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.”

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.

The Office of Social Innovation is set up under the Domestic Policy Council, the body that coordinates domestic policy making in the White House. It has been established to promote creative and effective ways to tackle social problems. The president is proposing $50-million in his 2010 budget for a social-innovation fund.

Felix Lloyd was invited to Tuesday’s event as one of a select group of Echoing Green fellows. To accelerate social change, Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, was recently appointed to the position of vice-chair on the Commission of White House Fellowships.

TEQ Magazine June/July Issue

Building Skills: Felix Lloyd Launched Skill-Life to Help Tweens Develop Financial Literacy

You moved to Pittsburgh recently and are running your own company Skill Life. Tell us about how you wound up in Pittsburgh and what you’re up to with your company.

In September 2007, I received a fellowship from the New York based social venture fund Echoing Green.  That fellowship would pay me $30,000 per year and health-care benefits to start Skill-Life, Inc. where we build virtual worlds in which tweens earn rewards by playing cool games that teach life skills including financial literacy, nutrition, and citizenship!  We are launching the Beta of our first product, CentsCity, in July.

Once I took on Echoing Green’s investment and committed to going at this thing full-time, it didn’t take long for my wife, who works for Google, and I to figure out that $30,000 per year wouldn’t get too far in San Francisco.  So, we looked for other cities where Google had offices.  We were searching for a place that had a low cost-of-living and, most importantly, significant resources to start an entertainment technology company.  Three days after our wedding, we made our second trip to Pittsburgh, in a Uhaul truck.

What’s it been like building your company in a tough economy?

Skill-Life really reached the world in October as we completed our participation in Innovation Works AlphaLab.  By that time, the tough economy was already quite clearly upon us.  It’s simply been the reality with which my partner, Todd Waits, and I have been confronted.  We can’t recall with longing the boom days where investors had deeper pockets and stronger stomachs for early-stage ventures.  Rather, we’ve kept down our burn and focused intensely on building a great product and business to ultimately make money while achieving social impact.

On a related note, I couldn’t be more confident that the tough economy has created a unique opportunity for Skill-Life.  The first product built on our platform, CentsCity, teaches kids financial skills.  The need and demand for such a resource is growing exponentially.

Previously, you were a teacher and were honored as a “Teacher of the Year” in D.C. What made you leave teaching and decide to start your own company?

I often say that I got my first masters degree by teaching 7^th graders Civics and Government.  My time as a classroom teacher was absolutely invaluable.  After five years, however, I no longer saw tremendous opportunities for growth or impact in that role.

Recognition as teacher of the year included my being featured in the Washington Post, Newsweek, and other media.  It led to my spearheading Microsoft’s Washington-to-Washington program, which connected my classroom in DC with a classroom in Seattle, Washington.  I also became my school’s dean of students and one of its chief administrators.  These experience opened my eyes to how much more needed to be done while also giving me the skills and resources to reach higher.

I left teaching to start my own consulting company through which I wrote curriculum and managed GED and summer programs.  With a close friend, I started a real-estate company and lost my entire 401K renovating a corner lot in Saint Louis!  And I wouldn’t have had any of it any other way.  How could I be doing anything other than what I am doing now?

Any advice for those looking to start a company?

Talk about it and be about it.  I spend a lot of time meeting people and speaking with them about Skill-Life.  Many of the conversations don’t lead to much at all.  But, often enough, a simple dialogue leads to someone or someplace else that’s exactly where we need to be.  I’ve met one of Skill-Life’s most significant investors, Ron Morris, this way.  Also, I always learn more about what we’re doing and need to do by trying to articulate a vision and pin down details to others.  The way people hear what you have to say and what they say in return can be golden.  For me, the key from there has been to go back into the cave and process it all.  We’re constantly revising our pitch, product, and strategy as a result of repeated interactions with customers, investors, strategic partners, and everybody in between.

Best thing about running a company in Pittsburgh and the worst thing.

I’m originally from Washington, DC, where, even as a kid, I had a strong sense that there were people and places close by that would not likely be available to me.  In Pittsburgh, I’ve been encouraged by how much access a young entrepreneur like me can gain.  Everyone seems one-person removed and, more importantly, willing to give of their time and resources.  This willingness has been essential to Skill-Life’s growth thus far.

In some ways, I’m concerned that this small world effect will have its limits.  It seems possible that we will in time have exhausted the opportunities to be gained locally.  At this point, however, we’ve only just begun digging deeper and Pittsburgh continues to show us its bridges.

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.

One study performed by Joseph Kahne at www.civicsurvey.org found that games receive equal attention across socioeconomic divides. The inequalities of education and affluence do not exist in game spaces. When left to their own, young people are equally interested in the opportunities in games. When choosing their own activities, kids gravitate equally toward games across the board. Parents whose kids show signs of isolation or are not involved in the community, cannot necessarily point to the child’s involvement in games, but must look at their involvement with their child. The best predictor of a child’s involvement with a community is found in the parents’ involvement in their community.

