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Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows After conducting a rigorous selection process, Ashoka is pleased to present its 2000–2003 U.S. Fellows. Each of the individuals below has a powerful new approach to solving one of our country’s most intractable social problems. If you would like to learn more about each of these remarkable individuals, feel free to contact us. Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
http://www.civicventures.org/index.cfm Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows
Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. David Green
David Green is transforming the development and delivery of health care technologies to the global south. Dissatisfied with the reigning paradigm where developing countries who are most in need of these technologies are unable to procure them David is creating a sustainable model where developing countries themselves produce high-quality products and distribute them in a manner that results in a high degree of service and affordability for the end user. Having already directed the successful production and dissemination of two products intraocular lenses and surgical sutures which have impacted millions of people, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute a top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, robust, and locally maintainable hearing aid. Renae Griggs Renae Griggs
As the nation followed the news last year of the murder-suicide by the Tacoma, WA, police chief who killed his wife and then himself, Renae Griggs was more determined than ever to address the underlying causes of violence and abuse within the law enforcement community. The statistics are disturbing: The rate of domestic violence in families of law enforcement in the United States may be as high as twice the national average. For every police officer killed in the line of duty, three more take their own lives annually. Griggs, a decorated SWAT officer and major crimes detective, launched the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project to address the underlying causes of violence to help officers and their families through departmental policies, community-based trainings, mental health advocacy and other efforts to prevent abuse before it escalates. Darell Hammond Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Van Jones
Van Jones is creating dramatically higher standards of accountability for the criminal justice system through a pioneering, multi-pronged approach that turns and keeps the public spotlight on its practices. To counter police harassment, he has set up a hotline and lawyer referral service for victims. To address the ballooning prison industry, he has designed and is beginning to launch a broad campaign “Books, Not Bars” that calls for a reallocation of resources from incarceration to education. And through a number of affiliated organizations that he helped launch, Van is giving voice for the first time to the youth most affected by the lapses of this system while broadening its appeal to make it everyone’s issue. Tammy Krause Tammy Krause
Tammy Krause has witnessed first-hand the negative impact capital punishment cases have on the families of victims. From the Oklahoma City bombing trial in the mid-1990s to the case of the “D.C. Sniper,” Tammy has fought to protect the interests and rights of the victims’ families. Through JustBridges National Clearinghouse, she offers programs and trainings that allow victims to play a stronger role in the trial process, interacting with both defense and prosecuting attorneys to ensure their concerns are heard and respected. A key component of her approach is the training offered to attorneys, including federal public defenders and federal judges, stressing the value of actively engaging surviving family members and friends throughout the litigation process and not limiting them to statements during the penalty phase. Carolyn Laub
Carolyn Laub is creating a safer middle and high-school environment for students who frequently face ridicule and abuse because of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. By encouraging the development of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on campuses, Carolyn is building a youth-led network of organizations to form a united front against stereotypes and discrimination in their schools and communities. This activist youth development model goes beyond the traditional support model, setting an example for schools and students across the nation. Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows
Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. David Green
David Green is transforming the development and delivery of health care technologies to the global south. Dissatisfied with the reigning paradigm where developing countries who are most in need of these technologies are unable to procure them David is creating a sustainable model where developing countries themselves produce high-quality products and distribute them in a manner that results in a high degree of service and affordability for the end user. Having already directed the successful production and dissemination of two products intraocular lenses and surgical sutures which have impacted millions of people, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute a top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, robust, and locally maintainable hearing aid. Renae Griggs Renae Griggs
As the nation followed the news last year of the murder-suicide by the Tacoma, WA, police chief who killed his wife and then himself, Renae Griggs was more determined than ever to address the underlying causes of violence and abuse within the law enforcement community. The statistics are disturbing: The rate of domestic violence in families of law enforcement in the United States may be as high as twice the national average. For every police officer killed in the line of duty, three more take their own lives annually. Griggs, a decorated SWAT officer and major crimes detective, launched the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project to address the underlying causes of violence to help officers and their families through departmental policies, community-based trainings, mental health advocacy and other efforts to prevent abuse before it escalates. Darell Hammond Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Van Jones
Van Jones is creating dramatically higher standards of accountability for the criminal justice system through a pioneering, multi-pronged approach that turns and keeps the public spotlight on its practices. To counter police harassment, he has set up a hotline and lawyer referral service for victims. To address the ballooning prison industry, he has designed and is beginning to launch a broad campaign “Books, Not Bars” that calls for a reallocation of resources from incarceration to education. And through a number of affiliated organizations that he helped launch, Van is giving voice for the first time to the youth most affected by the lapses of this system while broadening its appeal to make it everyone’s issue. Tammy Krause Tammy Krause
Tammy Krause has witnessed first-hand the negative impact capital punishment cases have on the families of victims. From the Oklahoma City bombing trial in the mid-1990s to the case of the “D.C. Sniper,” Tammy has fought to protect the interests and rights of the victims’ families. Through JustBridges National Clearinghouse, she offers programs and trainings that allow victims to play a stronger role in the trial process, interacting with both defense and prosecuting attorneys to ensure their concerns are heard and respected. A key component of her approach is the training offered to attorneys, including federal public defenders and federal judges, stressing the value of actively engaging surviving family members and friends throughout the litigation process and not limiting them to statements during the penalty phase. Carolyn Laub
