Case Foundation Opens Online Voting for 'Make It Your Own Awards'

The Case Foundation, the family foundation started by former AOL exec Steve Case and his wife, Jean, has announced the top twenty finalists for its Make It Your Own Awards, an online grants program that "calls on people to join together to create ideas and solutions for long-term social change in their communities."

The finalists have already received $10,000 each, and now the foundation is inviting the public to vote online for the "Final Four" awardees. The twenty finalists in (alpha order) are:

• Child/Youth Friendly City (Nancy Gilder), Denver, CO
• Citizen Participation (Keith Twitchell), New Orleans, LA
• Community Conversations (Kate McPherson), Vancouver, WA
• Community Vision Project (Imre Kepes), Pelham, MA
• Conversations for Change (Lisa Harper), New York, NY
• Crossing Borders (Nan Kari), St. Paul, MN
• DCCV (Bridget Murphy), Menomonie, WI
• Deliberative Democracy (Mark Shoul), Royalston, MA
• Five Two Eight O (Janna Goodwin), Denver, CO
• Front Porch Forum (Michael Wood-Lewis), Burlington, VT
• In Search of the Commons (Jim Barrett), Livingston, MT
• Juveniles 4 Justice (Jessica Feierman), Philadelphia, PA
• Leaders of the New School (Asad Jafri), Chicago, IL
• Madison SOS (Natalia Thompson), Madison, WI
• Making Health Our Own (Susan Sloan), Bellingham, WA
• My School Is Your School (Dominick Maldonado), New Haven, CT
• Re-Imagining Our City (Fiona Cheong), Pittsburgh, PA
• Summit for Environmental Action (Kate Irwin), Sarasota, FL
• UNCommon Council (Keith Herring), Syracuse, NY
• Wilson for the Ages (David Criswell), Wilson, KS

Each of the four finalists will receive a $25,000 grant from the Case Foundation to implement their project. In addition, the foundation has provided all twenty projects still in the running with an "outreach ambassador" to help them expand their networks and mobilize volunteer and financial support in their communities.

Voting for the Final Four ends on April 22. To learn more about the Make It Your Own initiative, take a look at this NYTimes article. To cast your vote for the Final Four, visit:

http://miyo.casefoundation.org/vote/?source=pressVIDEO

-- Mitch Nauffts

Comments

[Michael Wood-Lewis]

Glad to see the Case Foundation's MIYO Awards covered here. Please vote for Front Porch Forum! http://miyo.casefoundation.org/vote/?event_id=076e502a27402985daa7313c3ca80f