Organizations that focus on youth have won five of the ten $1 million prizes to be given out this year through the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.
The awards, given by the California-based Skoll Foundation, are designed to advance solutions to critical social challenges and recognize programs making positive changes in six areas: tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and economic and social equity.
The foundation said each recipient will receive a three-year grant totaling $1,015,000.
The youth-focused winners, and their plans for using the grant money, according to Skoll, are:
• YouthBuild USA, to enroll more youth in the YouthBuild alternative high school program, where they build affordable housing for their neighbors while working toward graduation.
• Free the Children, to expand programs that empower youth to work toward local and global social changes.
• Friends-International, for programs to reintegrate street kids into society in the United States and abroad.
• The Manchester Bidwell Corp., to expand programs to introduce unemployed urban youth to vocational training in computer technology and the arts.
• The Nueva Escuela Foundation, to increase access to high-quality education in impoverished areas in 14 Latin American countries.
The Skoll Foundation was established by Jeff Skoll, eBay’s first president.
Contact: (650) 331-1031, http://www.skoll.org.