Carolyn Laub is creating a safer middle and high-school environment for students who frequently face ridicule and abuse because of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. By encouraging the development of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on campuses, Carolyn is building a youth-led network of organizations to form a united front against stereotypes and discrimination in their schools and communities. This activist youth development model goes beyond the traditional support model, setting an example for schools and students across the nation. Matthew Lee
Matthew Lee is holding financial institutions worldwide accountable to the principles of ethical and community reinvestment through a system that challenges their inequitable lending practices. Using the Community Reinvestment Act in the U.S., he has leveraged millions of dollars in loan and credit commitments to low income communities. Amy Lemley
When teenagers “age out” of foster care, they rarely have anywhere to live or any means to support themselves. First Place guides former foster youth through this critical transition by providing micro-loans to secure affordable housing, while supplying training and support to address employment and educational needs. Amy is also leading the effort to transform the foster care system at the local, state and national level. Kevin Long
Kevin Long is providing unprecedented opportunities for deaf people in developing countries, who have never had the education, encouragement or support necessary to succeed. Global Deaf Connection combines multi-cultural exchange, support, and mentoring programs to ensure that deaf students succeed in school. GDC then helps deaf professionals who have completed their education to find meaningful work, often in deaf schools, where they continue the cycle of support and success. Aleta Margolis
Aleta Margolis is revitalizing public school through a unique teacher-training methodology that enables teachers to examine their individual teaching styles and develop more creative and effective ways to teach. Using her skill as a performer and educator, Aleta helps teachers identify their own creative style and provides concrete tools to operationalize this style. To keep teachers involved beyond her training courses, Aleta has created a peer network that helps them maintain their enthusiasm and constantly improve. In 1995, she launched The Center for Artistry in Teaching in Washington, D.C. and since then she has trained nearly 1,000 teachers in urban schools in the art of teaching, inspiring them to transform their classrooms into exciting, engaging learning environments. Joseph Marshall
Dianna Ortiz
Dianna Ortiz is creating international communities of healing for torture survivors to regain their sense of trust and community. Through this innovative process, survivors are empowered to lead and become powerful voices in the international campaign to end torture. Her strategy focuses on reconnecting survivors to their communities and in doing so, influences, through education and lobbying, the institutions and individuals capable of shaping national and international policies on torture. Jeff Palmer Jeff Palmer
Jeff Palmer has created care management and prescription discount programs specifically tailored to low-income and underserved populations that provide preventive care to high-risk patients before they become seriously ill. Through Coordinated Care Network (CCN), savings are realized by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, surgeries and emergency room visits, then reapplied to finance health care for the uninsured. Deeply discounted medications also are made available through CCN. By implementing real-time “physician dispensing” systems at clinics, providing mail order services for refills, and purchasing medications through a Federal discount program, CCN has saved uninsured patients an average of 90 percent per prescription. Since its inception, CCN has enrolled 10,000 patients, reduced hospitalizations by 24 percent and contracted with 45 clinics to implement the prescription discount program. D.J. Powers
D.J. Powers is increasing the availability and affordability of basic economic services (i.e. credit, insurance, and telephone service) to low-income and minority Americans by shining a spotlight on the practices and abuses of state administrative agencies and the industries they regulate. With a unique blend of high-level legal, economic, and media expertise, D.J. is correcting the imbalance of low-income consumer representation at state agencies and opening previously unexamined industries to public scrutiny and debate. In the past four years, D.J. has secured access and hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for individuals in his home state of Texas and now has a plan to spread throughout the U.S. Paul Rice
Paul Rice’s TransFair USA is transforming global trading policies and establishing “fair trade-organic” as an industry standard for products (starting with coffee) grown in developing countries. Raised in a farm-working family, who supported his entrepreneurial ventures early on, Paul traveled the world to gain hands-on knowledge about rural development and agricultural economics in third-world nations. During these travels, he witnessed the injustice of small landowners, who grow roughly half of the world’s coffee and reap a miniscule portion of the profits. Paul’s TransFair USA is the sole U.S. fair trade certifier that ensures environmental and economic justice. Through partnerships with industry leaders like Starbucks, and consumer advocates groups, Paul created market demand for fair trade and organic coffee products. Since its founding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, TransFair USA has established fair trade as the fastest growing niche in specialty coffee and made an irreversible impact on the $18 billion U.S. coffee industry. Please see article on fair trade coffee on Changemakers.net. Larry Rosenstock
Larry Rosenstock is one of the United States’ most highly recognized innovators in public education, having successfully led four major education reform initiatives in his 30+ year career in education and the law. Currently, Larry is working on his fifth major reform effort as Founder, CEO, and Principal of High Tech High, a new concept in urban education that fuses traditional liberal arts curricula with innovative, hands-on learning projects for all students regardless of the socio-economic status and educational background of their parents. High Tech High eliminates traditional boundaries between �technical� education (usually for low-income youth) and traditional college prep, liberal arts-style secondary education (typically provided to well-off students). In its place, HTH offers a highly stimulating educational environment that encourages students to immerse themselves in real-world career experiences. At HTH students become prepared for the world of work, and at the same time, they surpass traditional benchmarks of academic success: HTH students have scored far better than their urban counterparts on traditional, standardized tests and college entrance exams. Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows
Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. David Green