James Gee shared an example about assessing a learner’s success at understanding subject material in games. In Halo, if a player completes the game on Difficult, you would not give the player a test to see if they know Halo. The fact they reached that level of achievement is proof they have reached the that level of understanding. Likewise, if you ask a group of kids to go build and set off a nuclear device, the resulting obituary would not say, “Oh, it’s a shame. We will never know if they learned Physics.” The activity in which they were engaged required them to learn physics to complete the task.

Similarly, by completing the CentsCity game, a player must demonstrate they understand how to manage not only day to day finances, but long term investment goals as well. The assessment is built into the experience. In order to complete the game, they must know and utilize the financial concepts taught.

Games essentially provide people the opportunity to learn a multitude of skills without the learning being the focus of the experience. They set goals or are given goals which in order to achieve, require them to learn a set of skills and acquire a certain level of knowledge to accomplish. However, the goal is fun, and the learning happens in a deep, meaningful way.

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.

CentsCity engages the student beyond a mere information intake by “learning through doing;” players are engrossed in consequence-driven and active learning.

When “Video” or “Computer Games” appear in the media, it generally leads to a negative backlash. What is not mentioned is the tremendous power Serious Games (education, activism, artistic expression, and training) have. Games can open the door to enormous potential and possibilities. CentsCity provides the great “head fake” in financial education. We give youth a game to play, and while they are focused on playing it, they end up learning about everything from checking and savings accounts to compound interest to investments.

CentsCity presents financial education in a different way than traditional educational materials. The information is ever-present and the player is able to explore and interact with it in the way that best suits his or her learning style. The player is engaged in game situations where they must act and follow sound financial principles in order to be successful. They care more about the experience because they put themselves into the game.

Games engage the learner beyond traditional methods. James Gee, PhD from Arizona State University said, “Video games represent a process… that leads to better and better designs for good learning and, indeed, good learning of hard and challenging things.” Due to the player’s high level of engagement and personal investment, information retention increases dramatically.

The focus group with the youth was remarkable in too many ways to count. Too often, we’re cooped up in our office like mad scientists or on the road pitching potential investors and partners. It’s easy to lose sight of the certainty that kids are the ultimate judge of what we do. If they don’t like the product we’re developing and become more financially savvy as a result of it, then our product and our business have failed.

Well, I’m happy to report that we seem to be very much on the right road. We’re in a bit of stealth mode right now — so I can’t get too deeply into particular responses the youth had to different features. It’s more than fair to say that some of their comments and reactions caught us by surprise. Kids are funny that way, you know. We spend so much time debating a particular point that their words immediately put to rest in a way that goes almost entirely against the grain. We were particularly pleased with how well this group, which ranged in age from 15-18, responded to the look and feel of the experience. Even more, we gave a short assessment of the youth’s financial skills after taking them through a “quest” on Checking vs. Savings Accounts and wouldn’t you know that it seemed as if they had learned a thing or two.

On Monday, we have a focus group scheduled with teenagers at YouthPlaces Beltzhoover site. We’re also presently setting up focus groups with youth from the Pittsburgh Project and Mount Lebanon School District. We’ll try to get in all on video and share a few pics down the road.

We just completed our third (actually our third.5) design document. Two years ago, we worked with Sidehatch Studios to complete our first design doc. One year ago, Semiotic Technologies completed our second. And, as you may remember from an earlier blog posting, we collaborated with 360KID back in December on a preliminary design doc.

Continuing to work with 360KID over the last three months, we have just wrapped up work on a more extensive design, easily the most extensive thus far. It’s a place we could not have reached without having gone through our earlier efforts at planning the user experience and art direction. The product has evolved tremendously in just a short time.  It’s a very different experience than what we developed in our prototype and what we have yet to reveal on this site.  Yet, we could not have possibly reached this point without having gone through earlier iterations. 

As I wrote in an email to a potential funder, we have been thinking deeply about the issue of financial education, and considering how best to provide youth and adults an exciting financial education product, for some time.  In recent months, since our economy has gone wild, we’ve noticed an increasing number of competitors and rising interest in this area.  We’re more ready than ever to confront the challenge and seize the opportunity.

Over the next two weeks, we expect to settle on a developer with which to collaborate toward launching our Beta this summer.  We have engaged in extensive dialogue with three development houses, and more recently a fourth, to turn this new design document into a real product that youth and adults acoss the country can enjoy and benefit from.  Again, we’ve learned so much from the work put in over the last two years.  The road ahead will be deeply informed by the journey thus far.

Stay tuned.