KooDooZ to Shape New Social Entrepreneurs in NFTE Classroom

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) Los Angeles, CA: Monday, November 16th, 2009: KooDooZ Corporation to debut a new program of youth engagement by delivering social innovation curricula in a NFTE high school classroom. 

The week’s materials kicks off in tandem Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) at the Soledad Enrichment Action Girls Academy.  These high school students will be given tangible examples of how today’s youth can play a role in meeting some of the world’s most challenging problems -- including poverty, access to education, disease control and sustainability. 

Case study examples comparing the tactics used by social intrapreneurs, social entrepreneurs, non-profits and government agencies that are already actively addressing one or more Millennium Development Goals will also be presented.  Invited by KooDooZ into the classroom are field experts:

1. Mark Horvath, founder of InvisiblePeople.TV, who will put a magnifying glass on U.S. homelessness and the advocacy tools he is using to encourage public and corporate support

2. Scott Fifer, founder of GO Campaign, who will share his experiences of working with grassroots organizations to provide access to education and help vulnerable children worldwide

3. Nedra Weinreich, president and founder of Weinreich Communications, who will reveal which innovative social marketing stratagems have effectively been implemented in the health sector to advocate awareness and behavioral change

4. Alexandra Teklak, creator of Aquamantra, who will share her experiences about the new rules of business sustainability and why she decided to create an energy enhanced natural spring water bottle in the world’s first 100% biodegradable, recyclable and compostable container

GEW is a worldwide event that touches the lives of millions of youth and was co-founded in 2008 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (based in the U.S.), and Make Your Mark, a business-led government-backed campaign (based in the U.K.). The week is estimated to exceed the 3 million people and 8,800 organizations around the globe that participated in the inaugural 2008 GEW.

“Young activists are a vehicle for change,” said Lee Fox, founder and chief innovation officer at KooDooZ. “Just give a kid the freedom and opportunity to own an idea, and you've cultivated an agent of change on the path of empowerment and innovation.”

“The world knows that entrepreneurship is the key to economic recovery, and the next generation of innovators holds that key,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. “Now more than ever, we need to unleash the creativity and ingenuity of our youth by engaging them in the endless possibilities of entrepreneurship.”

About KooDooZ Corporation

KooDooZ.com rewards kids for achieving change around personal or societal challenges. Built as a "virtual meets virtuous" social networking site, KDZ (our site users) find their life balance of Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit through featured goals co-developed by brand and non-profit partners to meet service learning standards and/or to address social impact and cause marketing campaigns. KDZ are given challenge methodologies and milestones to track their hours for civic recognition, scholastic credit or personal achievements. As an added bonus, extended family and friends can choose to financially reward (micro-donate to) these young change-makers (or the non-profits they serve) via an integrated payment gateway on KooDooZ. Working at a grassroots level with such community organizations as schools, non-profits, religious groups, youth clubs and neighborhood businesses, KooDooZ offers our partners the opportunity to measure their investment in terms of “lives changed.” For more information, visit www.KooDooZ.com and follow @KooDooZ as well as @Cause4KDZ on Twitter.

About Global Entrepreneurship Week

With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, turn their ideas into reality, and make their mark. From Nov. 16-22, 2009, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things. Tens of thousands of activities are being planned in dozens of countries. Global Entrepreneurship Week is founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign. For more information, visit www.unleashingideas.org, and follow @unleashingideas on Twitter.  

Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org, and follow @kauffmanfdn on Twitter.  

Make Your Mark

Make Your Mark is the campaign to give young people in the UK the confidence, skills and ambition to be enterprising - to have ideas and make them happen. Run by Enterprise Insight, which was founded by the four leading UK business membership organisations – the British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors. Their Director-Generals sit on our board, which is chaired by entrepreneur Peter Jones, from BBC’s Dragon’s Den. It is supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and endorsed by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. www.makeyourmark.org.uk