APPCNC caught the attention of public health officials nationwide with the launch of their BrdsNBz Text Message Warm Line in February 2009. The BrdsNBz service supplements the work of parents, educators, and medical professionals by providing North Carolina youth a medically accurate, personalized answer to teens’ sexual health and relationship questions.

AHA is an interagency collaborative that will ensure the overall health and well-being of all adolescents, 10-18 years of age, in Austin/Travis County and their adult caregivers to prepare them with a strong foundation for adult life. The Initiative uses a comprehensive evidence-based approach to increase healthy behaviors and decision-making among Texas adolescents by promoting the development of confidence, competence, connectedness, character, and contribution.

UpStart [uhp-stahrt] n. 1. A company or organization with innovative approaches to energy use, carbon pollution, resource consumption, and/or social equity, 2. A company or organization overcoming market barriers to build the new clean energy economy.

While playing an important role, governments and non-profits cannot build a “clean economy” on their own; rather, the private sector must lead the way. And thanks to a growing number of forward-thinking companies, the clean economy is already in the works. In this series, Lisbeth Kaufman of the Center for American Progress highlights “UpStarts” – companies that are shaking up the market, breaking down barriers and helping change the economy.

B Lab is creating a new type of company, the B Corporation, which modifies governance so that managers respond to long-term interests of investors, stakeholders, and the environment, rather than just focusing on short-term profits.

In a Harvard Business School case study on B Lab, co-founder Coen Gilbert explained B Lab’s goals and approach to overcoming market barriers for social entrepreneurs:

“There are tons of individual companies that have managed to effectively balance social and business impact. Still, we need to institutionalize the values, standards, and accountability that allow companies to do that. We need systems in place. We need to change the rules of the game instead of continuing to clean up the mess.

We want to look at the root causes. The root causes are not evil people, but rather poor system design. Right now the system is designed to maximize short-term stock value; it does that well, but at the cost of everything else.”

The question is: How do we have a system that facilitates long term value for the good of society?

The Problem: Undefined status and standards for for-profit social entrepreneurs

Over the past decade the social entrepreneurship sector has grown to include an estimated 40 million people employed worldwide, all working to address the most pressing environmental, economic and social challenges of the day. Despite the rising numbers of social entrepreneurs, for-profit businesses in the sector face a number of daunting challenges.

These barriers include:

Legal Status: Current corporate law makes it difficult for companies to prioritize social and environmental impact, requiring companies to maximize shareholder financial return above all else. Until the advent of B-Corporations, there was no legal status for companies that seek to produce social and environmental benefits in addition to profits.

Standards and Transparency: Most corporations have a stated corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission, but without economy-wide standards it’s hard for consumers to tell which companies have real impactful social policies and which simply have impactful marketing campaigns.

Incentives: While the government grants non-profit organizations tax exempt status and allows non-profits to accept tax-deductable contributions, there are no such incentives for for-profit socially beneficial organizations.

The Solution: The B Corporation

Legal Status: B Lab is changing the rules of the game by changing the very structure and legal status of the corporation. Officers and directors of B Corporations have legal permission and protection to consider the interest of all stakeholders, in corporate decision-making: employees, consumers, the community, the environment, not just shareholders. The B Corporation is essentially a new corporate form, a for-profit hybrid of the standard corporation and the socially oriented non-profit. Four states have passed B Corp laws, while six more states consider B Corp legislation.

Standards and Transparency: B Lab has designed a B Impact Rating System (BIRS) to measure a company’s social and environmental performance, setting economy wide standards that apply for all sectors and business sizes. To qualify as B Corporation, a company must complete the B Impact Assessment and receive a composite score of at least 80 out of 200 points. BIRS is updated every 2 years to remain relevant and accurate, and version 3.0 is now up for review. The rating system uses a cold hard numerical score to cut through “green washing” and CSR marketing.

Incentives: B Lab is actively building incentives to encourage businesses to join the B Corporation community, and to reward the organizations that are already making positive impact. With a network of more than 60 service partners, B Corps get discounts on various business services amounting to more than $750,000 in savings, including Salesforce.com, NetSuite software, Inspire Commerce credit card processing, along with increased advertising and marketing benefits. Likewise, the B Corp community includes a growing network of more than 25 investors interested in supporting B Corps. To ensure the best and the brightest work for B Corporations, the Yale School of Management forgives student loans for graduates who work at a B Corporation within ten years of graduation.

