Hospitals and doctors visits are particularly difficult for patients with autism and their families. These patients have special needs relating to communication, environment, and behavior that are challenging in the unpredictable medical environment. The goal of our project is to create a program for patients with autism to improve interaction with the health care system. We will work with Vizzle, a visual software to create an on-line program for patients to help them prepare for their doctor's or hospital visit. We will create medical lesson plans and a system for health care providers to communicate directly with patients with autism using medically-related visual cues. This will be accessible on any smartphone or tablet device.

The attached video makes clear the plight of the underprivileged youth of Alexandra. We have already collected and sent 150 pounds of donated sneakers. The funds will now enable us to provide a multi-level system of academic mentorship there. We will offer homework help each day after school at a community center, after which children will begin basketball on adjoining courts. Along with a weekly curriculum on math & science—subjects not well covered in Alexandra schools—I will work with students at local private schools to facilitate critical interactions in the form of college application workshops. The children of Alexandra will also be assigned to student-mentors in order to make their dreams of continuing secondary education possible.

11 weeks in, and it's already time to take V52 to the next level! I volunteer a minimum of once a week, 3-4 hours at a time. I seek out opportunities that resonate with me personally and help me to learn what issues face the people who live in my community. I invite others to join me. In these early weeks, I've discovered just how many organizations need awesome volunteers and how great the needs are out there. I'd use the funds to add my own creative "feel-good" volunteer projects that I've discovered a need for and mobilize a community of friends to help. Making get-well cards for sick children at the children's hospital, sending postcards to armed services members, munchies to police/fire rescue, etc. I would use funds for materials.

This documentary short will be produced in cooperation with two non-profit organizations that have contributed to the girls’ education. She’s the First is a non-profit that sponsors girls’ education in developing countries, helping them be the first in their families to graduate. Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project is the school and home where these young women have lived and studied since a young age. If I were to win this award, I would use the $500 toward screening costs for the film’s launch upon my return to New York City, increasing the film’s visibility, and thus promoting the two organizations. (The video above is a micro doc I produced with She’s the First for one of their other partner organizations, Starfish One by One.)

We currently have a team on traveling through Asia documenting stories of small non-profits, volunteers, and social businesses. Through our travels and experience we've found that there are plenty of young people who want to give back, but that their biggest barrier is money, so we want to help fund young people who want to volunteer abroad and locally. This could mean spending the summer working with a local organization or volunteering abroad. A scholarship fund would embody the core mission of GiveYourGap: to be a resource to empower and inspire people to give their gap.

Free places to make repairs would motivate more people to cycle and contribute to making Miami a healthier and environmentally friendly place. Our vision starts with one station. With the funds from this contest we will purchase and install Miami’s first self-service bike station in a safe and heavily travelled route used by cyclists to maximize its impact; from this initial success, we will continue to expand the project by asking local advocacy groups and businesses for sponsorship, in exchange for advertising space on the stations in which they have invested.

Some Assembly Required is similar to Latitude or Find My Friends - users can quickly create groups whose members are visible on a map and connected in a group chat. Users can flag places on the map, post pictures, subscribe to information feeds from other groups, and generally keep track of each other and coordinate actions. Most importantly, this app will be cross-platform, available for free, and is designed to protect privacy. Itwill not require setting up an account, which means no server-side tracking (unlike Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.). We have it near completed for Android, and now need to create the iPhone version, which we need to hire some help to do. Please help us to connect and mobilize people striving for change!

Instead of empty stores there will be a restaurant offering healthy food, a boutique, a café, flower shop. We will have a dog park and fitness classes from yoga to an obstacle course for kids. The streets will be lined with food stands and local farmers selling their vegetables. There will be classes for all the family – from gardening and canning to learning how to make your own instrument. And plenty of entertainment – bands street performers, comedians – you name it. And we want to do it all in the most sustainable way possible– we will use solar power, biodegradable utensils. Everything will be recycled and upcycled. Why? Because we want to show that when all of us come together as a community we can change our neighborhoods. W

Our goal is to create a community of individuals from different disciplines that meet on a regular basis to solve current social issues, by working with local organizations, and using design thinking and techniques. There will be two types of meetings – Design Jams to quickly ideate, prototype and test solutions and Workshops to practice methods and techniques of design thinking and service design. The Jams will be fast-paced, collaborative and focused on creating realistic and innovative solutions. The interdisciplinary and problem-solving environment is fostered as participants from different backgrounds learn from each other. Grants will be used to secure locations, obtain supplies, web hosting, and occasional guest speakers.

I will use these funds to market our organization. I will purchase business cards and a website. I have already found stores who are eager to sell these products, but in order to reach a larger audience I need an internet presence and business cards to begin networking and getting my ideas out to the larger public.

