For more than twenty years, Echoing Green (the name is from a Blake poem) has provided new leaders who possess vision and a smart idea (in areas such as civil and human rights, education and youth leadership, health, and public service) with the seed money and support to put their ideas into action.
The angel investor just announced its 2009 slate of fellows and the group is very impressive. Here is a taste of some of the projects they hope to implement with Echoing Green's guidance and support:
Adam Stofsky/New Media Advocacy Project: Stofsky wants to empower defenders of human rights and social justice by integrating video and internet social networking into their advocacy strategy, enabling them win their legal cases and organize communities. Click here to read more.
Angie Beatty and Shawn McKie/The J.U.I.C.E Project: Through this project, Beatty and McKie will combat disease mortality in inner cities by reimagining the corner store as a one-stop shop for nutritious yet affordable food, free exercise training/activities, media/health literacy education, and art programs. Click here to read more.
Barbara Bush and Jonny Dorsey/Global Health Core: Bush (Yes, W's daughter) and Dorsey hope to build the next generation of global health leaders and improve the quality of healthcare services for the poor by connecting outstanding young professionals from around the world with health-focused organizations. Click here to read more.
Bethany Henderson/City Hall Fellows, Inc.: Henderson's idea is to incentivize and empower diverse, top college graduates to tackle social ills from within existing government institutions, thus ensuring our cities have leaders capable of confronting cities’ myriad challenges. Click here to read more.
Those are only four of the fourteen fantastic ideas to make the world a better place. I encourage you to read though each fellow's ideas by clicking on this link. If you are too lazy to read, you can watch this video: (video redacted)