Shaping Youth’s Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition

Just returned from Champions for Change, the state summit for a healthier California, and picked up some positive validation that Shaping Youth’s reality show games are on target in the solutions-based arena of obesity intervention. Our nutrition pilot, “Dare to Compare: A Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition” echoes the core concepts and research reflected by … [Read more...]

GREENtrepreneurs: RecycleBank Shows Kids it Pays to Go Green!

Shaping Youth sent Rebekah Cohen, one of our newest correspondents (Rebekah has a Masters in Child Development from Tufts University, and media chops on the "commercialism in schools" gig) to cover this week’s MIT/Stanford Venture Lab event which was called “GREENtrepreneurs” all about helping people go green and the consumer/tech market. Her assignment? … [Read more...]

What’s A Kids’ Party Without Piles of Presents? EchoAge.

EchoAge. Echo: "One small act of giving can echo around the world" plus Age: "Each year I want to make a difference on the planet" Equals: a meaningful twist on birthdays. Not exactly a whack the pinata and dive for the candy 'gimme mode' moment or frenzied paper-flying present grab flashback...but certainly an alternate view of what's fun. EchoAge is an innovative … [Read more...]

Ushahidi: Social Media, Kids, & A Penny of Perspective

When kids toss pennies in the trash from cleaning their room, bypass them as ‘nothin’ or maybe add them to a jar if you're lucky (Pamela Poole's blog reports 13% of Americans treat pennies exactly this way) it begs the consumption question...“How can we give kids a global worldview beyond a self-absorbed cocoon?” How do we open the eyes and minds of … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth in SemiFinals for Echoing Green Fellowship

Remember those team tryouts or school elections as a kid where you ended up competing against your best friend and got all flustered? Well, I’m having an ‘echo’ moment here. Shaping Youth is proud to be selected as a semifinalist for the Echoing Green fellowship, an exciting social entrepreneur org that gives seed money to groundbreaking global projects and … [Read more...]