SWEARERCENTERforPUBLICSERVICE

SOCIAL INNOVATION INITIATIVE AT BROWN

presents the

2012 CV Starr Social Entrepreneurship Fellows

25GeorgeSt.,ProvidenceRI02912telephone:4018632338 http://swearercenter.brown.edu

TableofContents
Assured Labor Allen Kramer 4

BMD Mentoring Program Lily Chan

Broad Street Synagogue Reinvigoration Project Tim Natividad

Community-based Tourism in Vila da Volta Emily Kirkland

Connecting Children with Champions Sidney Kushner

Food Recovery Network Ben Chesler

Gay Nebraska Youth Network Drew Heckman

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Health Leads Adele Levine

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Health Worker Training in Rural India Karishma Bhatia & Nihaal Mehta

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Hip Hop 4 Community & Culture Pierre Arreola & Emily Goldman

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iflip4 David Ellmann

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iTeach Isabel Khoo & Erica Leon

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The Jewelry Project Pilar Garcia-Brown

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The Kivunwi Youth Project Ian Trupin

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Lets Be Well Red Carlota Pereda Serras & Rajvi Mehta

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Market Share Program Erin Kelley & Taylor Lanzet

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Zanzibar Utilization Project Jayson Marwaha & Han Sheng Chia

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AssuredLaborColombias Expansion
AllenKramer

2013.5 Economics allen.p.kramer@gmail.com

There are many factors that lead to unemployment, (646) 335-2251 including macroeconomic trends, structural adjustment periods, and frictional search time. In developing countries such as Colombia, which is marked by poverty combined with stark economic inequality, one critical cause of high unemployment levels among low-income populations is the lack of access to fully functioning information networks and formal job-search channels such as the Internet. In Colombia, only about 22% of low-income households have access to the Web, as compared with over 67% of higher class groups. However, nearly everyone in Colombia has his or her own cell phone. This creates an opportunity to leverage that access and turn it into a system specifically designed for this middle and low-income group. Assured Labor does just that. The company is a for-profit social enterprise that seeks to reduce the burden of unemployment in emerging markets by connecting low- and middle-wage workers with jobs using mobile and Internet technologies. The enterprise was founded by CEO David Reich and a small group of peers in 2008 out of MIT Sloan School of Management. Under their brand, Empleo Listo, they piloted operations in Nicaragua in 2009, expanded to Mexico in 2010, and to Brazil in 2011. To date they have registered over 200,000 users throughout the three countries and have posted jobs by more than 3,000 employers. The business generates revenue by charging employers for hosting the job postings and facilitating the intermediation with the workers. A critical aspect of the business model is that the workers who receive the job offers do not pay for the service; this reduces one of the major barriers to alternative formal mechanisms of employment. The impact that Assured Labor creates is largely generated in two principal target groups: the employers who gain access to more qualified candidates faster, and the workers who are provided with more and better job opportunities. Overall, the principal indicators and variables in which there is an expected impact include: users registered and employers posting jobs; jobs facilitated; reduced costs and time for businesses in employee acquisition; decreased average time spent in search between jobs; better quality employment positions. Not all of these variables are currently assessed due to prohibitive costs associated with measurement. In order to facilitate the expansion of Assured Labor into the Colombian market, this Starr Fellowship project concentrates on executing key elements in the companys standard pre-launce process for a new country. Activities leading up to and during the fieldwork in Colombia during the summer of 2012 largely fall into five categories: market research; operational research; business & bottom of the pyramid (BOP) strategy; customer development; and business development.

BMD Peer Mentoring

LilyChan

2013 Biophysics

lily_chan@brown.edu BeckerMD.org is an online patient community where (516) 225-8132 individuals can discuss their experiences with Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD). BMD is a rare genetic disease that involves progressive voluntary muscle weakness resulting in immobility, cardiac complications, and consequently, a shortened life expectancy. Since BMD is such a rare disease, patient-topatient contact may be hard to come by. Additionally, BMD is relatively less severe compared to other types of muscular dystrophy, which sometimes causes not only larger health organizations to overlook it in some cases, patients themselves minimize their health issues as well. Based on my previous long-term involvement with BeckerMD.org, it became apparent to me that while the boards offered a virtual support group for patients, the lack of longer-term connections hindered the flow of discussion for many individuals. The program makes the patient-patient connection more formal so that the time and repeated interaction necessary to forge trusting relationships may be fostered. The program differs from a regularly meeting support group because it is more individualized; mentors and mentees would be paired according to age, life experiences, and other factors. The program aims to go beyond public-speaking-engagement-type experience sharing, which, while beneficial, tends to be less personal, and constitutes a shorter-term relationship. Not only would the mentorship program benefit the mentees directly, but it would also support a group of patients who could become advocates in many other ways for other BMD patients. A preliminary survey distributed online to BMD patients indicated that nearly all (29 out of 30) respondents were interested or very interested in participating in a mentoring program. Furthermore, survey results showed a relatively even split between respondents who were interested in being mentors and mentees, which proves promising. Additional prior research includes contacting other patient mentoring programs, my extensive experience with peer mentoring in my other activities, volunteering at a muscular dystrophy camp, and conversing with many BMD patients, caretakers, and doctors.

BroadStreetSynagogue ReinvigorationProject
TimNatividad

2012 timothy_natividad@brown.edu

The Broad Street Synagogue Reinvigoration Project revolves around Temple Beth El, an abandoned synagogue on the South Side of downtown Providence. First built in 1911, Beth El experienced a growing Jewish community, but as the Jewish population tripled over the next 30 years the community migrated to the East Side of Providence. In the 1950s the temple was sold to another congregation. Six years ago, that congregation abandoned it and it has sat empty since: a shadow and a shell of what was a vital landmark of the local community. In the past year the temple has become subject to weather damage and vandalism. My working partners, Adam Bush and Sam Seidel, have negotiated a deal to purchase the synagogue from the current owners. We are working to build a wide variety of partnerships and raise the necessary support to repair the building and found a 501(c)(3) organization to steward its use. Through their efforts the Broad Street Synagogue will take on a new life as a cultural, spiritual, and community space. 2013 Economics/LatinAmerican Studies emily_kirkland@brown.edu