David Green is transforming the development and delivery of health care technologies to the global south. Dissatisfied with the reigning paradigm where developing countries who are most in need of these technologies are unable to procure them David is creating a sustainable model where developing countries themselves produce high-quality products and distribute them in a manner that results in a high degree of service and affordability for the end user. Having already directed the successful production and dissemination of two products intraocular lenses and surgical sutures which have impacted millions of people, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute a top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, robust, and locally maintainable hearing aid. Renae Griggs Renae Griggs
As the nation followed the news last year of the murder-suicide by the Tacoma, WA, police chief who killed his wife and then himself, Renae Griggs was more determined than ever to address the underlying causes of violence and abuse within the law enforcement community. The statistics are disturbing: The rate of domestic violence in families of law enforcement in the United States may be as high as twice the national average. For every police officer killed in the line of duty, three more take their own lives annually. Griggs, a decorated SWAT officer and major crimes detective, launched the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project to address the underlying causes of violence to help officers and their families through departmental policies, community-based trainings, mental health advocacy and other efforts to prevent abuse before it escalates. Darell Hammond Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Van Jones
Van Jones is creating dramatically higher standards of accountability for the criminal justice system through a pioneering, multi-pronged approach that turns and keeps the public spotlight on its practices. To counter police harassment, he has set up a hotline and lawyer referral service for victims. To address the ballooning prison industry, he has designed and is beginning to launch a broad campaign “Books, Not Bars” that calls for a reallocation of resources from incarceration to education. And through a number of affiliated organizations that he helped launch, Van is giving voice for the first time to the youth most affected by the lapses of this system while broadening its appeal to make it everyone’s issue. Tammy Krause Tammy Krause
Tammy Krause has witnessed first-hand the negative impact capital punishment cases have on the families of victims. From the Oklahoma City bombing trial in the mid-1990s to the case of the “D.C. Sniper,” Tammy has fought to protect the interests and rights of the victims’ families. Through JustBridges National Clearinghouse, she offers programs and trainings that allow victims to play a stronger role in the trial process, interacting with both defense and prosecuting attorneys to ensure their concerns are heard and respected. A key component of her approach is the training offered to attorneys, including federal public defenders and federal judges, stressing the value of actively engaging surviving family members and friends throughout the litigation process and not limiting them to statements during the penalty phase. Carolyn Laub
Carolyn Laub is creating a safer middle and high-school environment for students who frequently face ridicule and abuse because of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. By encouraging the development of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on campuses, Carolyn is building a youth-led network of organizations to form a united front against stereotypes and discrimination in their schools and communities. This activist youth development model goes beyond the traditional support model, setting an example for schools and students across the nation. Matthew Lee
Matthew Lee is holding financial institutions worldwide accountable to the principles of ethical and community reinvestment through a system that challenges their inequitable lending practices. Using the Community Reinvestment Act in the U.S., he has leveraged millions of dollars in loan and credit commitments to low income communities. Amy Lemley
When teenagers “age out” of foster care, they rarely have anywhere to live or any means to support themselves. First Place guides former foster youth through this critical transition by providing micro-loans to secure affordable housing, while supplying training and support to address employment and educational needs. Amy is also leading the effort to transform the foster care system at the local, state and national level. Kevin Long
Kevin Long is providing unprecedented opportunities for deaf people in developing countries, who have never had the education, encouragement or support necessary to succeed. Global Deaf Connection combines multi-cultural exchange, support, and mentoring programs to ensure that deaf students succeed in school. GDC then helps deaf professionals who have completed their education to find meaningful work, often in deaf schools, where they continue the cycle of support and success. Aleta Margolis
Aleta Margolis is revitalizing public school through a unique teacher-training methodology that enables teachers to examine their individual teaching styles and develop more creative and effective ways to teach. Using her skill as a performer and educator, Aleta helps teachers identify their own creative style and provides concrete tools to operationalize this style. To keep teachers involved beyond her training courses, Aleta has created a peer network that helps them maintain their enthusiasm and constantly improve. In 1995, she launched The Center for Artistry in Teaching in Washington, D.C. and since then she has trained nearly 1,000 teachers in urban schools in the art of teaching, inspiring them to transform their classrooms into exciting, engaging learning environments. Joseph Marshall
Dianna Ortiz
Dianna Ortiz is creating international communities of healing for torture survivors to regain their sense of trust and community. Through this innovative process, survivors are empowered to lead and become powerful voices in the international campaign to end torture. Her strategy focuses on reconnecting survivors to their communities and in doing so, influences, through education and lobbying, the institutions and individuals capable of shaping national and international policies on torture. Jeff Palmer Jeff Palmer
Jeff Palmer has created care management and prescription discount programs specifically tailored to low-income and underserved populations that provide preventive care to high-risk patients before they become seriously ill. Through Coordinated Care Network (CCN), savings are realized by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, surgeries and emergency room visits, then reapplied to finance health care for the uninsured. Deeply discounted medications also are made available through CCN. By implementing real-time “physician dispensing” systems at clinics, providing mail order services for refills, and purchasing medications through a Federal discount program, CCN has saved uninsured patients an average of 90 percent per prescription. Since its inception, CCN has enrolled 10,000 patients, reduced hospitalizations by 24 percent and contracted with 45 clinics to implement the prescription discount program. D.J. Powers
D.J. Powers is increasing the availability and affordability of basic economic services (i.e. credit, insurance, and telephone service) to low-income and minority Americans by shining a spotlight on the practices and abuses of state administrative agencies and the industries they regulate. With a unique blend of high-level legal, economic, and media expertise, D.J. is correcting the imbalance of low-income consumer representation at state agencies and opening previously unexamined industries to public scrutiny and debate. In the past four years, D.J. has secured access and hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for individuals in his home state of Texas and now has a plan to spread throughout the U.S. Paul Rice
