Venture Field: Violence Prevention

Year of Venture Launch: 2006

Name: Rachel

Role in the Venture: Co-President, Co-founder

Venture Description: It Could Be Me is an organization composed of twenty teenage students that are making a difference in the world. Our goal is to educate, help resolve humanitarian crises, and natural disasters going on in the world today. We want our younger generation to get invovled to help because our future depends on us.

Venture Origin: For my service project (Rachel) I choose to raise awareness and funds for the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. While doing this my best friend, Rebecca and I noticed that most teenagers did not know about crises going on in the world today. After going to the Darfur rally in Washington, together we created the organization It Could Be Me.

Innovation: Our venture is very different with how we engage others. First we address the problem and our members think of creative ways to help. Our goal is to increase awareness while raising funds to help. Our events engage our community to want to help and be apart of It Could Be Me. One of our recent events was a concert that elicited a big response and teens and adults came to help our efforts.

Impact

Impact: It Could Be Me has made a impact on many people's lives. We don't know exactly how many people we have helped in our community and outside of our community. It Could Be Me is impacting the people in need and they are also impacting us. Seeing the joy on their faces when we help, makes the difference for It Could Be Me and we feel inspired to do even more. Also, it shows our community that everyone can have an impact if they get invovled.

Engagement with the community: Rebecca and I introduced ourselves and It Could Be Me to local companies and we got a possitive feedback that teens were taking action. We do public speaking to religious groups and schools to promote reaching out to others and to inspire others to help. Community and friends are proud that they volunteer to help. Our events allow everyone to get invovled and to feel to apart.

Impact and engagement progress since launch: We know that we are engaging more people to help because we are having other organizations coming to us to have joint events. The National Liberty Museum, Kidsbridge Museum, Civic Engagements at TCNJ will be working together to help with Darfur, Sudan. A local teenager and It Could Be Me is going to remodel the girls sleeping area, and living area in a school in New Jersey for the deaf.

Impact and engagement strategy: Our strategy for having an impact on and engaging more people in the future is by alerting the community of what is going on in the world. We can do this by continuing our public speaking events and community activities. Also, many of the students involved in the organization go to different schools in different areas so more people are becoming aware of the program.

Awards: I (Rachel) has won the citizenship award for my humanitarian work for Darfur from the National Liberty Museum in Phildelphia.

Budget

Amount of Youth Venture seed grant: 1000

Money raised: Since we began during the summer we have raised $2,808. We raised $500 from our concert. We also raised money by selling t-shirts and sweatshirts. We recieved donations to go to Darfur, Sudan.

Creative ways of raising resources: It Could Be Me works closely with a large non-profit organization, American Jewish World Services. We have two accounts set up with them. One being for our organization. The other account is raising funds to help the genocide in Sudan.

Strategy

Expansion plan for next 6 months: We are looking for opportunities to publicize It Could Be Me. We are calling radio and TV stations, newspapers, and magazines. We are going to have many events in the upcoming months that will alert the community about the world's problems.

Plans for sustaining the project: Our venture is sustainable because we are pasionate about helping others around the world. We want It Could Be Me to have chapters in religious groups, schools, and other organizations around the world because teens will be able to participate and continue helping others throughout life.

Vision for three years from now: We want to have members across the country and have a chapter's of It Could Be Me. We hope that when a disaster or a crisis arises that It Could Be Me will be able to help right away and engage not only our community but the country to help make a difference. We want teenagers to know that they can personally have an impact on the world.

Project impact: It Could Be Me is having an impact on society, we are focused on making life easier for the people in our community and in the world. When disaster struck in our hometown in Pennsylvania. We had a horrible flood in the summer of 2006. Many houses were flooded. Right away, It Could Be Me went down to the Red Cross at a local school. It Could Be Me found out how we could help. We went to the grocery store to pick up supplies and food for the flood victims. We gave our supplies to the Red Cross to give out to the community. Our community was grateful that teenagers cared about them and waned to help out. The genocide in Darfur, Sudan is extremely far away but we know that it is important to help in every way possible. Our raising awareness and funds makes a huge difference in the refugee camps. Our support helps fund aid workers, medicine, food, water, and living supplies for the Sudanese people. These items will change and save their lives. We are hoping that the genocide in Sudan will soon end. But, we will continue our help in rebuilding Darfur. One day, when it is safe to travel to Darfur, the members of It Could Be Me want to go to Sudan to see how we have made an impact in their lives.

Youth Venture movement - what it means and how you can contribute: It means a lot to It Could Be Me to be apart of the Youth Venture Movement. The Youth Venture Movement is made up of other youth, which has a type of organization like us. It Could Be Me is proud to say we our apart of this movement that is trying to make a difference in the world. Youth Venture helped start It Could Be Me because they believed in us that we are having an impact on teenagers around the world. When we are asked how we got started, our answer is always that Youth Venture supported us from the beginning stages and is steering us to become a more successful organization. It Could Be Me is contributing to promote Youth Venture movement by speaking out about Youth Venture and how we are pleased to say we are a part of this movement.

Author:
Rachel
United States
Website: www.itcouldbeme.org