CommunitybasedTourisminVila daVolta
EmilyKirkland

(646) 623-5271 Vila da Volta is a fishing community of 2,000 people on the banks of the Jaguaribe River, in the Brazilian state of Ceara. The town is striking for its beautiful location and for the immense warmth and friendliness of its people. Still, it is not an easy place to live. Fish populations have declined dramatically in recent years, leaving many families without a reliable source of income. Over the course of the past nine months, community leaders in Volta have begun talking about the idea of community-based tourism small-scale, sustainable tourism one potential solution. Volta is located only about 20 km from Cona Quebrada, a major beach destination, which draws more the 240,000 national and international visitors every year.
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as

Volta could capitalize on this market, offering day trips and activities like boat rides on the Jaguaribe, nature walks in the mangroves, home-cooked meals, and dance performance. Trips to Volta could combine natural beauty with cultural immersion an experience totally unlike anything currently offered in the area. Volta is also located only about 10 km from Coquerinho, a separate community-based tourism project that draws 400 visitors a year. Coquerinho does not have beach or river access, and Coquerinho leaders have already expressed interest in forming a partnership in order to bring tourists to Vila da Volta. Implementing CBT in Volta would require almost no investment and involve almost no fixed costs. Instead, the CBT initiative could make use of existing assets like boats. Even with only a few hundred visitors a year, CBT could have a substantial impact on incomes and standards of living. In November, community leaders formed an official CBT committee, consisting of fishermen, women, and youth. They plan to begin receiving tourists from Coquerinho this spring. Unfortunately, they have not had the time or the financial resources to make some of initial investments that the project needs, like promotional materials and training for guides. This summer, I hope to help the CBT committee fully implement community-based tourism in Vila da Volta. I will arrange for a training session for guides and help with the creation of promotional materials and the construction of a walkway for mangrove tours, among other tasks. Ideally, by the end of the summer, Volta will be receiving tourists on a regular basis. Next November, Volta will become part of the Tucum Network, which is a group of 14 CBT projects throughout the state of Ceara. Tucum members receive advice, training and access to small grants from Terramar and Caicara, two NGOs based in the state capital of Fortaleza. Terramar and Caicara will 2013 thus be able to provide long-term support to the CBT AppliedMathematicsBiology, project in Vila da Volta. ChildDevelopment sidney_kushner@brown.edu (617)259-0377

ConnectingChildrenwith Champions
SidneyKushner

I want to begin by introducing you to my friend Steven, an 11-year old boy who could be the most die-hard hockey fan on Earth. Steven and I met at Camp Oochigeasa special camp for kids with cancerand instantly became friends. As soon as he heard about my similar love for hockey, his eyes lit up. Nothing excited Steven more than talking about his favorite playersto him, they are the ultimate role models. They are his inspiration to never give up being who he wants to be. Befriending Steven inspired me to do something big. In conjunction with professional athletes across the United States, I launched CCChampions. By connecting local, kind7

hearted athletes with kids just like Steven, meaningful long-term relationships are created during the first six months of intensive cancer treatment. All other organizations in the market focus on the granting a single wish. CCChampions is the only program that creates lasting relationships, adding a warm stable force to an unstable life. Currently, CCChampions is working with Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) and its 6,000 member athletes across the nation. The pilot program between the Pittsburgh Pirates Alumni Association and Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh is already nearing completion. With 16 kids and 16 athletes, this first chapter has been more successful than I could have ever imagined. Between the connection that are instantly developed and the smiles that I see on these kids faces, nothing excites me more than the opportunity to share CCChampions with as many kids as possible. There is no better time to begin this process than this upcoming summer. Through our relationships with the MLBPAA and various hospitals around the country, the connections have already been made for the development of new chapters, particularly right here in Providence. This summer will be devoted to building a stable foundation consisting of the a team of officers, connections throughout the local community, and a collaborative sharing of new approaches and ideas to innovatively help kids who have cancer. The CCChampions network is ready to skyrocket, and this summer is without question a turning point in the future growth of the organization.

FoodRecoveryNetwork
BenChesler
One out of seven households in Rhode Island are at risk of going hungry every day, and one out of six children live in poverty. At the same time, the U.S. produces over 34 million tons of food waste every year, spends 1 billion dollars just to dispose of that food waste, and recovers only 3% of that food. All of the discarded food sits in landfalls and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. On top of that, we are in an economic climate where donations to non-profits have dropped dramatically as even the households fortunate enough to have enough to feed their own families cannot afford to donate to those in need. The problem we face is not creating more food, but rather

2015 Economics ben_chesler@brown.edu (617) 259-0377

getting the food we have to the people who need it most. Solving the hunger crisis will fall to organizations that resemble trucking companies more than they do traditional NGOs. In this food landscape, food recovery (also known as food rescue) is a relatively new, viable alternative to traditional food donations. Food recovery organizations have emerged in cities across the country, recovering surplus food and bringing it to the people who need it most. From fruits and vegetables on a farm to dented cans in a supermarket, to prepared food in a cafeteria or restaurant, the supply of food that can be recovered is endless. We therefore find ourselves with no shortage of food and no shortage of people who need food. The tricky part is connecting the food with the people who need it. In Rhode Island, We Share Hope has emerged as the premier food recovery organization, collecting food from across the state and providing over 250,000 meals annually to the states hungry. With an unrelenting commitment to food recovery, and a healthy distaste for bureaucracy, We Share Hope has expanded rapidly in the past two years as they have built up the trust of the states manufacturers, restaurants, meal sites, and pantries. We Share Hope excels at building community and finding the people who really need food. Every person, from the CEO of a company donating food, to a homeless person receiving a meal, is both treated with respect and expected to share in the work of food recovery. Guided by those principles, We Share Hope has slowly but surely built up the We, reinforcing the notion that the food we recover belongs to the universal us and that we all have an interest in recovering and distributing it. We Share Hope has also thrived at making sure that the recovered food reaches the people who need it most, even if it means using non-traditional distribution methods. Through innovative partnerships with outreach workers and emergency shelters, We Share Hope is able to reach people who might not be served by traditional food banks. Yet despite these successes, We Share Hope faces some organizational challenges that threaten its sustainability. The two major challenges that We Share Hope faces are the lack of a sustainable funding model and a reluctance to take credit for its accomplishments. The two challenges are both separate and, at the same time, intertwined, a function of the reclusive nature of the organization. Furthermore, We Share Hope is looking to expand to college campuses and hospitals in the Providence area, in an effort to increase both the amount of food recovered and the efficiency of the operation. My own background in non-profit management, as well as my position as a Brown university student, put me in a place to help We Share Help overcome the challenges it faces. As the former Chief Financial Officer of a youth-run non-profit, I am familiar with the funding landscape for NGOs. And as a Board member of the campus-based Food Recovery Network, a 501(c)3, I have knowledge of the workings of a successful food recovery organization. Furthermore, through my position as a student at Brown University, I have created and, with the help of the Starr Fellowship, will continue to expand a food recovery program on campus. With this Starr Fellowship, I hope to continue to expand Browns food recovery program as well as work to put We Share Hope on the path to financial stability. I will use the fellowship mentorship and trainings to enhance my knowledge of social entrepreneurship principles, and then I will apply those principles to We Share Hope. I will create a sustainable funding plan for the organization and I will ensure that it takes credit for its accomplishments, giving We Share Hope the ability to build up its base of supporters and expand its work in a sustainable manner.

