Posts Tagged ‘CentsCity’
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.
–
Skill-Life, Inc.
CentsCity — http://centscity.com/ — Learn Money, Earn Rewards!
1739 East Carson St. #323
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-871-3713
Permanent link to this post
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/
Permanent link to this post
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.
Permanent link to this post
June 27th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Customers, Pilt Partners, WYEP
Skill-Life has entered into an agreement and pilot partnership with WYEP 91.3 FM Pittsburgh. This partnership is part of WYEP’s “Engaging Communities on the Economy” project for promoting financial literacy among Pittsburgh youth ages 8-18.
WYEP has agreed to purchase a total of 600 “access passports” for Skill-Life, Inc.’s “CentsCity” financial literacy online program. These access passports will allow up 600 students to be among the first paying users of CentsCity once it becomes available for public use.
Skill-Life, Inc. will be working with WYEP to determine the best way to distribute the WYEP-sponsored access passports. WYEP will promote CentsCity as a financial literacy resource for students on wyep.org under the “WYEP FreeZone for Students” section, as well as in e-newsletters, print pieces and other non-broadcast materials throughout the duration of the partnership term. WYEP will also promote CentsCity to its youth services partners through the WYEP FreeZone program throughout the duration of the partnership term.
The term of this partnership will span June 8th through August 31st, 2009, with the possibility of extension beyond August 31st pending review and approval from both parties.
Permanent link to this post
May 4th, 2009 | Tags: 360KID, Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Newsletter, Product Development, Social Impact
It’s been a long time coming. In fact, it was just about two years ago when we wrapped up the Echoing Green interview process — a process that would lead to our first significant investment in CentsCity. Since that time, we’ve developed countless storyboards of the CentsCity experience, three game design documents, and, of course, our proof-of-concept last October, which until recently we would use for live demos.
In July, Skill-Life, Inc. will officially launch our CentsCity Beta! For the first time, kids and adults will be able to experience the virtual world for themselves and interact with our CentsCity Passport.
We’ve spent much of the last month scoping our latest design of the CentsCity experience and will again be teaming up with 360Kid. It’s amazing how far along this thing has come — how much more dynamic, distinct, and significant our Beta will be versus what we initially conceived. Here’s our chance to make the impact that we have long set out to achieve — building young people’s financial savvy and life skills to afford them greater opportunities as they grow older.
Over the next two weeks, we will be sending out our first newsletter keeping folks up-to-date on the latest news and counting down to our Beta launch. A CentsCity.com splash page will be live this week for new subscribers.
Permanent link to this post