Paul Rice’s TransFair USA is transforming global trading policies and establishing “fair trade-organic” as an industry standard for products (starting with coffee) grown in developing countries. Raised in a farm-working family, who supported his entrepreneurial ventures early on, Paul traveled the world to gain hands-on knowledge about rural development and agricultural economics in third-world nations. During these travels, he witnessed the injustice of small landowners, who grow roughly half of the world’s coffee and reap a miniscule portion of the profits. Paul’s TransFair USA is the sole U.S. fair trade certifier that ensures environmental and economic justice. Through partnerships with industry leaders like Starbucks, and consumer advocates groups, Paul created market demand for fair trade and organic coffee products. Since its founding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, TransFair USA has established fair trade as the fastest growing niche in specialty coffee and made an irreversible impact on the $18 billion U.S. coffee industry. Please see article on fair trade coffee on Changemakers.net. Larry Rosenstock
Larry Rosenstock is one of the United States’ most highly recognized innovators in public education, having successfully led four major education reform initiatives in his 30+ year career in education and the law. Currently, Larry is working on his fifth major reform effort as Founder, CEO, and Principal of High Tech High, a new concept in urban education that fuses traditional liberal arts curricula with innovative, hands-on learning projects for all students regardless of the socio-economic status and educational background of their parents. High Tech High eliminates traditional boundaries between �technical� education (usually for low-income youth) and traditional college prep, liberal arts-style secondary education (typically provided to well-off students). In its place, HTH offers a highly stimulating educational environment that encourages students to immerse themselves in real-world career experiences. At HTH students become prepared for the world of work, and at the same time, they surpass traditional benchmarks of academic success: HTH students have scored far better than their urban counterparts on traditional, standardized tests and college entrance exams. Steve Rothschild
Steve Rothschild is enabling people to move out of poverty by training them for living wage jobs using a rewards-based incentive system. Participants enroll in a rigorous, sixteen-week training program, followed by a year commitment with one of Twin Cities’ customer companies. The customer company pays a fee for each graduate, enabling Twin Cities RISE! to be self-sustaining and the business to have a greater pool of trained employees retaining their employment at 84 percent. In turn, the state government provides the business with a tax credit in recognition of the increasing tax revenue and decreasing need for public subsidies this system creates. Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows
Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. David Green
David Green is transforming the development and delivery of health care technologies to the global south. Dissatisfied with the reigning paradigm where developing countries who are most in need of these technologies are unable to procure them David is creating a sustainable model where developing countries themselves produce high-quality products and distribute them in a manner that results in a high degree of service and affordability for the end user. Having already directed the successful production and dissemination of two products intraocular lenses and surgical sutures which have impacted millions of people, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute a top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, robust, and locally maintainable hearing aid. Renae Griggs Renae Griggs
As the nation followed the news last year of the murder-suicide by the Tacoma, WA, police chief who killed his wife and then himself, Renae Griggs was more determined than ever to address the underlying causes of violence and abuse within the law enforcement community. The statistics are disturbing: The rate of domestic violence in families of law enforcement in the United States may be as high as twice the national average. For every police officer killed in the line of duty, three more take their own lives annually. Griggs, a decorated SWAT officer and major crimes detective, launched the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project to address the underlying causes of violence to help officers and their families through departmental policies, community-based trainings, mental health advocacy and other efforts to prevent abuse before it escalates. Darell Hammond Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Van Jones
Van Jones is creating dramatically higher standards of accountability for the criminal justice system through a pioneering, multi-pronged approach that turns and keeps the public spotlight on its practices. To counter police harassment, he has set up a hotline and lawyer referral service for victims. To address the ballooning prison industry, he has designed and is beginning to launch a broad campaign “Books, Not Bars” that calls for a reallocation of resources from incarceration to education. And through a number of affiliated organizations that he helped launch, Van is giving voice for the first time to the youth most affected by the lapses of this system while broadening its appeal to make it everyone’s issue. Tammy Krause Tammy Krause
Tammy Krause has witnessed first-hand the negative impact capital punishment cases have on the families of victims. From the Oklahoma City bombing trial in the mid-1990s to the case of the “D.C. Sniper,” Tammy has fought to protect the interests and rights of the victims’ families. Through JustBridges National Clearinghouse, she offers programs and trainings that allow victims to play a stronger role in the trial process, interacting with both defense and prosecuting attorneys to ensure their concerns are heard and respected. A key component of her approach is the training offered to attorneys, including federal public defenders and federal judges, stressing the value of actively engaging surviving family members and friends throughout the litigation process and not limiting them to statements during the penalty phase. Carolyn Laub
Carolyn Laub is creating a safer middle and high-school environment for students who frequently face ridicule and abuse because of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. By encouraging the development of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on campuses, Carolyn is building a youth-led network of organizations to form a united front against stereotypes and discrimination in their schools and communities. This activist youth development model goes beyond the traditional support model, setting an example for schools and students across the nation. Matthew Lee
Matthew Lee is holding financial institutions worldwide accountable to the principles of ethical and community reinvestment through a system that challenges their inequitable lending practices. Using the Community Reinvestment Act in the U.S., he has leveraged millions of dollars in loan and credit commitments to low income communities. Amy Lemley
When teenagers “age out” of foster care, they rarely have anywhere to live or any means to support themselves. First Place guides former foster youth through this critical transition by providing micro-loans to secure affordable housing, while supplying training and support to address employment and educational needs. Amy is also leading the effort to transform the foster care system at the local, state and national level. Kevin Long