GayNebraskaYouthNetwork
DrewHeckman

2013 Sociology/Gender&

SexualityStudies National research indicates that gay and lesbian young people are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide drew_heckman@brown.edu than their heterosexual counterparts. Those facing physical (402) 680-7559 isolation in primarily rural, expansive, and conservative states such as Nebraska are at higher risk. In recent research by the Midlands Sexual Health Research Collaborative, almost half of the study population, composed of self-identified LGBT adults in Nebraska and the western edge of Iowa, had seriously considered suicide, and nearly one-fifth had attempted. The researchers also found that the onset of suicide ideation was frequently reported during the individuals late teens or early 20s. The study offers a final relevant point on interest for this C.V. Starr Social Entrepreneurship Project: A majority of participants agreed that the LGBT community in their area would benefit from an organization that could provide community resources, provide referrals for services, coordinate educational and social events, and help bring the community together to increase awareness and social justice. However, most indicated that such organizations did not exist in their community. Many indicated a need for such an organization. A community need exists, especially for youth; this is a need I would like to address with my C.V. Starr project by enhancing, making replicable, and ensuring the sustainability of a project I started two years ago called the Gay Nebraska Youth Network. This project is of capable of improving the quality of life for youth not only in Nebraska, but nationwide. I created the Gay Nebraska Youth Network in the spring of 2010 as a social group for high school to college-age gay youth in Nebraska. Originally just an online social space for youth to interact and share experiences, the group has grown steadily since its creation. At present, the GNYN has nearly 250 members of diverse racial, educational, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and active only discussion board, and group events every 2-3 months. A few other group leaders and I moderate the online discussion board, post relevant education links, make announcements about community news, maintain a list of community resources, contribute to discussions, and plan and execute in-person group events. The goal of this C.V. Starr project is to build upon the successes of the GNYN to develop a model for peer-led, youth-focused social groups revolving around sexual/gender identity which can be reliably replicated in other locales. This entails making the GNYN more robust,

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financially sustainable, and organizationally self-sufficient. Institutionalization of community relationships and response to youth input are critical parts of processes. I aim to condense to knowledge gained from this project into a kit which can be offered to individuals wishing to start similar groups. A successful model will connect youth to one another and to community resources, promote positive psychosocial outcomes, and offer empowering opportunities for leadership within the young LGBT community. This C.V. Starr Social Entrepreneurship project has the potential to save the lives of hundreds of youth who inhabit marginalized, fragmented, and vulnerable communities that face discrimination and prejudice on a daily basis. I intend to begin an application immediately for specialty license plates. Nebraska allows non-profit organizations to design promotional plates which the state then sells to the public, revenues from which go directly to these organizations. This initiative will create a passive revenue stream for the GNYN and other community groups that work with LGBT youth. Additionally, I would use the funding provided to begin a member recruitment campaign aimed at reaching youth in more rural parts of the state, who currently have no connections to group members, and thus no way of entry into the group. 2014 HealthandHumanBiology

Health Leads
AdeleLevine

Every day, doctors in the U.S. prescribe antibiotics to adele.levine@yahoo.com families who struggle to put food on the table or are not sure (617) 584-5132 where they will spend the night. Although medicine alone will not cure these problems, most doctors do not have the time or resources to address their patients pressing social needs. In the lowincome Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, Health Leads has stepped in to break this cycle of poverty and poor health. Enabling health professionals to prescribe housing, food, utilities assistance, health insurance, adult education, and other integral resources, Health Leads trains and mobilizes college students to urban clinics, where they connect referred patients to community and government resources. Students followup with their clients regularly, working with licensed social workers, nurses, physicians, lawyers, and other clinical staff to ensure that patients access these benefits and achieve and maintain health. In 2009, Health Leads New York partnered with the Woodhull Medical Centers Pediatrics Clinic in North Brooklyn to provide critical social services to residents of Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Fort Greene. In these neighborhoods, between 32 and 46 % of individuals live in poverty, 61.7% selfidentify as minorities, and 37% are foreignborn. Providing simple, preventative referrals to these families fills a vital gap in patient care, but this system falls apart without patient and providerbuy in; exploring and adapting to the existing culture of care in a clinic is critical to a successful Help Desks integration and sustainability. As a newlyfounded site still fighting to establish strong connections with local providers and families, Health Leads at Woodhull calls for a culturally
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relevant screening and referrals program in order to empower families and enable physicians to manage health as well as disease. This summer, I will draw upon lessons from the wellestablished and nationallyrecognized Health Leads site at the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center Harriet Lane Clinic to design, refine, and evaluate a screening and referrals program in the Pediatrics clinic. Incorporating the ideals of the FamilyCentered Medical Home, this system will increase providers and families awareness our scope of services and streamline the process of identifying parents interested in working with our program. In addition to outlining a framework for ongoing revision of Help Desk protocol at six sites nationwide, my research and product will inform Health Leads upcoming expansion initiatives to health centers serving lowincome families across the country. With the support of staff at both Health Leads New York and the National office, I will access research protocols, program materials, and professional contacts to effectively conduct focus groups and interviews with parents and providers in the Pediatrics clinic. The resulting pilot program and evaluation will provides a sustainable and scalable screening and referrals system; all sites will be able to access and engage my findings via a full report of my progress, delivered to the National office at the culmination of this project. This summer, I have the opportunity to strengthen a program that impacts every family that walks through the doors of the Woodhull Medical Centers Pediatrics clinic. A culturally conscious screening and referrals system will engage providers in the overall health of their patients and empower families to access the services they need. Health Leads collaborative model of community heath has implications not only on the wellbeing of individual communities, but on systemic change in health care in the United States.

