ESA Foundation Beneficiaries
2007 Grant Recipients
- Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
- HopeLab / Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation
- PAX
- Work, Achievement, Values and Education (WAVE)
- Web Wise Kids
Previous Projects
- Association of Hole in the Wall Camps
- Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA); Delinquency Prevention Initiative (DPI)
- Just Think Foundation
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
- Mothers Against Violence in America's (MAVIA) Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) project
- Starbright Foundation
- Starlight Children's Foundation
- National Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE)
- Summer Lovin
- YouthVision Challenge
2007 Grant Recipients
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
The Federation of American Scientists addresses an array of issues in carrying out its mission to promote humanitarian uses of science and technology. Educational games are an important component of FAS' educational learning technologies program and this year's ESA Foundation grant will support the game Immune Attack. Immune Attack is an educational video game whose three purposes are to educate high school students and college freshman regarding the human immune system; to increase interest in biology and science; and to demonstrate that many features of video games (challenges, simulations, high-end graphics) can be used to teach complicated subjects. Funding will be used to expand distribution of the game to more schools, support development of materials to aid teachers in using the game, improve feedback tools for teachers and students, and provide teacher training in immunology and use of the game in their classrooms.
HopeLab / Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation
Founded in 2001, HopeLab is a nonprofit organization that combines rigorous research with innovative solutions to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness. A grant from ESAF will be used in support of a collaborative effort between Hopelab and the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation to master, package, and distribute HopeLab's innovative solution, Re-Mission, a PC-based video game developed for adolescents and young adults with cancer. The game will be distributed to audiences across the United States, including the provision of games to 100 cancer camps and to the Starlight Starbright's PC Pals computer network.
PAX
PAX was founded in 1998 with the goal of presenting innovative and effective solutions to the problem of youth gun violence. This year's ESA Foundation funding is in support of the continuation of the SPEAK UP program, including a youth violence prevention hotline and education campaign in at-risk schools and communities. The ESA Foundation has been a proud supporter of the SPEAK UP program and its expansion to new schools in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, and North Carolina over the past year. ESAF has been an active supporter of this project since 2006.
Work, Achievement, Values and Education (WAVE)
WAVE's mission is to motivate at-risk youth to complete school, lead productive lives and make a valuable contribution to their communities. For 36 years, WAVE has been an innovator in the youth development field with its dropout prevention, recovery programs, and experience working with community organizations and local youth development professionals. Since the organization's inception, WAVE's specially designed curricula and training programs have reached over 350,000 youth in 200 programs across 37 states. In 2003, the ESA Foundation established the ESAF-WAVE Incentive Grants Program to bring WAVE's expertise to needy communities with the goal of helping more school dropouts and potential dropouts change the course of their lives. The WAVE program has served 1,238 youth annually and trained 54 teachers and youth development professionals working in a public high school in Memphis, a charter school in San Antonio, a program for youth offenders in Midtown Manhattan, a dozen community-based programs in rural east Tennessee, a program for mentally ill school dropouts in New York City, and a mentoring and work-readiness program for disadvantaged teens in northern Virginia. The 2007 award will be used to continue to serve programs in New York, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia as well as to expand their incentive program to include DC WAVE in Washington, D.C., and Lehigh Senior High School in Ft. Meyers, Fla..
Web Wise Kids
Web Wise Kids (WWK) is a nonprofit organization working to promote Internet safely through training and education using the "Missing" game. "Missing" is a computer game developed by Live Wires Designs in Canada that teaches Internet safety and is based on a true story. WWK works with school districts, law enforcement, and offices of district attorneys to develop programs in each of these communities on Internet safety. WWK introduced this innovative program in the U.S. in January 2002, since then the project has grown extensively. The San Francisco police department has assigned one officer to work full time with the Missing game throughout the school year bringing Missing and its message to over 2,000 children. This resulted in the arrest and conviction of an online predator and another losing his job when children reported him after playing the game. Our support has helped WWK to initiate pilot projects in 49 states and has reached over 2 million children as of 2006. Missing is educational and fun for children and has been widely accepted by teachers. The success of the program has been impressive; in Massachusetts, the program is now being used in every middle school. ESAF has been an active supporter of this project since 2002.