Kevin Long is providing unprecedented opportunities for deaf people in developing countries, who have never had the education, encouragement or support necessary to succeed. Global Deaf Connection combines multi-cultural exchange, support, and mentoring programs to ensure that deaf students succeed in school. GDC then helps deaf professionals who have completed their education to find meaningful work, often in deaf schools, where they continue the cycle of support and success. Aleta Margolis
Aleta Margolis is revitalizing public school through a unique teacher-training methodology that enables teachers to examine their individual teaching styles and develop more creative and effective ways to teach. Using her skill as a performer and educator, Aleta helps teachers identify their own creative style and provides concrete tools to operationalize this style. To keep teachers involved beyond her training courses, Aleta has created a peer network that helps them maintain their enthusiasm and constantly improve. In 1995, she launched The Center for Artistry in Teaching in Washington, D.C. and since then she has trained nearly 1,000 teachers in urban schools in the art of teaching, inspiring them to transform their classrooms into exciting, engaging learning environments. Joseph Marshall
Dianna Ortiz
Dianna Ortiz is creating international communities of healing for torture survivors to regain their sense of trust and community. Through this innovative process, survivors are empowered to lead and become powerful voices in the international campaign to end torture. Her strategy focuses on reconnecting survivors to their communities and in doing so, influences, through education and lobbying, the institutions and individuals capable of shaping national and international policies on torture. Jeff Palmer Jeff Palmer
Jeff Palmer has created care management and prescription discount programs specifically tailored to low-income and underserved populations that provide preventive care to high-risk patients before they become seriously ill. Through Coordinated Care Network (CCN), savings are realized by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, surgeries and emergency room visits, then reapplied to finance health care for the uninsured. Deeply discounted medications also are made available through CCN. By implementing real-time “physician dispensing” systems at clinics, providing mail order services for refills, and purchasing medications through a Federal discount program, CCN has saved uninsured patients an average of 90 percent per prescription. Since its inception, CCN has enrolled 10,000 patients, reduced hospitalizations by 24 percent and contracted with 45 clinics to implement the prescription discount program. D.J. Powers
D.J. Powers is increasing the availability and affordability of basic economic services (i.e. credit, insurance, and telephone service) to low-income and minority Americans by shining a spotlight on the practices and abuses of state administrative agencies and the industries they regulate. With a unique blend of high-level legal, economic, and media expertise, D.J. is correcting the imbalance of low-income consumer representation at state agencies and opening previously unexamined industries to public scrutiny and debate. In the past four years, D.J. has secured access and hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for individuals in his home state of Texas and now has a plan to spread throughout the U.S. Paul Rice
Paul Rice’s TransFair USA is transforming global trading policies and establishing “fair trade-organic” as an industry standard for products (starting with coffee) grown in developing countries. Raised in a farm-working family, who supported his entrepreneurial ventures early on, Paul traveled the world to gain hands-on knowledge about rural development and agricultural economics in third-world nations. During these travels, he witnessed the injustice of small landowners, who grow roughly half of the world’s coffee and reap a miniscule portion of the profits. Paul’s TransFair USA is the sole U.S. fair trade certifier that ensures environmental and economic justice. Through partnerships with industry leaders like Starbucks, and consumer advocates groups, Paul created market demand for fair trade and organic coffee products. Since its founding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, TransFair USA has established fair trade as the fastest growing niche in specialty coffee and made an irreversible impact on the $18 billion U.S. coffee industry. Please see article on fair trade coffee on Changemakers.net. Larry Rosenstock
Larry Rosenstock is one of the United States’ most highly recognized innovators in public education, having successfully led four major education reform initiatives in his 30+ year career in education and the law. Currently, Larry is working on his fifth major reform effort as Founder, CEO, and Principal of High Tech High, a new concept in urban education that fuses traditional liberal arts curricula with innovative, hands-on learning projects for all students regardless of the socio-economic status and educational background of their parents. High Tech High eliminates traditional boundaries between �technical� education (usually for low-income youth) and traditional college prep, liberal arts-style secondary education (typically provided to well-off students). In its place, HTH offers a highly stimulating educational environment that encourages students to immerse themselves in real-world career experiences. At HTH students become prepared for the world of work, and at the same time, they surpass traditional benchmarks of academic success: HTH students have scored far better than their urban counterparts on traditional, standardized tests and college entrance exams. Steve Rothschild
Steve Rothschild is enabling people to move out of poverty by training them for living wage jobs using a rewards-based incentive system. Participants enroll in a rigorous, sixteen-week training program, followed by a year commitment with one of Twin Cities’ customer companies. The customer company pays a fee for each graduate, enabling Twin Cities RISE! to be self-sustaining and the business to have a greater pool of trained employees retaining their employment at 84 percent. In turn, the state government provides the business with a tax credit in recognition of the increasing tax revenue and decreasing need for public subsidies this system creates. Jacob B. Schramm
J.B. Schramm is bringing new educational opportunities to mid-performing, but high-potential, students from low-income areas by helping them enter higher education and further careers. Through his easy-to-replicate training system, high school students who possess the talent to succeed in college but lack the support to maneuver through the application process and the high grades and test scores to stand out learn how to present their strengths effectively, while colleges eager to attract low-income talent receive customized and well-prepared applications. Operating from outside the educational system, J.B. has identified a fundamental disconnect that prevents thousands of high-potential students from attending college and has designed a program that motivates all the actors within this system (students, high schools, colleges, and communities) to correct it. Don Shalvey
Don Shalvey is transforming the California public school system by building clusters of charter schools in targeted urban areas. By grouping a critical mass of high-performing educational institutions in under-performing districts, Aspire is creating such a groundswell of demand for excellent education that the existing system will be forced to improve to compete for students. Don’s model is designed to create a “tipping point” that will result in local, state and national school reform. Carol Shapiro