Health Worker Training in Rural India

KarishmaBhatia&NihaalMehta

The current state of Indian healthcare is desperate. India ranks among the lowest nations in the world in such indicators as infant mortality and life expectancy. In addition, allocation of resources has been widely skewed toward urban areas, further negatively impacting the health of rural Indians. Much of the problem can be attributed to the widespread lack of health infrastructure, especially deficiencies in skilled manpower. While a wide network of rural health practitioners (termed PMPs for Private Medical Practitioners) exists, the majority are poorly trained and practice medicine haphazardly and incorrectly. Through our project, we look to begin transforming this existing network into a legitimate health delivery system. We will do this by addressing the following problems among PMPs: lack

Karishm

Karishm 2015

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2015 Anthro

of technical skill, lack of knowledge about proper medical practices, inability to be regulated, and lack of access to facilities. Our ten-week training program will bring PMPs to the Somaiya Rural Hospital in northern Maharashtra, about NihaalMehta two hours from Mumbai. The hospital is run by the Somaiya Group, with which we have partnered and will be 2014 working. At the Rural Hospital, PMPs will work in the HealthandHumanBiology capacity of a nurse or physicians assistant by providing primary care. In this way, the PMPs will be provided with nihaal.mehta@gmail.com vocational training that will not require expensive or (781) 710-6756 lengthy classroom courses, currently the only option for health workers looking to upskill themselves. Critical to the program is the institutional linkage between the Somaiya Rural Hospital and the Somaiya Medical College in Mumbai, for our program requires the resources of the latter. Once a week, for half a day, PMPs will be taught by medical students from Somaiya Medical College. These training sessions will emphasize medical techniques (e.g. taking blood pressure, examining a patient, etc.) and proper medical practice (e.g. administering antibiotics sparingly and ensuring patient compliance, washing hands before and after seeing a patient). This training will be provided through one-on-one interactions including conversations, demonstrations, and observationbetween medical students and PMPs. In addition, weekly health administration training will be conducted by us. We will teach how to properly keep medical records and maintain organizational systems. Example topics include when to dispose of expired medication and how to use a patients medical history to aid diagnosis and treatment. Pending an initial feasibility assessment, we will also attempt to integrate cell phone-based electronic medical records into the training. Further, we will ensure that the PMPs work is properly monitored. When practicing independently, rural health practitioners cannot be regulated and are free to do what they like. This is especially dangerous given the widespread lack of proper training.By providing practitioners a facility in which to work, we can ensure that they are regulated while still training them. Bimonthly assessments will allow us to monitor the PMPs progress. In addition, at the end of the ten-week course, the PMPs will complete a comprehensive practical examination. This will both gauge whether true upskilling has occurred and will be a way for us to evaluate the effectiveness of our program. By the end of the training program, we expect the PMPs to be competent in basic patient care. Our goal is not to provide exhaustive academic knowledge; years of medical school cannot be compressed into a few months. Rather, through hands-on training and vocational exposure, our program teaches the most important aspects of medical care. In this way, we will equip rural

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health practitioners to provide higher quality care. Ultimately, through scaling up of the program in other rural areas, our goal is to contribute to better health outcomes throughout India.

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Hip Hop 4 Community & Culture

PierreArreola&EmilyGoldman

PierreArreola 2013 Sociology

This proposal is for a two-part project to implement and pierre_arreola@brown.edu further develop a culturally relevant creative arts intervention (818) 606-6483 program in an area of high need and to support the capacity building of a local community organization. The primary objectives of this project are youth development and community building. We will be doing curricular development work in order to construct a leadership and intercultural exchange-focused Hip Hop curriculum for disadvantaged students. Art programming is often cut in under-resourced communities due to lack of funding and effective evaluative measures. Youth in these school districts are often left without many creative outlets and do not have a lot of options in terms of positive recreational opportunities. We plan on implementing our project in the San Fernando Valley in the County of Los Angeles and partnering with The GR818ERS (pronounced great-one-eighters), a collective of college students and Hip Hop artists based out of the San Fernando Valley. Our project promotes social change through community organizing around nonviolence, community collaboration across cultural divides, and health intervention. The specific activities that would be supported by the Starr Fellowship are building The GR818ERS capacity EmilyGoldman through curricular and organizational development, the coordination of community events with The GR818ERS, as 2014 well as the implementation of a two-part creative arts intervention. The intervention program will be divided into DevelopmentStudies two initiatives, Social Justice Learning and Health Intervention through Hip Hop dance. Alongside the creative emily_goldman@brown.edu arts intervention, we will help The GR818ERS further (860) 462-8721 develop their approach to better meet the needs of the San Fernando Valley community by leading GR818 Labs, creative focus groups that will happen on a weekly basis and will be geared toward theme-based curricular development. Our project is innovative as we are working to develop a curriculum that will serve to establish a social justice education program with secondary health benefits using Hip Hop as the platform for engagement. Through use of our curriculum materials, our partners will be able to make a difference in their communities by educating and collaborating with urban youth in ways that foster personal well being, leadership and nonviolence.

