Winners of the the 9th annual YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition represent university and St. Louis community teams of entrepreneurs. A total of $150,000 was awarded at a ceremony last week.
- Bridge Bread won the $30,000 Daughters of Charity Foundation of St. Louis Award. Bridge Bread provides supportive employment opportunities for homeless and at-risk persons to guide them on the path to self-sufficiency through meaningful employment that meets them where they are.
- Girls in the Know won the $25,000 Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis Award. Girls in the Know inspires and empowers girls to make healthy and confident decisions through an educational 4 week mother/caregiver & pre-teen daughter speaker series led by female professionals.
- Playing for the Cause won $25,000 from the YouthBridge Community Foundation. Playing for the Cause leverages the unique relationship between musicians and their fans to increase funding for local non-profit organizations.
- STEMs for Youth won $10,000 from the YouthBridge Community Foundation and $5,000 from the Brentmoor Foundation. STEMs for Youth encourages under-privileged middle school students to seek science and engineering through mentoring and the creative use of LEGO robotics applications.
- Girls Dreaming Big won the $25,000 Skandalaris Award. Girls Dreaming Big provides services, products and resources in order to assist high school and college age girls in building self-esteem, growing confidence, creating positive networks and developing the building blocks upon which they can implement their dreams.
- Made for Freedom won $25,000 from the Brentmoor Foundation. Made for Freedom is increasing the quality of life for women through fashion-forward apparel.
In addition, STEMs for Youth, founded by WUSTL first-year student Allen Osgood, EN’17, won the $5,000 student award and the $5,000 award for the team with the best social value measurement as determined from the judges’ evaluations. For more information, check out the story in WUSTL’s Record and the pictures on the Skandalaris Center’s Facebook page .
The Skandalaris Center’s Third Thursday event is this week April 17. All events are in Steinberg Hall on Washington University’s Danforth Campus. Here’s this week’s agenda:
3:30 p.m. Registration
4:00 p.m. Skills Session This month’s topic is “Funding,” and will feature experienced entrepreneurs with expertise in crowdfunding, bootstrapping, banking, and venture capital:
5:30 p.m. Break
6:00p.m. IdeaBounce® – includes pre-selected bouncers PLUS open mic, with judges:
- Scott Bernstein, Director of Operations, Capital Innovators
- Marc Bowers, Sales & Product Management Leader, The Grun Company, ProductCamp St. Louis
- Charli Cooksey, Executive Director, InspireSTL
- Travis Sheridan, Assistant VP, St. Louis County Economic Council
- Kellee Sikes, President, P3 Strategies, see note below for another opportunity to connect with Kellee
6:30 p.m. Reception
The Center offers free parking for this event, but it’s important to register at ideabounce.com so they can email the parking pass to you the day before the event. Register at http://www.ideabounce.com/skandalaris/events.
Kellee Sikes is a our valuable Skandalaris volunteers who helped select the YouthBridge SEIC winners, and will assist in IdeaBounce® this week. Kellee is a strong advocate for social enterprise through her work at P3 Strategies and hosts a monthly Social Enterprise Gathering on the third Wednesday of the month. This month’s date is Wednesday, April 16, and the topic is “How PR is Different (AND BETTER) for Social Enterprise.” The location is East Academic Hall (EAHL) room 263, Webster University, 545 Garden Ave, Webster Groves 63119 – FREE Parking is available in the garage just across the street. More on the topic details and RSVP are at https://www.bazaarboy.com/event/184/. Also save the date of Wednesday, May 21 for the next gathering, when the topic will be Brainswarming, a new way to generate ideas.
Images: by Sid Hastings, WUSTL Photo Services. Above: Members of the team from STEMS for Youth join sponsors of their grant for a photograph following the competition. Thumbnail: Allen Osgood,EN’17.
Made for Freedom® is a St. Louis-based startup social enterprise that sells globally-inspired fashion apparel and accessories both online and through boutiques in order to employee marginalized women and empower survivors of sex-trafficking.
