Human and climate justice issues – these are the things that get me out of bed in the morning. I love working with early-stage startups and nonprofits to help bring their social impact initiatives to life. The best time for me to enter the sandbox is when the mission is clear but the strategy and “how-to” are not.
Project02
Located in Croatia, this crew is building a social good exchange place – I’m calling it “airbnb for trees”. Matching forest landowners to individuals or corporations who want to offset their carbon footprint, the ultimate goal of this project is to incentivize reforestation and more sustainable forest management. The cherry on top – they use drone afforestation technology to plant trees on unforested, hard to reach land.
Billions Institute
I was super lucky, and privileged, to join the Billions Institute, first as a fellow and then as a trainer. We supported dozens of organizations from around the world in implementing the “model for unleashing” large-scale behavior change. Want to know more about that approach? – go here.
Just Ask Us
On April 27, 2020 a bunch of us got fed up that students and parents had very little say in terms of how our schools were changing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we launched a 100% volunteer-led movement to uplift student and parent voices. The website you just clicked on was designed my a junior in high school who was part of the volunteer team.
AIME ReClaims Hoodies
I love this crew out of Australia. Led by Jack Manning Bancroft, who started AIME mentoring in 2005, they’re ReClaiming throwaway material scraps from fashion companies and are repurposing them to create mentor & mentee hoodies – hoodie purchases help support their on-the-ground programs. Talk about sustainability for impact.
I tear up every time I’m reminded of this powerful campaign.
Sevenzo’s Belonging Challenge
At Sevenzo, we wanted to focus our strategy on critical school issues that were being ignored. To start, we engaged teachers, students, parents and other school staff to help us identify our focus. One thing became crystal clear as we conducted our cross-country listening tour- a sense of safety and true belonging in school was an essential prerequisite to academic (or any kind of) success. And yet, little time, focus and budget were being dedicated to creating that sense of belonging for young people. We launched the belonging challenge to help change all of that. This was, by far, one of the most moving, vulnerable and thrilling projects I’ve ever worked on.
Ask teachers how they want PD to change. Only then can you make a meaningful change.
Teachers Know Best
I guess you’re probably starting to see a theme across my projects. I strongly believe that you can’t enable change unless you bring along the people who will be impacted by that change. As such, before I invested in companies and services at BMGF, I wanted to hear from teachers. This report has been used by district offices, as well as product and service companies, to help inform improvements to teacher professional development. Can’t wait to see the next report and whether we’ve shifted the baseline.
Inspiration
Sandy Hook Promise
I’ve been lucky enough to encounter some incredible people throughout my career. Sandy Hook Promise is led by one such human. Nicole Hockley, a former Billions Institute fellow, lost her son, Dylan, during the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. She has been fighting to prevent gun violence before it starts ever since. What I appreciate most about Sandy Hook Promise is that they’ve taken a mental health approach to gun violence prevention through programs such as Know the Signs. The above video is the most chilling piece of awareness building I have ever encountered.
Maša Užičanin 