Archive for July, 2009
July 20th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Customers, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Game Development, Product Development
From Tuesday (7/21) to Thursday (7/23), we will be conducting private testing of the CentsCity Beta version. CentsCity is a fun online world where tweens learn financial skills and earn real-life rewards!
We are presently looking for a limited number of people to test drive the product. If you would like to give us feedback on CentsCity before we launch publicly, please let us know by responding to this message.
Best,
Skill-Life, Inc.
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Skill-Life, Inc.
CentsCity — http://centscity.com/ — Learn Money, Earn Rewards!
1739 East Carson St. #323
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-871-3713
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July 8th, 2009
Skill-Life, Inc. and GTECH Strategies are featured in this week’s edition of Pop City. Check out the article here and also pasted below:
White House recognizes two Pittsburgh companies as national models
President Obama recently tapped two Pittsburgh companies as national models of social innovation and community transformation.
Andrew Butcher and Chris Koch of GTECH Strategies and Felix Brandon Lloyd of Skill-Life received a White House invitation on June 30th to join a select crowd of 100 to celebrate the creation of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
“Now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries,” Obama told the group gathered in the East Room. The $50 million Social Innovation Fund will support community partnerships and projects.
“It seems clear the White House’s agenda for social innovation is committed to identifying the best practices throughout the country for community revitalization,” says Butcher. “This was an invitation to work on a larger scale. It was pretty empowering for us.”
GTECH and Skill-Life were awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008. Butcher and Koch, 2007 Carnegie Mellon grads, founded GTECH in 2007, a firm that reclaims vacant land through the growth of alternative energy crops to transition blighted space and serve as a platform for green jobs.
GTECH recently completed a project in New Orleans, has addressed the Brookings Institute and is working to expand its model to other regions. (For the Pop City story, click here.) Skill-Life, an Alpha Lab startup, is developing a game-based platform that teaches life skills, financial literacy, nutrition and citizenship to tween-agers. Both companies are located in Point Breeze.
“This is a special time to be in a place like Pittsburgh, not just because it has a culture of entrepreneurism, but it’s on the forefront of old industrial cities that have the potential to be the future,” adds Butcher. “We’ve survived the downturn in the economy and Obama recognizes that. “
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July 3rd, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, President Obama, Social Impact, Social Innovation, White House
I recently attended a White House event, on behalf of my social enterprise Skill-Life, Inc., during which President Obama launched a new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. A number of other Echoing Green Fellows attended, including Andrew Butcher & Chris Koch (GTECH Strategies), Kara Bobroff (Native American Community Academy), Sara Horowitz (Working Today), Michael Brown (City Year), Vanessa Kirsch (Public Allies), Eric Schwarz (Citizen Schools) and Mark Levine (Credit Where Credit is Due). Andrew, Chris, and I made the midnight drive down to DC from our home city of Pittsburgh, PA. Cheryl Dorsey also attended and facilitated introductions to leaders in the social sector and from the Obama administration.
There’s nothing quite like sitting in the White House East Room surrounded by portraits of Presidents past and social entrepreneurs present. It’s a rare opportunity that demonstrates the place that social innovation will have in this nation’s journey forward. For me, to be included in a group that the President says is creating the most innovative programs that are transforming communities around the country, is humbling and inspiring.
President Obama’s speech celebrated the work being done by social entrepreneurs across the nation and mobilized us to do more in these times when social innovation is immensely critical. I took away a few major points:
- Financial Support: The administration has begun a $50 million Social Innovation Fund. The President challenged the private sector and philanthropies to match and surpass the government’s efforts to support organizations and approaches addressing the challenges of our communities
- Results Result Results: What matters most to the President and his team is what works. We have to set goals and then achieve exceed, and, ultimately, measure them.
- Take It To Scale: If it works, the White House wants it wherever its needed. It’s key that creative approaches be implemented with expectations to scale up as impact is achieved.
- Not the Usual Suspects: The staff at the Office of Social Innovation — which is led by Sonal Shah (former head of global development at Google.org) along with Michelle Jolin, Carlos Monje, Charlie Anderson, and Howard Buffet — will search the nation for the most innovative and effective organizations and social enterprises. They expect to break out of the box — opportunities will be there for those of us at the early stages of our impact or otherwise outside of the spotlight. In Pittsburgh, we’re planning a follow up roundtable with the White House, Echoing Green, and other public and private partners for the coming months.
In true Echoing Green style, a group of us, including Cheryl and some of the staff from the Office of Social Innovation, ended up talking shop across the street from the White House at the Old Ebbitt Grill. The overwhelming sentiment was that this is the time. At Skill-Life, we intend to harness this energy, action, and opportunity as we launch the beta version of CentsCity, an online world packed with cool games that build tweens’ financial skills, this month. In the next several months, it’s upon all of us to meet the President’s call. As he declared, “now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans, and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries.”
http://www.nacaschool.org/
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July 2nd, 2009 | Tags: AlphaLab, Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Felix Lloyd, President Obama, Social Impact, Social Innovation
I was just writing to Mike from AlphaLab where Skill-Life was incubated last summer and fall. He asked about the trip down to the White House.
As I told him, it was incredibly exciting to be in the White House — one of those things you can’t actually fathom until you’re in the East Room looking at a portrait of Abraham Lincoln that you remember seeing in middle school history books. Even more, to be included in a group of social entrepreneurs who the President says are creating the most innovative solutions to our communities most challenging problems, is humbling and inspiring.
The $50 million fund will help take social enterprises like Skill-Life, Inc. to higher levels as will the fact that the President has established an Office of Social Innovation. Knowing that real dollars are being committed makes a tremendous difference. We made some excellent connections to folks from the private, philanthropic, and government sectors.
These times are calling for the kind of double bottom-line work and outside of the lines innovation that Skill-Life is doing. There is real energy, action, and opportunity that we will continue to build on as we release the beta version of CentsCity this month and continue to grow our business.
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