Youth-Led Ideas for Worldchanging: Go Overboard!

…And snag $1000 while you’re at it!

Girl Overboard author Justina Chen Headley, in partnership with Youth Venture (“Dream it. Do it.”) and Burton Snowboards are set to receive kids’ concepts on how THEY want to commit to change and spark improvement in their own interest areas for action-based, passionista, youth-led innovation. I love this “Go Overboard” challenge grant from our friends at readergirlz blending sports sponsorship with youth energy to come up with solution-based ideas.

Pick a passion, ANY passion…animals, eco, hunger, you name it…Just a desire to improve some part of the world using kids’ innovation and fresh focus.

Much like the SexTech conference prompted teens to come up with their own video solutions for how sex ed could be addressed more productively, (story still to come on the teen winners, archived at DoGooderTV) this Go Overboard Challenge Grant is wide open landscape for kids’ creativity since it’s not limited to any one niche.

It’s a great way to engage kids this winter that might otherwise be in sedentary TV mode to put their brain cells, teamwork, and inspired ideas into motion.

This seems to be quite the media trend right now, for online eco community Juntoventure just launched their “Think Green Live Green” pro-planet dialog, showcasing a Q&A format of video responses to ‘Big Green Questions’ aired on YouTube, all about the challenges of eco-friendly living and sustainability. (contest runs through the end of Feb., so charge up those webcams!) Our good friends at QuantumShiftTV just did this too, with their fall school contest and just wrapped their latest EcoReSolutions contest today.

The new Go Overboard Challenge Grant uses examples like Justina’s co-founding of the readergirlz’ online book community to promote teen girl literacy and Olympic Gold medalist Hannah Teter’s venture bottling Vermont-grown maple syrup as “Hannah’s Gold” to raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa…And Syrah, (the character IN Justina’s book Girl Overboard) created a massive snowboarding event to raise awareness for cancer.

Shaping Youth interviewed the readergirlz when Justina and her co-founders launched almost a year ago…Can’t wait to hear what they’ll do for an anniversary encore.

Right now, Justina’s donating all proceeds on her book tour to Burton Snowboards’ nonprofit division, ‘Chill’ the learn to ride program for ‘at risk’ youth…in keeping with her ‘live loud, give big’ philosophy. (mini-media gallery of Justina & Hannah here)

Shaping Youth can add a few of our own noteworthy youth picks to show this CAN be done by kids, for kids…Like? Take-charge tween Hannah(another one!) at the LadyBug Foundation helping the homeless, the teens at Korea’s International school setting up their own version of ‘Live Earth’ streaming school concerts for Earth Day via Project Global Cooling (and their social media hub)…and the teens making jewelry for the Tapestries of Hope project in Zimbabwe, run by Shaping Youth advisor and filmmaker Michealene Cristini Risley…

Now it’s your turn…Any youth, club, team, or school that wants to prompt kids to mobilize, have at it…download the grant application, see what it’s all about…then go overboard with an idea to make a difference in the hopes of winning a grant to put that plan into action. (sounds like Girls For A Change!)

There are contests virtually everywhere…

Remember Habbo’s GreenPeace survey last month where 50,000 teens shared their views and submitted them to the United Nations?

Well you can bet more youth engagement is forthcoming there, too, as virtual world Habbo and Paramount Pictures just announced a first time ever digital licensing, rights, and entertainment deal in their teen hub…(I foresee some serious ‘Hollywood/Habbowood’ movies in the making…)

Let’s hope they come up with meaningful media contests rather than just coinage and commercialism, because teens are natural agents for social change, Shaping Youth in positive, fun, and heartfelt directions.

(Remember Club Penguin’s ‘coins for change’ holiday cause-marketing last month, where kids picked from one of three charities? $394,000 ended up going to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, that’s some serious ice!)

Brava! Let’s get to it…Share your ideas for projects to launch, think big, team up with friends, and let your entrepreneurial spirit take hold. Who wants to start?

Snowboarders, don’t miss the “Positive Turn Book Tour”

(full details/tour dates on their site)

Olympic Gold medalist Hannah Teter (fun snowboard video ‘stories from the road’ and video/B-tv media from the women’s global team who answer the question “Because of Snowboarding…”) teams up with award winning author Justina Chen Headley (Girl Overboard) to tour around the country and spread the word about living loud and giving big. I think I need to hook them up with our pals at Girls Are Champions for a stint on GACtv!

Justina will donate proceeds for every copy of Girl Overboard sold on The Positive Turn/Girl Overboard Book Tour to Burton Snowboard’s Chill Foundation.

“Chill is a non profit, learn to ride board sports program for at risk kids. Every year, Chill takes over 100 kids from each city to the slopes, beach and skate parks and provide them with everything they need to ride: lessons, transportation, gear, and tickets, whatever. This year alone, Chill will serve over 2,500 disadvantaged boys and girls in 19 North American cities, Sydney, Australia and Innsbruck, Austria. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, the publisher of Girl Overboard, will give away three copies of the book at every tour stop. And Burton will be giving out snowboarding prizes along the way…”

Very, very cool promo…