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The Social Entrepreneur's Cup is now a division of the statewide Minnesota Cup innovation competition. The first place Social Entrepreneurs' Cup winner will be awarded $20,000 this year (up from $15,000 last year) and will go on to compete with other divisional winners for an additional $20,000 that goes to the Grand Prize winner of the Minnesota Cup. As with last year, the four finalists for the 2009 Social Entrepreneur's Cup will make live presentations to conference attendees. The winners receive their awards at a reception concluding the conference. Here are the 2009 Four Finalists:
Admission Possible
www.admissionpossible.org
Admission Possible helps promising low-income high school students gain admission to college. Each year, approximately 200,000 low-income students in the United States graduate from high school prepared for college, but don't go. At no cost to students or our partner high schools, Admission Possible provides four critical services to help students gain admission to college: 1) Intensive ACT/SAT preparation; 2) Guidance in preparing college applications; 3) Financial aid assistance; and 4) Guidance in the transition to college. Since their founding in 2000, 99% of Admission Possible students have earned admission to college, 95% have enrolled, and nearly 80% are continuing to work toward their degree or have already graduated.
Admission Possible's key innovation is the application of national service to the issue of college access. Admission Possible enlists recent college graduates to "coach" our students as AmeriCorps members. Admission Possible was the first college access program in the country to use this highly replicable and very cost-effective approach. Admission Possible's program has now been replicated in 17 Greater Twin Cities high schools and serves 1,300 students across five school districts. In fall of 2008, they expanded their program to 60 students in three high schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With a tested and successful model, Admission Possible has aspirations for national growth in the years ahead.
Apple Tree Dental
ww.appletreedental.org
Apple Tree Dental provides dental services year-round for almost 15,000 low-income children, adults, elders and people with disabilities who struggle to get dental care. Apple Tree created the Community Collaborative Practice Model that brings care to low-income people where they live or receive other social services thus eliminating transportation, cultural and health status barriers that leave them without access to dental care. This pro-active new delivery model teaches healthy habits while delivering preventive and restorative care that prevents pain and suffering and restores healthy mouths and bodies.
Most people don't know that mouth diseases are infections that not only destroy teeth and gums, but can spread throughout the body where they complicate heart disease, diabetes, and pneumonia. In fact, the top unmet health care need for low-income people in Minnesota is dental care. Apple Tree Dental addresses this problem in a whole new way. It's a nonprofit group dental practice that delivers clinic based and on-site dental care to low-income children, adults, elders and people with disabilities in collaboration with more than 100 Head Start Centers, schools and nursing facilities.
Hearth Connection
www.hearthconnection.org
Homelessness is a societal ill that Hearth Connection knows how to solve. Hearth Connection has created a "turnkey" solution capable of eliminating long-term homelessness in Minnesota that proves that getting people off the streets and out of shelters into homes of their own is not only possible, but is also life-saving and life-changing. Hearth Connection finances, develops, and manages a network of supportive housing providers that successfully houses people with the longest and most complex histories of homelessness. Their network of supportive housing providers supports over 1,300 men, women and children. Hearth Connection works with both the public and private sector to fix broken systems that continue to add to the ranks of homelessness.
Because Hearth Connection is focused on eliminating long-term homelessness, it finds best practices and disseminates them across a 26 county network of supportive housing providers. They analyze data about who is being helped, whether people are staying in their homes and if they are functioning better in a host of ways. Because of these practices, they know where we are being most effective and what needs to be done to get even better results.
Rural Renewable Energy Alliance
www.rreal.org
Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) is saving low-income families money while reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions; helping educate tomorrow's leaders about solar power; localizing energy production and thus improving national security; and creating green jobs in an impoverished community in northern MN.
RREAL installs solar heating systems for low-income families that qualify for public heating assistance. These solar heating systems can offset as much heat in one season as a family receives through heating assistance. Solar heating systems last for decades, and are part of the long-term solution to fuel poverty, energy security, and sustainability. Recognizing the critical part youth will play in creating a sustainable future, RREAL also endeavors to have at least one young person at each solar installation. RREAL now manufactures and sells one of the most efficient solar air heat collectors on the market in an effort to assure long-term revenue and sustainability of our Solar Assistance Program.
The Social Entrepreneur Division is supported by:
