March 2009 About Face International Recap

Firstly, I would like to personally thank About Face International’s dedicated volunteers, corporate sponsors and partners, staff, and friends for such a great month of March. It is only with you that we can change the world through social entrepreneurship.

New Website Launch

I am very excited to announce About Face International’s new website launch. The website has been designed to serve as an educational tool as well as resource center for those interested in learning more about social entrepreneurship and participating in helping social entrepreneurs globally. Our new website also serves to foster discussion between visitors of the website about how we can create real positive social change through and by supporting social entrepreneurs. In addition to, it hopes to connect social entrepreneurs with the public so that they may have a medium to change the world positively through their innovative ideas.

With that said, please check back on our new website frequently as it will constantly be updated with content. If you have a topic for an article or are a social entrepreneur who wants to be featured, please email storyofchange@aboutfaceintl.org.

Addition of a new Chapter Board

I am happy to report that About Face International is expanding our reach by introducing a Chapter Board in both Chicago and Boston.  If you are interested in getting more involved in either board or want to start a chapter board in your city, please email me at volunteer@aboutfaceintl.org

Connect to About Face International through Social Networking

After many requests, I am proud to announce that you can now find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as way to continue our conversation on how we can change the world through social entrepreneurship.  We are always trying to find more accessible ways to connect people with social entrepreneurship and are always looking for suggestions.

Tune-in and Listen to About Face International’s Music Station

About Face International has created a Blip.fm music station which features artists and song writers who are proactive in supporting social entrepreneurship.

Until next time,

Karyn E. Vostok

karyn.vostok@aboutfaceintl.org
Founder of About Face International, NFP

(c) 2009 About Face International, NFP | 617.744.5159 | info@aboutfaceintl.org

Young People Get Connected when Life takes a Wrong Turn

Get Connected is a helpline charity for young people who have problems but do not know where to turn. Their free and confidential telephone, email, and webchat service offers support, advice and links to organizations where young people can get specific help to their troubles. Be it a pupil getting bullied at school or a teenager who has run away from home and needs a safe place to sleep, volunteers can put them directly in touch with the right people and the right places.

Get Connected was started in 1999 by a partnership between Suzy Lamplugh Trust and the British Transport Police. In 2000, it became a registered charity acting as a link between the young person on the street and the various support services available. More than that though, the charity aims to empower the young person so that they can make an informed decision as to what is the best solution to their problem.

Most of the people who use Get Connected are under 25 years of age. However, almost 10 percent of callers are adults who are worried about a young person. While the breadth of issues the helpline deals with is vast, Get Connected now has 100 trained volunteers answering calls.

More recently, email conversations and webchats have grown in popularity. Last year alone Get Connected saw their webchat service double. With the increase in technology, Get Connected has to evolve their business plan constantly so that they are able to help the most people possible in the easiest and most accessible medium.

Emma Insley, Get Connected chief executive, said: “We really believe that more and more young people, who would never have called us in the past, are turning to us online. They actually feel able to get the support they need online without the difficulties of talking about their problems to someone on the phone. It’s the first step to them getting help and I think it’s proving to be very important.”

Measuring Get Connected’s social benefit is difficult just because the nature of the organization is confidential. “It’s difficult to monitor our progress. All our calls are confidential so we don’t store any information and we don’t follow-up calls. We do encourage feedback from callers and have had some good response,” Insley says.

The charity sees its future as one of growth as it seeks to reach more and more young people. Earlier this year Get Connected started regional schemes in Leeds and Manchester, with representatives visiting schools and youth clubs to talk about the helpline and forging links with social services and other local support organization.

Donate Today

Help us meet our goals and change the world through social entrepreneurship. Simply click on the link below. All donors have the opportunity to participate in the selection of the annual AFI Fellows.  Donate Today and Help Create Change.

(c) 2009 About Face International, NFP | 617.744.5159 | info@aboutfaceintl.org

The Economist Highlights Social Entrepreneurship

The Economist is running a special report on entrepreneurship. One of the stories in the special report is focused on entrepreneurs “doing good.” The piece argues that entrepreneurship is reshaping the voluntary world as much as the commercial world. It is a very interesting read for anyone involved in social entrepreneurship or anyone who wishes to become more involved in becoming or helping social entrepreneurs.

About Face International is very pleased about the increasing global acceptance of the social entrepreneurship model. When the Economist, a leading business magazine, includes a story about social entrepreneurship in a report on entrepreneurship rather than writing about it as charity, well it means something.

Mai Iskander’s Garbage Dreams Pleases Audiences at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas

Mai Iskander tells the story of the Zaballen or “garbage people” in the documentary Garbage Dreams which was showcased at SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

The documentary is beautifully shot in an intimate verite style. It is about a group of waste collectors in Egypt who earn their living recycling 90 percent of the trash they collect in the streets of Cairo.

Iskander follows three boys from this community, now in crisis of losing their livelihood due to multinational corporations, hired by the Egyptian government moving in and taking over the garbage collection.

While the film talks about the social entrepreneurship of these boys, Iskander also tells a coming of age story. In a sense, the survival of the community depends on the younger generation’s actions in response to the recent threat to their community’s way of life. Each of the teenage boys filmed is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Iskander spent over 250 hours filming the trio of teenage boys, documenting their nuances of their life: their enthusiasm for any new adventure; their longing to find love and acceptance; their desire to make a mark in the world; and their aspirations to become the alpha male –the coolest and most popular of all the desires that are so strong in us as teenagers that remain with us as adults. Iskander also shows the delicate economic and cultural balance that is often times ignored when discussing social entrepreneurs which is that sometimes the biggest social need of social entrepreneurship is preserving way of life.

(c) 2009 About Face International, NFP | 617.744.5159 | info@aboutfaceintl.org