This newsletter from Youth Venture provides updates on their programs and initiatives from the past month. It highlights a video featuring one of their Venture teams that was featured on Starbucks' homepage for six weeks. It also spotlights the Venture team SIRUM from Stanford that created a website to efficiently connect medical donors with free clinics. Additionally, it announces the winners of the Connecting Change video competition and provides information on establishing a new Youth Venture franchise in San Francisco. The newsletter ends by thanking supporters and encouraging donations or volunteer involvement.

1. This Month at Youth Venture April 2010
Stay Informed, Inspired, and Involved
Hello to all of you dedicated Ashoka's Youth Venture® supporters and stakeholders!
You're now looking at our very first monthly newsletter. We hope that you enjoy hearing
about all the exciting new Youth Venture developments that are taking place in the US -
and we'll occasionally highlight our international work too. We also want to fill you in on
easy ways you can continue to support and engage in our mission of creating an
"everyone a changemaker" world. We value all of your continued support and consider
you an important part of the Youth Venture family. Feel free to share this newsletter with
those you think might be interested and please e-mail us if you have any questions about
specific initiatives or getting involved!
Youth Venture Featured on Starbucks' Homepage
We partnered with GOOD Magazine to produce a 3-minute video that describes the work
Youth Venture does worldwide through the example of Alex Lek and his Venture team
Blockrockers in Seattle. These young people use the art of break-dancing to raise money
and awareness for Invisible Children in Uganda. The video has been featured on Starbuck
Homepage (click 2nd thumbnail image) for the past six weeks and you can also check out
the impressive Venture story here.
YV Team Spotlight: SIRUM (Stanford, CA)
Many health clinics in the United States rely on donations of medicine and supplies to
provide patient care. Current donation practices are inefficient and force clinics to rely on
personal networks. The result: delays in treating patients and over $6 billion worth of
medial supplies wasted, every year. In response, Losmeiya, along with her peers at
Stanford created SIRUM; a website that efficiently connects donors to free clinics. Much
like eBay, SIRUM allows free clinics and donors to quickly register on the website and
input requests. The software then recommends matches to donors in real-time and, once
approved, allows both parties to track the progress of the donation from door to door.
Losmeiya and her team are working closely with a Youth Venture mentor to scale up
SIRUM. They hope that one day SIRUM will be the hub where donors and clinics across
the US can connect. Their mentor is helping them realize this dream. Do you have
connections with the healthcare field that could help SIRUM? Are you interested in
mentoring a Youth Venture team? If so, contact us.
Connecting Change Competition
The internet is a powerful tool that has enabled us to connect with individuals from all
across the world at rapid speed. As it continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, its
capacity to facilitate changemaking is tremendous. To this end Youth Venture, along with
our sponsor, Voices of Broadband, organized a video competition asking Youth Venturers
to answer the question "How has broadband and information technology helped your abilit
to change the world?" We recently announced Jack and Jenny Chen of JJ Express as the
prize winners and Alex Hadik of Climate Action Club and Dan Casey of Computer
Greenhouse as honorable mentions in the Connecting Change Competition. View all the
winning entries here.
Youth Venture in San Francisco
Late last year, we started to work on establishing a new Youth Venture franchise in the
San Francisco Bay Area. After many months of preparation, we are launching our first
cohort of Youth Venture Teams out of San Francisco this month. To learn more about
some of the fantastic teams we're supporting in SF, check out these video clips and
interviews. If you would like to get involved with Youth Venture in the Bay area, e-mail Am
Wilson.
Support Youth Venture

2. As always, YV values your support and your insight. As the year unfolds and summer
approaches, we hope to continue supporting creative young minds that are determined to
transform their communities and society at large. As our supporters and champions, we
love hearing your feedback on how we can better go about achieving this goal. If you're
interested in volunteering your time and knowledge with our outstanding youth, please feel
free to contact us. You can also help to support our continued growth by donating to YV.
This email was sent to: kmyers@youthventure.org
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