Welcome! This is the first issue of Skoll eNews, the Skoll Foundation’s bimonthly update on Skoll activities and news in the world of social entrepreneurship.

2006 Award Guidelines Available

Guidelines for the 2006 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship are now posted on the Skoll Foundation Web site. The deadline for applications is August 30.

The awards support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time in one or more of six focus areas: environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, social and economic equality, and peace and security. Qualifying organizations will be led by a social entrepreneur and must demonstrate a proven track record, measurable outcomes, a compelling plan for reaching scale and other qualifications.

Host a New Heroes House Party

We hope you watched The New Heroes when the series debuted recently on PBS stations across the nation.

Sponsored by the Skoll Foundation and hosted by Robert Redford, this documentary series tells 12 dramatic stories of social entrepreneurs who bring innovative solutions to intractable social problems around the world. To learn how to order a copy, click here. For more information about the social entrepreneurs in the series, classroom lesson plans, tips on how to raise a child who cares and other activities, visit the PBS New Heroes Web site.

As part of a grassroots campaign to help people understand the work of social entrepreneurs, the Skoll Foundation invites you to host a New Heroes House Party for friends or family and view four compelling stories from the series. To participate, go to www.thenewheroes.org to order a free DVD and access all the information you need to host a party. If House Party participants are inspired to support the work of the “New Heroes,” the Skoll Foundation will match up to $100,000 in House Party donations made through GlobalGiving to any “New Heroes” projects through August 31.

Eric Schwarz Makes After-School Time Count

In recent weeks social entrepreneur Eric Schwarz, president and CEO of Citizen Schools has been busy watching students demonstrate the new skills they’ve developed during real-world apprenticeships with lawyers, architects, chefs, writers and more. The projects and performances are designed to make adult onlookers say, “Wow!” and as Eric describes the work, his enthusiasm is palpable.

Headquartered in Boston, Citizen Schools prepares disadvantaged youths for academic achievement in high school and advancement to college by transforming idle out-of-school time into hands-on learning opportunities. Middle-school children work with highly skilled professionals and artisans to learn how to argue mock trials, design public parks, create Web sites and more.

Citizen Schools currently serves 2,000 middle-school students and engages 1,500 volunteers in 12 cities in four states: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas. With help from the Skoll Foundation, the organization plans to double in size by 2007-08, with 4,200 students and 4,000 volunteers across 20 or more communities and six to eight states.

Eric and Ned Rimer founded Citizen Schools in 1995 because they believed that schools alone were insufficient to solve the problems identified in 1983 when “A Nation at Risk” warned of a rising tide of mediocrity in American education. Instead of trying to transform the traditional school system, they opted instead to work with young people when they are not in school—which is about 80 percent of their time. “In our view, after-school time has been an afterthought too long,” Eric said.

Citizen Schools is already demonstrating impressive results. An independent longitudinal evaluation conducted in June 2004 by Policy Studies Associates reported that Citizen Schools students significantly outperformed a matched comparison group in the areas of improving school attendance, being promoted to the next grade, reducing discipline problems, scoring on high-stakes tests and advancing to strong high schools. During the school years 2001-02 and 2002-03 in Boston, where The Boston Globe has reported that only 44 percent of ninth graders graduate from their high schools four years later, Citizen Schools sent 99 percent of participating eighth graders to high schools that have a proven or promising track record of college preparation.

For more information, visit Citizen Schools’ Web site at www.citizenschools.org or call (617) 695-2300.

To read an expanded version of this article, click here.