*Y.C.* Social Startup Summit, Focus On: Women
The Social Startup Summit is a one-day, high-impact social entrepreneurship boot camp for high school students, held in four locations across the US annually.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Crystal
Last Name
Y.
Website
Organization
Social Startup Summit
Country
United States
Are you an individual between the ages of 18 and 35 who would like to apply for a nine month Young Champions Program mentored by an Ashoka Fellow?
Yes
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Social Startup Summit
Organization Website
Organization Phone
408-966-1832
Organization Address
21840 McClellan Road
Organization Country
United States
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
Your idea
Name Your Project
*Y.C.* Social Startup Summit, Focus On: Women
Country your work focuses on
United States
Describe Your Idea
The Social Startup Summit is a one-day, high-impact social entrepreneurship boot camp for high school students, held in four locations across the US annually.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Like Startup Weekend-meets-Do Something Social Action Boot Camp*! With a focus on creating socially-responsible ventures and following the un-conference model, The Social Startup Summit is a one-day, high-impact social entrepreneurship boot camp for high school students, held in four locations across the US annually. Fifty students come and pitch ideas for community service project, get in groups of 5 for the best pitch ideas, and work the whole day to develop a website, online media presences, and do final pitches to judges at the end of the day. The best pitch's team wins pro-bono consulting, free web and graphic design, and a micro-loan to jumpstart the project.
According to a recent Kauffman Foundation study, more than 25% of 8-21 year olds wish to start their own organizations. Thirty-seven percent of youth want to invent something. The Social Startup Summit nurtures independent thinking, creativity and innovation in giving youth a concrete time frame to create long-term community service projects that can grow into organizations.
Each summit will yield ten new community service projects and social ventures. Thousands of dollars will be raised for environmental charities, new school clubs will be started, a new non-profit will be established, and more.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
How the work we do benefits the community:
Community impact:
The local school community: parent-teacher organizations, student government classes, school environmental, service, and career clubs, etc.
The local community: local city parks and recreation departments, non-profits, student organizations outside of schools, etc.
The global community: students will be encouraged to fundraise for environmental education schools overseas, parks preservation abroad, etc.
Diversity: There will be volunteers from diverse backgrounds, as we look to partner with NFTE, ODALC, etc.
Problem
According to a recent Kauffman Foundation study, more than 25% of 8-21 year olds wish to start their own organizations. Thirty-seven percent of youth want to invent something. The Social Startup Summit nurtures independent thinking, creativity and innovation in giving youth a concrete time frame to create long-term community service projects that can grow into organizations.
Actions
The Social Startup Summit is a one-day, high-impact social entrepreneurship boot camp for high school students, held in four locations across the US annually. Fifty students come and pitch ideas for community service project, get in groups of 5 for the best pitch ideas, and work the whole day to develop a website, online media presences, and do final pitches to judges at the end of the day. The best pitch's team wins pro-bono consulting, free web and graphic design, and a micro-loan to jumpstart the project.
Between summits, there will be online webinars with tips on maintaining and growing a social venture: fundraising, developing a website, media engagement, etc.
At each summit there will also be a Youth Service Expo. Student summit delegates will be able to connect with many opportunities from local non-profit organizations for ways to get involved in their local and global community: signing up for one-time or long term volunteering opportunities, gathering fundraising ideas and tools for starting projects, and more. If your organization engages youth in volunteering, offers resources for teen changemakers, or offers youth service and leadership development programs.
Results
Youth Empowerment: The Social Startup Summit was started by youth (co-founders are 14 and 17) for youth! Youth volunteers will serve on the event planning committees, and will find other volunteers, find sponsors and grant opportunities, find speakers/moderators/panelists, and more. Volunteers will be running the event, participating in starting the projects, and competing in the pitch competitions. Youth will gain skills in self-esteem (they created their own service project), teamwork (they will have to work in teams of 5 to create the project), connection to community (they will fundraise and volunteer with local non-profits), and initiative (they will be more likely to start their next invention idea).
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year 1:
-Increased volunteer base
-Increased donor support
Year 2:
-Solid monetization model for fundraising
Year 3:
-Via partnerships with government
-Measurable impact on publlc policy
What would prevent your project from being a success?
-Lack of enough volunteer support
-Lack of initial funding to jumpstart initiative
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
More than $4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Is your organization a
Not registered
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating?
Less than a year
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
We plan on connecting to this theme by organizing a Social Startup Summit that is focused on women's issues (gender-specific violence, maternal health, etc.) in partnership with local women-in-tech groups: DevChix, LinuxChix, Women 2.0, Women Who Tech, Digital Sistas, Girl Geek Dinners, Gaming Angels, the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology
Alliances:
Torque Media Group Torque Scholars Program: Will provide pro-bono design packages to winners
Reaching out to Gumball Capital for project micro-grants (met the founder at a conference), The Berkeley Group and CoreConnect Consulting for pro-bono consulting (friends with the founders and directors), GeeksForGood for pro-bono services. All services will go straight back to the winning projects at the summit.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Volunteer program
2. Donor program + Fundraising
3. Media recognition + PR
The Story
What was the defining moment that you led to this innovation?
I read "Rwanda Rising: New Models of Economic Development" by Jeff Chu in Fast Company magazine, and I just knew that change had to come from grassroots movements, so I set out to create mine.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
The idea of this event came from inspirations of events like BarCamp, Startup Weekend, and the Ashoka Youth Venture Summit. It combines the unconfernece model of BarCamp, the weekend hack-a-thon, startup-a-thon model of Startup Weekend and the social entreprenurship model of Ashoka Youth Venture Summit to create a mashup of all the events for and by youth.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
| Attachment | Size |
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| the.social.startup.summit.jpg | 11.64 KB |
 | 113 weeks agoJessica Sewall said: Hi Crystal, You have a lot of enthusiasm about fostering adolescents' fresh ideas and innovations, which can have such a great impact ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 122 weeks agoCrystal Y. updated this Competition Entry. |
| 122 weeks agoCrystal Y. submitted this idea. |