So far there are 419 B Corporations of various sizes across 54 industries, with a total of $1.94 billion in revenues. The community includes large well known brands like Method, 7th Generation, and Good Capital as well as numerous smaller startups.

The conventional corporation has little incentive to address the most pressing issues the world faces. B Lab, a prime example of an UpStart, serves as a cutting-edge way to allow entrepreneurs to solve important climate, energy, and social problems — while making a profit.

Thanks to Mark Fischer, CEO, Inspire Commerce and InspirePay, for originally posting this article.

OneSeventeen Media is Texas’ first certified B Corporation.

Needless to say, we were ecstatic when the iPhone Mom chose to review PlumbBrain Guardian last week.

In her review, she stated that she was impressed with PlumbBrain Guardian’s key features of storing information about your child in their profile and simplifying the process of alerting emergency personnel should your child go missing.

But, she went on to say…..”This is all extremely helpful and important but the next feature is what made me think PlumbBrain Guardian is really onto something. If you’re like me you would install this app on your phone, add the photographs and then forget about it. Hoping I’d never need to use it and so never going back to update the information. Should something happen years later the only picture I would have of my fifteen year old daughter would be a photo from when she was eleven.”

“PlumbBrain has thought about people like me and they have built alerts into their app. When you setup your account you may schedule alerts that will remind you to update your children’s photos. Reminders can be set as frequently as weekdays, weekly, monthly or annually. This is a fantastic feature!”

How could we have asked for more than to be in the IPhone Mom’s “Hope I Never Have To Use Them” category??!! “I have several apps on my iPhone that fall into the category of “Hope I NEVER have to use them but I’m VERY glad I have them” and PlumbBrain Guardian is solidly in that category. This is a free and useful app you should definitely get your hands on.”

Learn more about the PlumbBrain Guardian and download a free copy in the iTunes Store.

On April 29, 2011, we launched a new child safety mobile application for the iPod, iPad and iPhone!  PlumbBrain Guardian was created by parents for parents. The app helps you keep a current photo of your child or grandchild (or a child in your care) in case they wander off unexpectedly.

One of our advisors with AMBER Alert™ says one of the key features of the PlumbBrain Guardian app is it’s reminder feature telling you to update your child’s photo. A current photo is critical to finding a lost child quickly.  The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.

Please check it out for yourself.  Maybe you don’t have children in the 2-13 age range but I bet you know someone who does (OK, we’re assuming once our children reach 13 they won’t wander off!).  Click here to download the app from the App Store in iTunes to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – it’s free!

Please leave us your feedback in the comments section or contact us at mobile [at] oneseventeenmedia.com or twitter @bcarls.

In 2010, the sides of the scale have shifted. Technology is abundant, the Internet is cluttered, marketing is everywhere and consumers have more options than they’ll ever need. The audiences that technology grew up with (Gen X, Boomers) are all but captive to brands. The audience that grew up with technology (teens, Millennials) are not wooed by glitz and glamour. They’re used to technology, because it’s always been there. How times have changed!

Devices Have Always Been Portable

Teens have grown up in the portable era. Their first computers were laptops. Their first music players were iPods. Their first gaming systems were handheld. Because teens are so adept at using portable devices, they expect experiences to transition across them.

Mobile Phones Have Always Existed

Because teens are a texting generation, many of them prefer BlackBerrys and other phones that provide a different experience than touch-screen phones. Teens grew up with lots of options for mobile phones, so they’re not as quick to buy or try the next hot new thing — especially if it’s not connected with what they’re already using.

Technology Is Always Evolving

To teens, there are always new mobile platforms and devices being created. They’re open to new technology more than any other generation and are savvier with new devices, but they don’t just buy it ’cause it’s new. Teens want their technology to work better than what they have and doesn’t just look better than what they have.

Brands Have Always Been Online

Brands have been online as long as teens have. There’s nothing new about it, and that makes them harder to engage. Teens don’t want to engage with brands in social media just because it’s cool that the brand is in social media. They want to engage with brands if they’re getting something in return.

So though times have changed, I think it is safe to say that today’s technology driven teens are not overwhelmed by their choices, but looking for technology that works for them!

