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Beyond Talent in DC Wins SVCF Seed Grant

August 9, 2004 -- Beyond Talent, a youth education, mentoring, and leadership development program in the District of Columbia, today received a $1,000 Social Venture Capital Foundation (SVCF) seed grant to help expand the program to all four quadrants of the city. The new mentors will be hosted in Southwest and Northeast Washington at Friendship House and the Notre Dame Education Center, respectively. The grant also included a digital camera to assist in web site development, temporary hosting of Beyond Talent's web site, and other support.

"Beyond Talent is itself a talented and dedicated group of DC residents who want to make the city a better place and create a ladder of opportunity for young people in the city," said Jeff Schwartz, SVCF President. "Our initial seed grant will help cover costs of the host institutions and pay for some of the expenses of mentors, who are pursuing post-secondary education." In addition to the $1,000 grant, SVCF pledged an additional $1500 matching grant once Beyond Talent obtains $2,500 in corporate and individual contributions to support the program.

"In our model," said Ellie Phillips, Beyond Talent's Executive Director, "volunteers support mentors and mentors support mentees. Then, mentors become volunteers and mentees become mentors. We are creating a cycle of empowerment that, once we get it going, will perpetuate itself with ever-increasing momentum. Eventually, everyone will know that college is and has been an option for people like them.

"In turn, we recognize that the best people to be serving in lower-income communities are members of THAT community. It’s one thing for a volunteer from outside the neighborhood to say, 'You can do this.' It’s quite another, more powerful thing, for one neighbor to say to another, 'I did it. You can, too.'”

Congratulations, Ellie and the Board of Beyond Talent. SVCF knows you can do it for (and with) the youth of DC! Click here to learn more about Beyond Talent.

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SVCF Recognition of Excellence Award Goes to Kids on the Hill

For "The Children of Birmingham:" A See Change Make Change Prize Film

June 4, 2004 -- Kids on the Hill, an award winning after-school arts program in Baltimore's Reservoir Hill area, today won another award. On May 18, 2004, the group won the Open Society Institute and Time Warner Foundation's See Change Make Change Youth Video Award for its animated film, "The Children of Birmingham."

The film was honored by the judges of the Fourth Media That Matters Festival for its "stirring narration and beautiful illustrations," through which "Baltimore middle-school students tell the story of their 1960s counterparts who fought for their civil rights." You can watch "The Children of Birmingham" on line by clicking here.

The story and artwork for the film was created through Kids on the Hill's summer program. Through Kids on the Hill programming they learned drawing and painting skills as well as stories from the civil rights movement. Young people, ages 10-14 made all the artwork in the animation, narrate the film, and sing the moving anthem of the film.

"In recognition of the extraordinary quality of the kids' work and their important message that young people can work together to make this a better world for all," The Social Venture Capital Foundation today honored Kids on the Hill with its first Recognition of Excellence Award. This award includes a $1,500 cash grant to the organization. It also includes a commitment by the SVCF to "see that this powerful work gets a much broader audience and that Kids on the Hill gets the financial support that this group and its work so richly deserve," said Jeff Schwartz, President of SVCF.

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2003 -- click here to learn more about SVCF Awards and Accomplishments in 2003

2002 -- click here to learn more about SVCF Awards and Accomplishments in 2002

2001 -- click here to learn more about SVCF Awards and Accomplishments in 2001.

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