Carol Shapiro is reducing recidivism by pioneering a new case management strategy, in which ex-offenders work with their families and the criminal justice system to stay drug-free and out of jail. Carol’s five-year-old, direct service pilot program, La Bodega de la Familia, has served more than 550 families and 3,000 individuals and is now lauded as a national model for managing the release and community supervision of ex-offenders in partnership with government, family, and community. Read more. Dr. Bill Thomas
Dr. Bill Thomas is transforming the field of long-term medical care from an institutionalized model into a more humane system. His first innovative program, The Eden Alternative, has provided more than 7,000 nursing home staff with the tools and strategies to create new habitats within existing facilities and has a network of 320 nursing homes in 50 states that incorporate his model. His success with the Eden Alternative has provided the basis for major structural change within the long-term care industry. The next step in his vision of creating humanized care is the Green House Project. Bill is working with federal and state government to replace existing nursing homes with small, family-sized homes called Green Houses. Ashoka’s U.S. Fellows
Amy Barzach
Amy Barzach created Boundless Playgrounds because disabled children were not able to access most playgrounds, and so were excluded from interacting with typically abled children. Boundless Playgrounds challenges cultural stereotypes and industry regulations to include disabled children in their vision of public playgrounds. The program has evolved into a tool for policy change, leveraging state dollars to support Amy’s equality initiative, and raising the standards of the American Disabilities Act. Boundless Playgrounds also serves as a public education tool nationwide, including the creation of a new market demand, to which equipped manufacturers are responding, working with Amy on certification and industry trainings. Angela Coleman
Angela Coleman is impacting at-risk young women through a new youth development and public health model. The model promotes knowledge of cultural roots and traditions through a curriculum called “A Journey Toward Womanhood” that prepares these 12 to 17 year-old youth to analyze their beliefs, problems, and future life-options. Implemented and supported through intense after school, summer enrichment, and mentoring programs, her model has resulted in a 50 percent decline in sexual activity, an 18 percent decline in pregnancy rates, and an increase in school attendance. David Domenici
David Domenici is breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and institutional recidivism that plagues inner city youth. The school combines academics, job training, and life skills, to address the breakdown between traditional education and the other systems that impact the lives of at-risk youth, including the child welfare system, juvenile corrections institutions, and the job market. By proving that these young people can succeed, David is providing a productive alternative for them, while forcing policy makers to change ineffective policies currently in place. David Erickson
David Erickson is providing homeless drug and alcohol-addicted people with a community-based recovery and housing system. Through Samaritan Inns, an individual is given a continuum of recovery support, and practical, affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing that fosters increasing levels of independence. At the five and a half year mark, 97 percent of the alumni are drug and alcohol free. Samaritan Inns is currently developing partnerships in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Baltimore. Michael Feinberg
Children in poor communities are not prepared to compete with children from more privileged backgrounds for spots in four-year colleges. Most low-income families have no voice about where their children go to school. Mike Feinberg and his co-founder, David Levin, decided that they could give those families a choice. They set out to change the public education system, one school at a time. They built a new public charter school based on the principle that every child can succeed. The model works, and has been replicated with success. By identifying and helping entrepreneurial leaders to establish new schools, the Knowledge is Power Program is poised to create quality public education options for disadvantaged children throughout the country. Jose-Pablo Fernandez
Jose-Pablo Fernandez has found a way to engage recent immigrant parents in their children’s schools at the same time that parents are gaining critical computer training. The result is that students are staying in school, parents are learning important skills to increase their chances on the job market, and parents and children’s relationships are strengthened. Marc Freedman Marc Freedman
Working with community colleges, neighborhood organizations, universities and public libraries, Marc Freedman created Life Options, helping people find meaning and purpose in the “third age” of their lives (those 60- to 90-years-old), particularly through public service. Life Options offers a “one-stop” opportunity for people to retool for second careers including teaching, health care and the environment, and connect to opportunities that fully use their talents and experiences. Life Options is designed to help the new wave of aging baby-boomers play an active role in solving society’s most pressing problems. David Green
David Green is transforming the development and delivery of health care technologies to the global south. Dissatisfied with the reigning paradigm where developing countries who are most in need of these technologies are unable to procure them David is creating a sustainable model where developing countries themselves produce high-quality products and distribute them in a manner that results in a high degree of service and affordability for the end user. Having already directed the successful production and dissemination of two products intraocular lenses and surgical sutures which have impacted millions of people, David is now launching an effort to manufacture and distribute a top-of-the-line, cost effective, cosmetically acceptable, robust, and locally maintainable hearing aid. Renae Griggs Renae Griggs
As the nation followed the news last year of the murder-suicide by the Tacoma, WA, police chief who killed his wife and then himself, Renae Griggs was more determined than ever to address the underlying causes of violence and abuse within the law enforcement community. The statistics are disturbing: The rate of domestic violence in families of law enforcement in the United States may be as high as twice the national average. For every police officer killed in the line of duty, three more take their own lives annually. Griggs, a decorated SWAT officer and major crimes detective, launched the National Police Family Violence Prevention Project to address the underlying causes of violence to help officers and their families through departmental policies, community-based trainings, mental health advocacy and other efforts to prevent abuse before it escalates. Darell Hammond Darell Hammond
As education budgets are cut across the country, playgrounds often become the responsibility of Parent Teacher Associations or local communities. But what happens in low-income communities and neighborhoods facing economic uncertainty, where citizens lack the financial resources to take on this responsibility? Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! to address this need, leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. KaBOOM! has built 600 new playgrounds and improved 1,500 playgrounds, providing at-risk children a chance to learn motor and social skills, and explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Today Darell is leading a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to safe, accessible places to play. Matthew Johnson