Powered by technology and fueled by creativity, fundamental change is about to emerge in the electronically connected world they inhabit. Gasoline-powered automobiles, compact discs, and desktop computers are headed toward the technology scrap heap according to a recent survey of American high school students. Their laptops, cell phones and I-pods are entry level tools that, combined with education and creativity, will lead to changes that improve the world.

Teens predict technology will create change by 2015, and these familiar objects will be replaced with newer, better, energy efficient cars and communications equipment. According to teens, developers of hydrogen and electric cars better get busy. The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which gauges Americans’ attitudes toward invention and innovation, found that a third (33 percent) of today’s technology educated young adults predict that gasoline-powered cars will be obsolete by the year 2015.

The tech savvy teens are used to toting phones that let them access the Web, text and download tunes. Laptops and a flash drive are their heavy duty home to dorm or classroom computing equipment. And it’s no surprise that more than one in four teens (26 percent) expect compact discs to be obsolete within the next decade. Another one in five (22 percent) of the teens predict desktop computers will be a thing of the past within the next ten years.

Teens Believe Global Issues Have Solutions

Using cell phones to download music, facebook to keep in touch and blogs to communicate ideas is fun, but these American teens are optimistic that the creativity unleashed by computers and other modern technology can help solve important global issues. Students need to learn to use techology in engaging ways to develop higher level thinking skills.

Accessing international communities via the Internet is second nature to these digital learners. The young adults who took the survey are confident that just about any crisis facing the world can be solved by working together to apply new technologies and innovative thinking to global concerns.

Their faith in innovation and invention is a hopeful sign. On clean water, 91 percent expect technology to step in and create a solution. A whopping 89 percent of the teens think that world hunger will end by 2015. Disease eradication (88 percent), pollution reduction (84 percent) and energy conservation (82 percent) are all within the realm of being history with the application of creative new applications that these electronically connected teens will help develop.

Technology and Change Is Their Comfort Zone

“Perhaps more than any preceding generation, today’s young people are completely comfortable with rapid technological change,” Lemelson-MIT Program Director Merton Flemings said.

“Teens’ belief that science and technology may hold the answers to our biggest societal challenges is encouraging,” Flemings added. Technology coupled with teen creativity creates a winning team. Who would have predicted that cell phones, I-pods and laptop computers would have such far reaching effects?

Will Education Be Able To Keep The Pace?

The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index found that these teens believe they have developed some of the critical skills that will be needed to address these issues. More than three out of four teens (77 percent) believe they have learned problem-solving skills well while in school.

They also feel prepared to work in teams (72 percent), think creatively (71 percent) and lead others (61 percent). However, they fall short when it comes to budgeting money. Only 32 percent of teens said they feel they learned that skill well while in school.

With teens like these working on solving the world’s environmental and conservation issues, you begin to believe that the 2015 predictions really have a chance to become reality.

Writing a college application essay can be pretty stressful, and it should be time-consuming. After all, you don’t want to give the admissions counselors at your dream school a bad impression based on a poorly written essay that you threw together the night before the due date. Proper planning is essential because you will need to give yourself plenty of time for adjustments, rewrites, and proofreading.

Here’s a guide to some ways you can use to help you through this rite of passage:

Be Yourself. “Applications are best if they reflect the way the student is,” says Light. “It’s very tempting to sit down and try to figure out what admissions officers — we as a species — want to see, and there are perils in that.” Why? “We have pretty good radar to detect the overly varnished,” says Keith Light, who has worked in admissions at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and now at Brown. “It’s not that we’re cynical and looking for cheating or too much input. [But] it’s not very hard for us to spot when a parent or someone else [like a teacher] has had too much of a heavy hand in the writing.” It makes admissions officers wonder, “Are we really getting to really know the student, or what others thinks the student is?” he says. It’s best when students pen their own essays, which sound as though they’re written by the person their teachers are describing in their recommendation letters.

Don’t underestimate yourself. Keep your attitude positive. Most kids don’t go to Harvard — but still get into a college and love it. This fall about 7.5 million students are expected to attend public four-year institutions and 4.6

million to attend private four-year institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (There are more than 420 public colleges and universities alone, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.)