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Our end goal is to work with our partners in Los Angeles and Providence to establish Hip Hop education programs in public schools with low performance. Through this fellowship and our continuing collaboration with Hip Hop crews we are working to develop an organization that can be called into situations of educational distress and urban conflict as a specialist in creative arts intervention.

iflip4
DavidEllmann

2014 undecided

david_ellmann@brown.edu iflip4 wants every college and high school student to 9733426132 support a charity that they care deeply about. We believe the power of giving publicly will push others to give, and that young people's passion will light a fire underneath their peers. We want every person to believe that they can join and expand a movement of global giving that empowers not just those with access to funds, but everyone who is in touch with their beliefs. We want the world's non-profits to feel the power of a young, energized demographic, most of whom will be entering the world of philanthropy for the first time. We want to give young people who are emboldened by their charity a voice to be heard by thousands, we want to provide a boost for innovative organizations whose funds are waning, we want young people to learn about the underlying problems that create the need for their charity in the first place. We want conversations to start about topics that go untouched on most days, we want questions to be asked of the efficacy of certain non-profits, we want to bring the world of philanthropy to young people, and have them confidently enter it alongside their peers. We want to create the first brand that stands for all charities. We want to create iflip4, The Charitable Brand, the cause for all causes. We will accomplish this with three main components: a shirt, a website and young people's passion. On the site you will find your charity and flip4 it. This gets you an iflip4 t-shirt, and half the profits from your purchase will go to your charity. Then you will use that shirt and the site as your catalyst to start a movement to get each one of your friends passionate about their own cause. A t-shirt makes a statement. It is large and in your face, not small and discrete like a wristband or a pair of shoes. We want the shirt to identify you as causal, as someone who is thinking about how to help those in need. We want it to start conversations that would otherwise never be had about why your charity is essential, and why it matters that everyone has a cause they believe in. We want people to open their dressers and find a shirt that will let them look good while doing good. The website will become the source for information on philanthropy for everyone who is inspired to learn; it will be a source of inspiration for those wondering if they should flip4 a

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charity at all; and it will be a motivator for those who have already flipped to get others to join them. We will profile hundreds of charities in different sectors whose missions we think will appeal to young people; provide articles on the world of philanthropy; and give advice on selecting what to flip4. We will also have buyers create an iflip4 profile. Facebook is "the social network"; iflip4 will be "the causal network." Your iflip4 profile will have simple facts about yourself such as what school you go to, where you're from, your friends who you have connected with on iflip4, etc.; much like the most basic aspects of any online profile. What sets your iflip4 profile apart will be how personalized it is to reflect your passion for your charity and your success at furthering iflip4's goal of getting everyone inspired to flip4. You will write about or speak about why you flip4 your charity, why its work is more meaningful to you than any other's; you will be able to track your iflip4 charitable influence to see how many friends have credited you as their inspiration for flipping for their cause; and you will see how many people your friends have gotten to flip4 a charity. Your influence will be graphically represented as a growing evolution chart, as well as a map of the world to show you how far your reach has stretched. You will be able to connect with friends from Facebook, with followers from Twitter, and with other people who flip4 the same charity as you. You will be able to take part in discussion about different approaches to the same problem with peers who support charities that perform similar work to yours, and there will be opportunities to discuss where the problems your charity addresses have stemmed from. You will be able to share what you feel in a public way, and every time you do, you will be rewarded in our gamification model. Each person you influence, each video you upload, each post in a discussion group will grow your iflip4 influence point total. You will receive different badges once you reach different levels, and the most influential people will be profiled on our homepage. iflip4 will build a network of individuals who are motivated to get friends to flip4 a cause; of campus reps who will create a buzz and launch iflip4 on their campuses; of organizations like fraternities and sororities who will spread iflip4 through their network and compete with rivals to have the most charitable influence; and of religious organizations, whose commitment to charity and desire to engage young people will aid us in spreading our mission and our brand. iflip4 intends to create change in a very public manner. We believe that hiding your passion will not help your charity or any others as much as wearing it, talking about it in person, and displaying it online. We want to start a viral movement of caring for a cause within a demographic that is hyper-connected and sufficiently energized to make it happen. We hope the shirt, the site, and the belief of the people who flip will raise millions of dollars for incredible causes and create a generation of people who know what matters most to them, who know the answer to "What do you flip4?"

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iTeach
IsabelKhoo&EricaLeon

IsabelKhoo 2013

Economics/PoliticalScience ITeach is an established club in Brown University. It teaches isabel_khoo@brown.edu English to a community in Cambodia called Self Help Community Centre (SHCC). SHCC has 5000 members and (401) 347-5130 1400 of them go to 3 village schools. Since February 2011, members of the club delivered weekly lessons to the teachers and students of these schools using, Skype. By using this service, remote communities have a regular and constant form of access to learning English from native speakers. Based on the success of this service, the director of SHCC and its members have asked ITeach to develop new learning materials to specifically target work in the tourism and hospitality industry and tertiary education. Aims of this Project (1) Develop industry specific learning materials EricaLeon The main source of foreign exchange in Cambodia is 2014 tourism, especially in Siem Reap, where SHCC is located. Siem Reap is the home of Angkor Wat, a world heritage ReligiousStudies/Sociology site, where tourism is forecasted to boom exponentially in this decade. Based on this perspective and the requests of erica_leon@brown.edu the SHCC community, this project aims to develop learning (760) 554-6831 material specifically for learners seeking work in the tourism and hospitality industry. All the universities in Cambodia use English as the medium of instruction. All reference materials are also in English. In order for high school students to successfully articulate into higher education and have a good outcome, the director of SHCC will work with ITeach to develop learning materials that would prepare students for entry into tertiary education. (2) Develop testing tools ITeach developed its own teaching and learning materials especially for learners in rural communities, as existing English learning materials available are contextually unsuitable. This project aims to develop testing tools in order to provide formal evidence of the effectiveness of the learning materials and teaching service. Such tools will enable learners to have feedback about their learning and chart performance and will assist ITeach in seeking sponsors and funding.
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Plan of Action This application is submitted jointly by Isabel Khoo and Erica Leon. Isabel Khoo, the founder and director of ITeach will coordinate and manage the project. She will do this in America while Erica Leon, a teacher in ITeach, will travel to Cambodia to conduct local research and collect data and create the learning materials and testing tools. It is necessary for Erica to interact with SHCC members and engage in the tourism and hospitality industry in Siem Reap in order to understand their needs and shape the content of the learning material to make it suitable for rural Cambodians, where 90% of the population reside. ITeach is already an established service teaching English to SHCC. This project will build on this service. The new learning materials and testing tools will be delivered on the same Skype platform, using the existing ITeach framework of delivery.

