
Our collaboration continues and YouthBridge is now engaged in
an Endowment Building effort with Miriam. This effort
includes developing a plan to help them increase their endowment, train their board
and staff and assist in making solicitation calls. 2009 was a very difficult year to begin this
effort, yet it resulted in nearly $1,000,000 in commitments to Miriam and laid
the foundation for much bigger things in the future.
Read more about the Miriam Learning Center at http://www.miriamlearningcenter.org/content/index.html.
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2007 YouthBridge Award
The Bridge
2008 YouthBridge Award
StudioSTL
The 2008 winner of the YouthBridge grant was StudioSTL led by Beth Ketcher. Studio STL empowers youth by helping them
discover, develop, and celebrate their individual voices through writing. All of
their programs are based on our belief that a literary toolbox and writing skills
- whether for fun, for school, in personal and professional life - are
indispensable lifelong gifts.
At StudioSTL, they bring writers together with youth, ages
6 to 18, to partner on one-of-a-kind writing projects. Since 2005, the
StudioSTL writing community has worked with more than 300 St. Louis youth to publish
two bound books, five newspapers (5000 circulation) and two magazines (1000
circulation). They've proudly shared their written work at poetry
readings, on radio, at launch parties and author signings. And perhaps best of
all, they've become part of the StudioSTL writing community, continuing to pen
brilliant written works. They create, imagine, dream, ponder and question --
all in a nurturing writer's haven -- where they learn a bit more about writing
and lots more about themselves. We're proud of our StudioSTL and their writers and their volunteer
community whose unending dedication make possible their free writing programs.
To read more about StudioSTL, visit http://www.studiostl.org.
2009 YouthBridge Award
Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition:
The Exchange
The winner of the 2009 YouthBridge SEIC YouthBridge Award was The Exchange, a proposed resale shop of the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition. The Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition is a non-profit agency,
founded in 1989 with the support of the
United
Way of Greater St.
Louis.
The Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition does two things:
- Recruitment: We are one of the area’s largest
recruiter of foster/adoptive homes because of our partnerships with the local
media, including KSDK and 13 local
newspapers.
- Resource Center: Foster and adoptive parenting is a
rewarding—but demanding—job. We offer many supports to parents,
including support groups, training,
advocacy, newsletters, a resale
shop, and the Little Wishes program.
The Coalition consists of 38 member agencies, including the area’s
most-respected public and private agencies. Our staff
is made up of foster/adoptive parents and child welfare professionals with a
broad range of expertise. As a non-profit, 501(c)(3)
agency, we are overseen by a Board of Directors. The board is made
up of a variety of corporate and child welfare representatives, many of whom
are foster/adoptive parents. For more information on how you can help make The Exchange a reality or to read about the Featured Child of the Week, go to http://www.foster-adopt.org/.
2010 YouthBridge Award  One Percent Foundation
(OPF) received a total of $50,000 in grants with awards from the
YouthBridge Community Foundation ($35,000), the Skandalaris Center ($10,000) and
the student entrepreneur award ($5,000) to OPF co-founder and Olin MBA student Jonathan Kauffman.
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