Don’t feel compelled to add extras, such as resumes. “We neither ask for or expect them, but they pop up,” says Light. (Some even include “mission statements.”) Light once received a 12-page one. The parent told him, “The son of my friend down the street just got admitted to Harvard last year, and his resume was 14 pages.” Light’s take on it: “He was admitted in spite of the essay.” (Resumes aren’t the only add-ons: Once Light received multiple copies of a color-coded family tree, dating back to the 1800s, which showed close relatives’ connections to a university.)

Good luck!

“Bullying is wrong. It needs to end. And you can help,” the tagline for the contest reads.

The hope is that, not only will people who may have not previously engaged with this topic enter into the discussion because they like the media aspect of it, but they will also discuss it with others, spreading the word about anti-bullying without overtly meaning to. The contest will generate buzz that extends beyond just those participating, not to mention the exposure that the actual aired PSA will get. People channel surfing with only the intention of being entertained will be hit with this all-important message. News stories and the “It Gets Better” campaign, among other recent coverage, has brought much-needed attention to the issue of anti-gay bullying, but people need to seek that out to some extent in order to learn about it. A television spot could be the most successful way to reach more passive consumers of media.

Registration in the 2010-2011 Young Minds Digital Times Competition is now open at www.youngmindsdigitaltimes.com. The Third Annual Competition presented by KidThrive.org and encourages students in grades 6-12, for free, to create short films, documentaries, and public service announcements. Last year we had over 1100 student register, and we are back to do it again.

“The competition is a way to honor the amazing work kids are generating in the digital creative arts,” says Jaclyn Bell, Competition Director, “This is the next wave of digital education; not just knowing the tools, but being able to use them well and manipulate their boundaries to produce something relevant, meaningful, and in our opinion, beautiful. Plus, we have some surprises and further opportunities coming up for students once registration is underway.”

The competition features two tracks: Young Filmmakers “Doing Good” and Young Filmmakers Freeform. In the “Doing Good” Track, students are invited to create public service announcements relating to social issues the public should be informed of, or relating to an organization that works towards social good. In the Freeform Track, students can enter films on any topic into six different categories: documentary, short film, animation, music video, non-moving movie, and comedic creation.

A Grand Prize Winner from each track receives a prize package to attend the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. First place winners in each category and age division (6-8 grades and 9-12 grades) take home $200 and Judges Choice honorees receive $100. The school with the most student film entries that make it pass the Public Voting Stage will also win $1000.

The chance for the public vote will end March 30th, and the films that make it to the second round will be viewed and critiqued by industry directors, actors, filmmakers and producers.

The competition registration runs from October 4th, 2010 to February 18, 2011, with films due by March, 19, 2011. Films enter a three tiered voting process, beginning with public voting March 22-30, 2011. Winner announcements will be posted May 20, 2011 on the Young Minds Digital Times website. Plus, we are pleased to announce that there will be a lot of surprises in store in this year’s competition, so REGISTER TODAY!

A study by the non-profit Josephson Institute of Ethics also found that one-third of all high school students say that violence is a big problem at their school, and nearly one in four say they do not feel very safe there.

The issue of harassment gained prominence this year after a spate of suicides by students who were being bullied. President Obama has even stepped forward, calling for greater awareness of the bullying epidemic, saying the nation must “dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up.”

This past Tuesday also featured The U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, holding a national press conference announcing guidance to schools on handling bullying and discriminatory harassment.

Earlier this month, Duncan released a statement about anti-gay bullying in response to to a trend of recent suicides — particularly Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman who took his life in September:

“This is a moment where every one of us — parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience —needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms. Whether it’s students harassing other students because of ethnicity, disability or religion; or an adult, public official harassing the President of the University of Michigan student body because he is gay, it is time we as a country said enough. No more. This must stop.”

Duncan’s statements and planned press conference also comes at the time that the local story of Cassandra Morris was published. Morris dropped out of Ogemaw Heights High School earlier this month because she said she couldn’t handle the bullying from students for being a lesbian. Her bullying went beyond the walls of the school.

So with all these cries for justice, cries for help, occurring this week, the question remains: will something actually be done? Bullying is a crisis that is always discussed, but never really tackled. Maybe now that the harsh spotlight of the media is highlighting every painful angle progress might actually be made? The White House has even gone as far as to say that it would host a conference next year on preventing bullying and harassment. But is this soon enough?