The Jewelry Project

PilarGarciaBrown

2014 Anthropology

pilar_garcia-brown@brown.edu The Secoya are an indigenous community of about 460 (310) 739-2511 nestled in the Sucumbios region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. For the past half-century, multinational companies have been uprooting the region for oil and, in the process, have created one of the largest environmental disasters of the twentieth century. The Secoya are currently at a crossroads in which they depend on employment at oil companies and agriculturally destructive practices for income, yet at the same time are trying to preserve their lush, bio-diverse home. Many Secoya men currently work for oil companies to support their families despite the fact that they are helping perpetuate an environmentally harmful cycle. Options that enable the Secoya to maintain their traditional lifestyle while also earn a living in the new monetary economy are nonexistent. The Jewelry Project would allow for women to engage in the old and important tradition of jewelry making while also earn an income. Last year, we reached out to women in three different communities to collaborate in The Jewelry Project by purchasing jewelry outright from them. We have successfully sold much of our current inventory on Browns campus and in two stores, located in Boulder, CO and New York City. Despite our initial success, we lack the organizational framework in Ecuador to move forward. I plan to remedy this by helping form the basic structure of a womens cooperative in the small town of Sewaya, a community of the Secoya. For four weeks this summer we will be holding group meetings, creating a system to collect and document inventory, and establishing a way to streamline communications with Sewaya women so that we can more efficiently place orders from the U.S. and pay women for their merchandise. I hope that these four weeks of onsite work will successfully set the stage for a sustainable and, eventually, self-sufficient cooperative.
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When we return to the U.S., we will continue our search for markets to sell Secoya jewelry as well as further develop our marketing efforts. Currently, I have several leads at organizations and craft stores located across the U.S.from Los Angeles to Santa Fe to Boston. We will sell the jewelry for, at minimum, double the price with all proceeds benefitting Esperanza Internationals education fund. This fund will provide university scholarships to Secoya youth. That way, not only will the women benefit from our purchase of their jewelry, but students will, as well, by the sale of it. In order for this project to continue past the summer, I plan to recruit two interns who will travel with me to Ecuador and collaborate on this work. I will involve the Esperanza @ Brown student group in the fall so that a larger body of people will be involved in managing the supply and demand aspects of the project. Eventually, I hope to establish The Jewelry Project as an important initiative for Esperanza Internationals work in cultural conservation, but more importantly, I hope for this project to become a dependable source of economic independence and support for the women of the Secoya community.

Kivunwi Youth Project

IanTrupin

2013.5 COEOrganizationalStudies

ian_trupin@brown.edu In Tanzania, young men and women make up a majority of the +255763976312 country's potential workforce, but face unemployment levels five times higher than the rest of the population (Haji 2007). This statistic reflects numerous economic challenges facing youth, including insufficient job preparation and insufficient job creation, but also systematic injustices. Youth are regularly discriminated against by employers on the basis of gender or age, or are held back by lack of support for entrepreneurial ventures and a regulatory environment that is discouraging to small businesses (Juma 2007; Roadmap 2002). These trends have dire consequences for many youth, who find themselves in a vicious cycle of social alienation, in which they face social exclusion that further undermines their prospects for employment (Haji 2007). Asha Juma (2007) adds that unemployment and underemployment also undermine the future of youth by its association with high risk activities, including petty crime, drug abuse and prostitution. The Kivunwi Youth Project approaches these issues under the theory that one way in which youth can advance themselves economically, personally, socially, and in technical skills is by forming a cooperative society or similar association. Cooperatives can help youth to increase their income, improve their financial literacy, and gain access to loans (Hartley 2011). Furthermore, youth who have participated in cooperatives elsewhere in Africa have also gained leadership, time management, problem solving and teamwork skills, and increased selfesteem as a consequence of their experiences (Hartley 2011). Since cooperatives are by definition
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democratic, member-controlled institutions, they can help young people grow as citizens by connecting them with a network of peers, and by providing a civic space in which their voices will be heard and respected (Hartley 2011; Chambo 2007). Finally, youth cooperatives have proven to be effective organizations for addressing issues and challenges that are particularly relevant to youth, such as HIV awareness (Hartley 2011). The Kivunwi Youth Project will consist of five phases: 1) project introduction and establishment of a vision of change; 2) needs and assets assessment and reflection on past and present challenges; 3) trainings and group action plan development; 4) organizational transformation and identification of further projects and resources; and 5) implementation of youth-managed programs. Monitoring and evaluation will be a constant process throughout, and each phase will be marked by certain benchmarks and criteria of success. These phases can be summarized as follows: Phase I: Project Introduction and Establishment of Change Vision A general meeting of the members of Kivunwi Youth Group shall be convened to introduce the project to all, and to conduct breakout sessions and interviews in which participants will envision the way they would like their group to be, and the goals they would like to achieve as individuals in the near and more distant future. T exercise shall familiarize project participants with each others aspirations, and to begin thinking creatively in terms of achieving short and long-term goals. Phase II: Needs and Assets Assessment and Reflection on Past and Current Challenges Popular education techniques and group exercises will be used to reflect on the history of the group, what has been done wrong, and what has been done right. Members will think critically, not only about the problems that they see with the group, but about the root causes of those problems, and the obstacles they face as youth and as struggling entrepreneurs. Baseline surveys will more formally assess group needs and assets. This data will inform the structure and content trainings that Professor Maleko and I conduct at a later stage. Phase III: Trainings and Group Action Plan Development According to the needs and knowledge gaps revealed in Phase II, Professor Maleko and I will conduct trainings to increase members knowledge of what cooperative organization entails. These trainings will feed into the development of an action plan for group reorganization, and enable members to assess different organizational possibilities and to weigh their knowledge of cooperative structure and principles against their own past experiences and present needs. Phase IV: Organizational Transformation and Identification of Further Projects and Resources In this phase, members will act on the action plan they have created. If they do chose to be a cooperative as before, the members must meet to reformulate their cooperative societys bylaws, and reregister their group under the new cooperative law. This action process will serve both to rehabilitate the group formally and to engage its members in taking an active role in the organization. By being involved at this stage, members will gain a deeper understanding of the structure and purpose of their organization, and will feel a sense of ownership that may lead them to continue to seek to build the organization. This process does not end here, however. Beyond simply reorganizing the group, the development of member-led projects can ensure that the group is serving the members needs. At this stage, members can begin thinking about projects that can produce almost immediate benefits, such as capital investments in tools and facilities to improve their production. To support such initiatives, Professor Maleko and I will play a peripheral role in helping members to identify resources such as loans and grants, and teaching members how to access such resources.