Matthew Johnson is addressing the lack of diverse employees and balanced portrayal of low-income, minority communities in the mainstream media. Strive Media Institute trains disadvantaged teens in five areas of mass communications, while providing media forums to build marketable job skills and practice balanced journalism. The youth are then linked with media internships, which has resulted in companies turning to Strive to diversify their talent pool. Eighty percent of Strive graduates remain in the mass communications field. Van Jones
Van Jones is creating dramatically higher standards of accountability for the criminal justice system through a pioneering, multi-pronged approach that turns and keeps the public spotlight on its practices. To counter police harassment, he has set up a hotline and lawyer referral service for victims. To address the ballooning prison industry, he has designed and is beginning to launch a broad campaign “Books, Not Bars” that calls for a reallocation of resources from incarceration to education. And through a number of affiliated organizations that he helped launch, Van is giving voice for the first time to the youth most affected by the lapses of this system while broadening its appeal to make it everyone’s issue. Tammy Krause Tammy Krause
Tammy Krause has witnessed first-hand the negative impact capital punishment cases have on the families of victims. From the Oklahoma City bombing trial in the mid-1990s to the case of the “D.C. Sniper,” Tammy has fought to protect the interests and rights of the victims’ families. Through JustBridges National Clearinghouse, she offers programs and trainings that allow victims to play a stronger role in the trial process, interacting with both defense and prosecuting attorneys to ensure their concerns are heard and respected. A key component of her approach is the training offered to attorneys, including federal public defenders and federal judges, stressing the value of actively engaging surviving family members and friends throughout the litigation process and not limiting them to statements during the penalty phase. Carolyn Laub
Carolyn Laub is creating a safer middle and high-school environment for students who frequently face ridicule and abuse because of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. By encouraging the development of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) on campuses, Carolyn is building a youth-led network of organizations to form a united front against stereotypes and discrimination in their schools and communities. This activist youth development model goes beyond the traditional support model, setting an example for schools and students across the nation. Matthew Lee
Matthew Lee is holding financial institutions worldwide accountable to the principles of ethical and community reinvestment through a system that challenges their inequitable lending practices. Using the Community Reinvestment Act in the U.S., he has leveraged millions of dollars in loan and credit commitments to low income communities. Amy Lemley
When teenagers “age out” of foster care, they rarely have anywhere to live or any means to support themselves. First Place guides former foster youth through this critical transition by providing micro-loans to secure affordable housing, while supplying training and support to address employment and educational needs. Amy is also leading the effort to transform the foster care system at the local, state and national level. Kevin Long
Kevin Long is providing unprecedented opportunities for deaf people in developing countries, who have never had the education, encouragement or support necessary to succeed. Global Deaf Connection combines multi-cultural exchange, support, and mentoring programs to ensure that deaf students succeed in school. GDC then helps deaf professionals who have completed their education to find meaningful work, often in deaf schools, where they continue the cycle of support and success. Aleta Margolis
Aleta Margolis is revitalizing public school through a unique teacher-training methodology that enables teachers to examine their individual teaching styles and develop more creative and effective ways to teach. Using her skill as a performer and educator, Aleta helps teachers identify their own creative style and provides concrete tools to operationalize this style. To keep teachers involved beyond her training courses, Aleta has created a peer network that helps them maintain their enthusiasm and constantly improve. In 1995, she launched The Center for Artistry in Teaching in Washington, D.C. and since then she has trained nearly 1,000 teachers in urban schools in the art of teaching, inspiring them to transform their classrooms into exciting, engaging learning environments. Joseph Marshall
Dianna Ortiz
Dianna Ortiz is creating international communities of healing for torture survivors to regain their sense of trust and community. Through this innovative process, survivors are empowered to lead and become powerful voices in the international campaign to end torture. Her strategy focuses on reconnecting survivors to their communities and in doing so, influences, through education and lobbying, the institutions and individuals capable of shaping national and international policies on torture. Jeff Palmer Jeff Palmer
Jeff Palmer has created care management and prescription discount programs specifically tailored to low-income and underserved populations that provide preventive care to high-risk patients before they become seriously ill. Through Coordinated Care Network (CCN), savings are realized by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, surgeries and emergency room visits, then reapplied to finance health care for the uninsured. Deeply discounted medications also are made available through CCN. By implementing real-time “physician dispensing” systems at clinics, providing mail order services for refills, and purchasing medications through a Federal discount program, CCN has saved uninsured patients an average of 90 percent per prescription. Since its inception, CCN has enrolled 10,000 patients, reduced hospitalizations by 24 percent and contracted with 45 clinics to implement the prescription discount program. D.J. Powers
D.J. Powers is increasing the availability and affordability of basic economic services (i.e. credit, insurance, and telephone service) to low-income and minority Americans by shining a spotlight on the practices and abuses of state administrative agencies and the industries they regulate. With a unique blend of high-level legal, economic, and media expertise, D.J. is correcting the imbalance of low-income consumer representation at state agencies and opening previously unexamined industries to public scrutiny and debate. In the past four years, D.J. has secured access and hundreds of millions of dollars of savings for individuals in his home state of Texas and now has a plan to spread throughout the U.S. Paul Rice
Paul Rice’s TransFair USA is transforming global trading policies and establishing “fair trade-organic” as an industry standard for products (starting with coffee) grown in developing countries. Raised in a farm-working family, who supported his entrepreneurial ventures early on, Paul traveled the world to gain hands-on knowledge about rural development and agricultural economics in third-world nations. During these travels, he witnessed the injustice of small landowners, who grow roughly half of the world’s coffee and reap a miniscule portion of the profits. Paul’s TransFair USA is the sole U.S. fair trade certifier that ensures environmental and economic justice. Through partnerships with industry leaders like Starbucks, and consumer advocates groups, Paul created market demand for fair trade and organic coffee products. Since its founding in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999, TransFair USA has established fair trade as the fastest growing niche in specialty coffee and made an irreversible impact on the $18 billion U.S. coffee industry. Please see article on fair trade coffee on Changemakers.net. Larry Rosenstock