Over 1.1 billion people still use unsafe drinking water. Drinking from unsafe water can result in severe diarrheal infections, resulting in death. SODI-CAN is a multi-purpose water vessel that utilizes a patent-pending technology and optimized design to enhance a natural process of solar disinfection of water. The design is an adaptation of existing water cans, called jerry cans, found in many developing areas. SODI-CAN can prevent up to 94% of diarrheal infections. SODI-CAN’s utility is found in refugee camps and low resource areas. We need your help to develop and launch this idea. By providing clean water, the impact of our product benefits individual well-being and the community as a whole.

MayanTerra's product offering includes access to sustainable agroecological inputs, consulting services, and flexible financing for the improved health our planet and its people. We are firm believers in adopting a market-based approach to development. A social enterprise, MayanTerra provides high quality, low-cost solutions to challenges faced by rural small farmers in the developing world.

Please vote to help us continue and increase this program for teens and young adults for free! The funds will be used to recruite more survivors and pay for food at the end of the sessions to refuel our athletes!

That's why we created Rescue Bars - a nutrient packed treat that will get you to the top of the mountain without weighing you down. These bars are formulated with you - and refugees - in mind. Refugees, like hikers, need the nutrients in Rescue Bars, and need them delivered in a quick and easy package. Started in May 2011, Rescue Bars aims to be incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit by May 2012. For every Rescue Bar bought we will donate one bar to a refugee camp.

90% of the world’s Deaf people live in developing nations. Many Deaf people in developing nations are often robbed of the opportunities available. The right to be independent. The right to earn a living. Most importantly, the epitome of growth, the right to learn. Less than 1% of Deaf children in developing nations have full access to any education. You don’t have to be a math whiz to see what’s wrong with this picture. We want to create a scholarship foundation, which is a consistent solution to providing Deaf persons of developing nations with the opportunity to come to America to further their education. We believe higher education will help those individuals escape poverty, gain employment, and turn into an empowered deaf individual.

The money awarded will create a feasibility study and comprehensive business plan showing investment startup costs, R.O.I. calculations, number of new jobs created, as well as positive impact on landfill reduction in the the city of Johnstown, PA. Once created, the business plan can act as a be replicated help local regions economically, and the world environmentally, for decades to come. The United States has only six percent (6%) of the world population, but produces half of the world’s garbage. Plastics make up the largest segment of today’s waste stream. Recycling and repurposing plastics is an integral waste management solution and sustainable, long term business for economic stimulation through job creation.

PenTales is a little project run by a group of friends who are trying hard to build a culture - online and offline - where people slow down, ask each other questions, meet in person, and, above all, listen. We organize storytelling events in 26 cities around the world from Lahore to Berlin to Damascus. We also mobilize friends, friends of friends, and strangers to go out into their communities and collect nuggets of wisdom. If we won the GOOD Maker award, we'd print stickers for every person who shares a nugget of wisdom with the PenTales community. The sticker would say something like: "My Nugget Makes the World Wiser." Each person would receive 3 stickers so they could encourage others to contribute to the project as well.

Omeed aims to connect local artisans across Central Asia to international markets by providing socially conscious consumers with access to locally produced high quality goods. Products will include traditional jewelry, leather goods, textiles, and woodwork. Artisans will be paid and employed under international Fair Trade norms. The remaining profits will support local health and development programs. This grant will go towards the development of an online sales platform as well as seed capital for artisan workshops.

Frontline Health Workers (also called Community Health Workers) affordably improve access to care while addressing human resource gaps. Despite this, the sector is under-funded, under-researched, and under-adopted due to fragmentation. This translates into under-adoption of best practices, duplication of efforts for program development, and a lack of collective action for research and advocacy. Funding from GOOD will support a team of community engagers, networking tools, crowdsourced research, and a knowledge dissemination platform, allowing us to build a rigorous community of practice that tackles fragmentation by compiling existing experience, promoting adoption of evidence-based practice, and coordinating collective action.

<< WHAT ?>> We will create 50 yoga totes large enough to fit any mat, stylish enough to make you wear it, ethical enough to make you proud, and connected to a purpose worthy of purchase. << HOW? >> By using upcycled leather scraps from local tanneries and workshops, organic fiber lining and recycled shipping supplies, we'll monitor the carbon footprint and only use what we need. << WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? >> 100% of the proceeds raised will be used to produce our yoga totes through the following: working with local seamstresses, purchasing local supplies and sourcing ethical fabric. <<TRANSPARENCY>> We'll also outline the whole process on our blog to keep you updated on how we achieve our goal - from production to sale to Afghan boarder.