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Phase V: Implementation of Youth-managed Programs Duringthefinalphaseoftheproject,thefunctionalityandsustainabilityofthe organizationalformwillbeputtothetestbeimplementingthememberledinitiatives chosenbythegroup.Increasingly,ProfessorMalekoandIwillbepullingbackour involvement,andengagingmoreinevaluationandmonitoringthaninfacilitationofgroup processes.

Lets Be Well Red

CarlotaPeredaSerras&RajviMehta

CarlotaPeredaSerras 2015

Biochemistry While Rajvi Mehta founded and conceptualized the carlota_pereda_serras@brown.edu project Lets be well Red, she will mainly be involved in the organization and co- ordination of work between (401) 749-3989 the various organizations mentioned below. She will be in Mumbai, India for the 1st week to get everything started following which she will return to Providence, RI, USA. She will return to India in the last week to help start up the Rajdhan Food Division of Rajdhan Institute & Trading Private Limited. Rajvis parents are the Managing Directors of Rajdhan Institute & Trading Private Limited and this company will help in the manufacture, marketing and supply of the nutritional bar GudOats (details mentioned later). Carlota Pereda worked very hard to come up with a recipe for the nutritional bar using the above mentioned ingredients. The product is currently undergoing taste tests in India. Carlota will be in India for 12 weeks working on the project- she is the primary on field participant. Other Alliances The first step is to create the nutritional bar in large quantities for the project and the Seva Sadan Society will be involved in the manufacture of the bar. 1. Seva Sadan Society: As a part of providing employment to the underprivileged women, this institute funded by the government, runs a kitchen and supplies food. For the initial production of the nutritional bars which will solely be used for the studying the efficacy of our product, Seva Sadan Society kitchen will be utilized. The next step involves gathering a stable participant pool and procuring the necessary laboratory set up for testing the hemoglobin levels of the participants before and post intake of the nutritional bar.

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2. Nargis Dutt Chariable Trust: This charitable organization is under Mrs. Priya Dutt (Member of the Indian Parliament) and was established in the memory of her mother. Mrs. Priya Dutt will be helping us gather the required stable participant pool which will comprise of students and teachers from government schools and colleges within her constituency (the schools and number of participants from each school have been mentioned below in the project narrative).

RavjiMehta 2013 Biochemistry rajvi_mehta@brown.edu 508-361-6419

3. Family Planning Association of India (FPAI): With 40 branches all over the country and 4 branches in Mumbai, Family Planning Association of India (FPA of India) is one of the largest nonprofit, non-political, non-sectarian organizations in the country. Dr. Janaki Desai, President of the Mumbai branch, has been supportive of Lets be Well Red right from its inception. Not only will FPAI be helping us with getting participants for the project, its laboratory set up will be utilized for testing the blood samples of the participants. While the above mentioned organizations will be supporting us with the necessary man power and equipment, they will not provide us with monetary funding. By providing the necessary funding, the C.V. Starr Fellowship will help in making the project a success. The final step of our project is to start up our own company for the manufacture, packaging, marketing and distribution of the nutritional bar. 4. Rajdhan Institute & Trading Private Limited: Rajvi Mehtas parents Dr. Hemant Mehta and Dr. Pragna Mehta are the Managing Directors of this company with the Certificate of Incorporation registration number- U 80100 MH 2002 PTC138074. For the manufacture and trading of the nutrition bar for our study, Rajvi Mehta will be initiating the Rajdhan Food Division of the company. The product will initially be marketed through wholesale sellers in Mumbai but we aim to make the product nationally available.

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Market Shares
ErinKelley&TaylorLanzet