Larry Rosenstock is one of the United States’ most highly recognized innovators in public education, having successfully led four major education reform initiatives in his 30+ year career in education and the law. Currently, Larry is working on his fifth major reform effort as Founder, CEO, and Principal of High Tech High, a new concept in urban education that fuses traditional liberal arts curricula with innovative, hands-on learning projects for all students regardless of the socio-economic status and educational background of their parents. High Tech High eliminates traditional boundaries between �technical� education (usually for low-income youth) and traditional college prep, liberal arts-style secondary education (typically provided to well-off students). In its place, HTH offers a highly stimulating educational environment that encourages students to immerse themselves in real-world career experiences. At HTH students become prepared for the world of work, and at the same time, they surpass traditional benchmarks of academic success: HTH students have scored far better than their urban counterparts on traditional, standardized tests and college entrance exams. Steve Rothschild
Steve Rothschild is enabling people to move out of poverty by training them for living wage jobs using a rewards-based incentive system. Participants enroll in a rigorous, sixteen-week training program, followed by a year commitment with one of Twin Cities’ customer companies. The customer company pays a fee for each graduate, enabling Twin Cities RISE! to be self-sustaining and the business to have a greater pool of trained employees retaining their employment at 84 percent. In turn, the state government provides the business with a tax credit in recognition of the increasing tax revenue and decreasing need for public subsidies this system creates. Jacob B. Schramm
J.B. Schramm is bringing new educational opportunities to mid-performing, but high-potential, students from low-income areas by helping them enter higher education and further careers. Through his easy-to-replicate training system, high school students who possess the talent to succeed in college but lack the support to maneuver through the application process and the high grades and test scores to stand out learn how to present their strengths effectively, while colleges eager to attract low-income talent receive customized and well-prepared applications. Operating from outside the educational system, J.B. has identified a fundamental disconnect that prevents thousands of high-potential students from attending college and has designed a program that motivates all the actors within this system (students, high schools, colleges, and communities) to correct it. Don Shalvey
Don Shalvey is transforming the California public school system by building clusters of charter schools in targeted urban areas. By grouping a critical mass of high-performing educational institutions in under-performing districts, Aspire is creating such a groundswell of demand for excellent education that the existing system will be forced to improve to compete for students. Don’s model is designed to create a “tipping point” that will result in local, state and national school reform. Carol Shapiro
Carol Shapiro is reducing recidivism by pioneering a new case management strategy, in which ex-offenders work with their families and the criminal justice system to stay drug-free and out of jail. Carol’s five-year-old, direct service pilot program, La Bodega de la Familia, has served more than 550 families and 3,000 individuals and is now lauded as a national model for managing the release and community supervision of ex-offenders in partnership with government, family, and community. Read more. Dr. Bill Thomas
Dr. Bill Thomas is transforming the field of long-term medical care from an institutionalized model into a more humane system. His first innovative program, The Eden Alternative, has provided more than 7,000 nursing home staff with the tools and strategies to create new habitats within existing facilities and has a network of 320 nursing homes in 50 states that incorporate his model. His success with the Eden Alternative has provided the basis for major structural change within the long-term care industry. The next step in his vision of creating humanized care is the Green House Project. Bill is working with federal and state government to replace existing nursing homes with small, family-sized homes called Green Houses. James Thompson
Rajiv Vinnakota
Rajiv Vinnakota’s SEED Foundation is creating publicly funded urban residential boarding schools: a model that fundamentally changes how the public, private, and nonprofit sectors invest in public education and urban communities. SEED schools provide the benefits of a private preparatory education to at-risk inner city middle and high school students in their community. Piloted in Washington, DC, Raj plans to replicate this model nationally. A former management consultant, Raj launched the SEED Foundation in 1998. Wynona Ward
Wynona Ward is breaking the cycle of generational abuse for women and children in rural communities through a creative, mobile, multi-service model that breaks through the cultural, geographic and psychological isolation of domestic violence victims. In addition to bringing legal and social services to the victim and their children, Wynona offers a full continuum of support from the initial relief from abuse order through self-sufficiency. To create this model, Wynona drew on her personal experiences as a domestic abuse survivor, fifteen years working as long-haul trucker, and her legal background. Dallas Wilson
Dallas Wilson provides a sustainable, long-term solution to the lack of involvement by non-custodial fathers in their families and communities. Through his innovative program RESTORE, Dallas teaches non-custodial fathers job skills, while giving support and training for responsible fatherhood to help re-integrate fathers back into their families. Moreover, RESTORE allows fathers the opportunity to be part-owners in a construction company, restoring their self-esteem, financial independence, and their families. Elliott Brown
Many Americans are working hard but failing to get ahead. Poverty persists because low-wage workers have little or no opportunity for advancement. Elliott Brown believes that entry level jobs can and should be a springboard to meaningful and gainful employment. Springboard Forward is helping low-wage workers develop the capacity to advance, and helping employers invest in their entry level workforce. This employee development model promises to strengthen the 21st century workforce and give new hope to low-income workers. Jane Leu
Jane Leu is creating economic citizenship and reducing discrimination for immigrant and refugee professionals by changing the way employers recruit, hire and integrate the community of foreign-born professionals in the USA workforce. Upwardly Global’s unique approach targets the corporate sector to increase demand for the professional services of immigrants, refugees and asylees by creating a balanced hiring system that also represents the true diversity of the community. These employment opportunities offer a variety of professional roles, incorporate the immigrant-professional deeper into their own community, and allow the model’s success to spread more easily to corporate operations nation-wide. |
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