America Scores is a soccer league with the purpose of providing boys and girls with an alternative to spending after-school time on the streets.  Besides soccer, they teach reading and writing with an emphasis on poetry and self expression. They also provide building blocks for community leadership.  

America Scores has an opportunity to win $250,000 for kids in under-resourced communities!!! All they need is YOUR VOTE!!!!  If you are between the ages of 13-18, CLICK HERE, register to the site, and vote for AMERICA SCORES! Just a few minutes of your time could help make a world of difference to this program and the kids that it empowers.

Last week, I got to attend an amazing conference of Changemakers at the University of Miami where over 100 young people, who each have their own unique venture creating positive changes, came together to network and learn from each other.

For more about Ashoka's Youth Venture Summit 2010 and to see pictures, check out my previous post from the event.

I interviewed many of the young change makers to find out what kind of inspiring projects they were all working on....

Meet them and find out!:

"Don't wait to be powerful, to change the lives & communities around you significantly." That was the opening line from a welcome letter to all 120 young change-makers that attended this year's Youth Venture Summit in Miami, Fl.  The letter was written by Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, the organization behind this summit that supports and empowers changemakers.



Every single participant had created some sort of venture. Some people had started non-profits, while others created organizations in their schools, some worked globally, others locally.  Although each venture was unique, everyone shared one thing in common; they had taken action to create change.  After spending the afternoon with them, I realized how bright and positive the future is looking. 



This event was to give these young people an opportunity to network with each other, give each other advice from their experiences, and to strengthen their skills for making an impact. 



There were AMAZING workshops to choose from, such as:

-Designing a Movement-Building Organization
-Putting the "fun" in fundraising
-Empowering youth through grassroots mobilizing
-The Art of change
-Social media & social responsibility

(To name just a FEW - There were so many, and all of them so interesting)

One particular moving workshop had members from the Miami Faces of Homelessness Speakers' Bureau give a talk on Storytelling, and two of the speakers shared their personal stories about how they got off the streets.



I jumped in and out of many of the workshops.  Each one was so fascinating.



Ashoka fellow Connie Siskowski talked about creating the American Association of Caregiving Youth, an organization that provides support for kids who have to take care of sick or elderly family members. 



Two girls from NYC, who started a bicycle delivery service for the farmers market, gave a talk where they used a bicycle trip as a metaphor to illustrate the process of starting your own venture.



Connell Wise, who founded the US Youth Chamber of Commerce was full of so much information, he sounded like someone two and a half times his age during his lecture on Growing and Expanding your Venture.  I was learning so much!

Adam from Adam and the Couch Potatoes was nice enough to take me around the summit.  Besides being part of the Youth Venture team,  he makes fun videos to teach simple lessons to kids.

I left that Summit so inspired to start my OWN venture!!

From today thru Sunday (July 15-18) over 100 Youth Venturers and young leaders interested in change will come together at the University of Miami for the annual Youth Venture Summit.

This year's theme is Movement-building! Change-makers from all over the world will have a chance to meet each other, participate in workshops to strengthen their skills, network, and share their experiences.



"Ashoka’s Youth Venture aims to help an entire generation of young people develop as changemakers, who will improve their communities now and throughout their lives. Youth Venture inspires and supports teams of young people to launch and lead their own civic-minded organizations and businesses. Youth teams access workshops, tools, adult allies, a global network of like-minded young changemakers and seed funding to establish their own ventures that solve problems around them." (from their website)



I will be attending and covering the event, so stay tuned for some exciting photos & videos of some motivated and inspiring young people, and the adults who support them!

To get an idea of the speakers & workshops, check out
http://youthventuresummit.org/