ErinKelley 2015

The goal of the Brown Market Shares Program (BMSP) is Undecided to facilitate equitable food distribution by creating a erin_kelley@brown.edu partnership between the Brown University community and (210) 563-9019 local farmers to promote environmental sustainability, community health, and strong local economies. Though informed by the model provided by CommunitySupported Agriculture (CSA), Brown Market Shares is a uniquely structured food distribution organization adapted to the needs of a college campus and operated entirely by undergraduates. Every week, BMSP purchases produce from local farmers at slightly above wholesale costs and provides it to shareholders for slightly below retail cost. Fueled by volunteers, this system works to defray costs and ensure access for low-income staff and graduate students who are eligible to participate in our subsidized program. BMSP aims to provide an alternative to the current industrial agro-food system, the practices of which threaten the health of consumers, the environment, and farm workers alike. Problems ranging from injudicious pesticide application to dangerous pathogens like salmonella to soil depletion and excessive waste production plague our food industry on an enormous scale. BMSP fills a vital role in addressing these issues in the Brown community by providing access to fresh, sustainably-produced food from local farms. Our on-campus location is vital for the many students who cannot or do not travel to seek out other sources of fresh produce in Rhode Island, as well as for staff of the university who may face similar cost or travel barriers. Recently, BMSP has undergone explosive growth. From Fall 2009 to Fall 2010, significant community enthusiasm for the program was evident as the number of purchased shares increased 347%. Because our shareholders report that their shares serve as the main source of groceries for 2 to 4 people, we estimate that our community this fall was composed of more than 957 individuals. This size represents a significant opportunity to contribute to and inform the dialogue surrounding local food in the Brown community. However, previous program development has focused primarily on logistical infrastructure, while the more ideological aspects of the organization have received little attention. As BMSP expands to cater to more individuals, now is the ideal opportunity to improve those ideological aspects by revisiting the CSA principles which are the foundation of the program. As an organization, wed like to recommit to contact between the farmer and the shareholder - an aspect central to most CSAs. We propose to spend this summer bridging the connection between shareholders, farmers, and coordinators by strengthening the educational component of BMSP. Our work will be organized around three guiding questions: How can we more thoroughly engage with the ideology of our work and allow the opportunity for shareholders to do the same?
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What can we do to sustain our programs growth? How can we better communicate our goals as an organization while actively soliciting and utilizing input from all parties involved? We will spend the summer finding solutions and answers to these questions, guided in that process by three goals. First, we plan to foster identification between shareholders and farmers to provide opportunity for ideological investment in the goals of the regional food movement. Second, we will facilitate shareholder engagement with the practical benefits and challenges of seasonal eating, as well as spur discussion on the underlying reasons for such a commitment. Lastly, we will improve communication systems to reach a larger audience and effectively improve the relationships between farmers and coordinators, coordinators and shareholders, and shareholders and farmers so we effectively promote learning through communication. TaylorLanzet By the end of the summer, we will have conducted and documented farmer interviews. Compiling this 2015 research will help to bridge the shareholder-farmer connection. By interviewing our farmers, we can create EnvironmentalStudies an institutionalized pledge that acknowledges why we taylor_lanzet@brown.edu are supporting the farmers we do. Thus, we can better define whats important to BMSP. Information from (973) 986-7776 these interviews will be made into artistically designed farmer profiles that will be distributed through the newsletter, website, and email. We will also create signs for market day with each farms name to add to the visibility and transparency of our sourcing. Additionally, we will improve our communication systems to better suit a growing community. This means an updated and easy to navigate website, BMSP institutionalized literature/informational pamphlets, an increase in informational meetings before shareholder signups, and improved surveys to better understand shareholder needs. We will also research and attempt to facilitate opportunities for shareholder participation on farms through farm tours and workdays. We approach this work with different focuses. However, we will be in close collaboration; we are dependent on each others work in the sense that we will both contribute to the other. Taylors work will aim to improve current communication systems and increase visual aesthetic and overall accessibility of BMSP information. Some ways she will do this are by redesigning the website and creating institutionalized literature. Further, one of her goals is to increase transparency within the program and document this research in multiple mediums. Erins work will begin to clarify and develop BMSPs ideological engagement with the type of produce purchased. She will research farms BMSP sources from, investigate opportunities for shareholder engagement on farms, and create a narrative history of BMSP. Ultimately her guiding goal will be to develop an organizational stance on sustainability. In addition, we will coordinate Summer Market for its second year, which will offer a platform for feedback and a forum for new ideas.
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Zanzibar Utilization Project

JaysonMarwaha&HanShengChia

JaysonMarwaha 2014

HumanBiologyHealth MED International was incorporated in August 2011 by Jayson Marwaha. Prior to its incorporation, Jayson worked on StructureandPolicy a one-time distribution of donated medical equipment within jayson_marwaha@brown.edu the U.S. worth $65,000. He also began research on the issues surrounding the poor utilization of donated medical equipment (703) 579-7094 in the developing world. Since our incorporation, MED International has aimed to expand its services of brokering donated medical equipment to places of greater need in the developing world. Seeing as the majority of donated medical technology currently in the developing world is put to waste due to underutilization issues, we also aim to bring donated medical technology utilization in recipient countries to as close to 100% as possible. Our Project Narrative outlines how a Starr Fellowship grant for summer of 2012 will help us achieve this goal. MED International will broker its first international donation to Zanzibar, Tanzania in early 2012. This is a result of a partnership with the government of Zanzibar that Jayson established after meeting with the Second Vice President and Minister of Health of Zanzibar. The donations will support the implementation of Zanzibars extensive Essential Health Care Package, a government-run healthcare system overhaul. However, while donated technology may help alleviate high equipment costs and improve standards of medical care, it is of no use if the technology is not utilized on the ground. The Starr Fellowship will help us gain a first hand understanding of the barriers to utilization in Zanzibar. Without actually travelling to Zanzibar, we would be highly uncomfortable continuing to broker donated equipment of substantial financial value. While in Zanzibar, we aim to conduct a 3-part project comprised of a qualitative study, a quantitative study and a solutions development phase. The qualitative study involves conducting focus group discussions and key informant interviews with administrators and health professionals involved with the procurement and utilization process. This phase will give us an initial understanding of the barriers to equipment utilization. This will be followed by the quantitative phase, where we administer a survey that numerically documents the extent of underutilization and the reasons behind it. The results from this quantitative survey will form the baseline for future years to compare their rates of utilization. The final phase involves working with local and international partners to develop solutions to underutilization. These solutions can take place on two fronts: the first front will be an enhancement of our matching process (i.e., accurately matching a facilitys needs with technology that addresses those needs) to increase the relevance of our donations to the local Zanzibar context. By better understanding the local epidemiology of health facilities and their
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specific needs, we would be more able to procure equipment that is suited for them, in turn increasing their technology utilization rates. The second front involves working with partners on the ground to HanShengChia meet barriers to utilization. For example, should 2014 hospitals require medical technicians to be trained in maintenance, we will work with training facilities to develop this relationship. In the lead up to summer 2012, PoliticalScience/Development we will preemptively seek out and develop relationship Studies partners that can fulfill these roles. This will accelerate han_sheng_chia@brown.edu the process on the ground. MED Internationals commitment to Zanzibars (401) 580-4501 medical equipment utilization extends far beyond summer 2012. In the fall of 2012, we will be refining our matching and procurement processes based on our enhanced understanding of local needs. We will also move to offer a wider suite of services that increase the chances of utilization. This may include greater ties between technicians in Zanzibar and those working for US manufacturers. It may also include sourcing for spare parts and reagents that are necessary for the continued operation of the equipment. More importantly, MED International will maintain close ties with identified partners from Zanzibar who can coordinate our utilization strategies. It is crucial that we have a local network that can sustain the endeavor after our departure.

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