Previous Projects
Association of Hole in the Wall Camps
AHWC's mission is to provide children with serious illness (HIV/AIDS, heart disease, blood disorders, lung diseases, and over 25 other serious conditions) a chance to attend summer camps with children who have similar conditions. The first camp was founded by Paul Newman in Connecticut in 1998; today there are seven camps in the U.S. with 10 more in the planning process. All camps are free of charge and are equipped to meet the needs of the campers so that they can "just be kids." A grant by ESAF enabled camps in New York and Florida to create and maintain Web sites that will allow campers to interact with friends made at camp, volunteers, counselors and staff throughout the year. This interaction fosters the friendships formed to continue, offer relief from the isolation they may feel upon returning home, and support as their illness progresses.
Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA); Delinquency Prevention Initiative (DPI)
The BGCA DPI program was created to provide a positive, productive alternative for youth that are at risk of delinquency and delinquent activity. DPI provides targeted outreach to youth who demonstrate risk factors of delinquent behavior. DPI offers a unique opportunity for local clubs to build a program based on their needs with the support of BGCA professionals. DPI programs are structured to provide a support TEAM to at risk youth to combat negative influences.
Just Think Foundation
The Just Think Foundation is an anti-censorship organization established to promote critical thinking among young people about popular media by equipping them with literacy and technical tools critical for the 21st century. The foundation's goal is to provide a better understanding of media and the resulting messages that surround young people to help them make better decisions today and to develop the skills they will need tomorrow. Just Think provides children from preschool through high school with skills to interpret, understand and create messages using traditional and new media by providing media literacy training to educators and community leaders.
In 2002 ESAF supported "September 11th: Reflecting, Responding, Helping and Healing" in New York City and Washington, D.C., to help communities with youth affected most by the events of September 11th. Additional education training was also conducted in Boston and Los Angeles in 2003.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
JDRF is the world's leading nonprofit, non-governmental funder of diabetes research, founded in 1970 by the parents of children with juvenile diabetes – a disease which strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. JDRF's mission is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.
Mothers Against Violence in America's (MAVIA) Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) project
MAVIA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing violence by and against children through preventive education and grassroots advocacy. MAVIA established SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) with 100 chapters in schools of all levels. They partner with elected officials and industry representatives to enforce ratings, gun safety and education. MAVIA received a grant to support the expansion of the SAVE program in middle and high schools in six states and to provide training and leadership development for the SAVE program at the University of Michigan.
Starbright Foundation
The Starbright Foundation is dedicated to the development of projects that empower seriously ill children to help them deal with the medical and emotional challenges they face on a daily basis. Starbright projects address the core issues that accompany illness (pain, fear, loneliness and depression) in an educational and entertaining way through media and technology. ESAF sponsored a webisodes project which assists youth (aged 12-17) coping with cancer and chemotherapy. Each webisode is based on the real-life experience of a teenager that survived cancer, and is designed to help other young people find positive ways to deal with the cancer experience.
Starlight Children's Foundation
The Starlight Children's Foundation is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children and their families. It provides a menu of in-hospital and outpatient programs and services, working with more than 1,000 hospitals. In 2004, ESAF provided a grant to a teen program that seeks to provide seriously ill teens who are unable to participate in typical teen activities due to their illness, opportunities to interact with peers through social activities.
National Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE)
SAVE is a national organization that works with students and student advisors (counselors, teachers, administrators, law enforcement and parents) to decrease violence in schools and communities by promoting student involvement, education and service opportunities. SAVE has a triad approach in addressing violence in schools and communities. This approach includes: 1) conflict management, 2) crime prevention, and 3) service to the community.
SAVE has 1,400 chapters in 44 states in elementary, middle, high schools, colleges and community youth serving organizations across the country. SAVE members have received awards from Inspiration in Prevention from Youth Crime Watch of America and The National Crime Prevention Council, and individual Presidential Student Service Awards. SAVE was recently recognized by the US Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice for violence prevention efforts in schools and communities. Through a grant made possible by ESAF, SAVE administered 40 grants to community chapters in 2005 and 2006 to implement violence prevention strategies including conflict management, crime prevention, and service projects in their schools and communities.
Summer Lovin
The ESA Foundation was the principal sponsor in Summer Lovin, a reception to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Back on Track, a tutoring program for low-income children.
YouthVision Challenge
YouthVision is a program that challenges young people to design creative ways to resolve problems by addressing conflict, prejudice, or violence in their school or community. It is a collaborative effort of four organizations: the Conflict Resolution Network, the Center for Youth as Resources, the National Crime Prevention Council, and Streetlaw. A grant by ESAF sponsored the participation of youth Advisory Committee members and alumni in the annual "Take the Challenge YouthVision Leadership Training in Washington, D.C., and of the enhancement of the YouthVision initiative's Web strategies in 2001.
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