Wood Oaks eighth graders spent the morning on November 29th working on developing a business plan for their assigned non-profit organizations. The activity was designed by the Wood Oaks eighth grade social studies teachers to help students understand activism when they study it later this school year.
The students were given an issue to research, form a non-profit organization that will help address the need, and pitch their company to a potential donor for grant money. They had to come up with a name and a mission statement, and assign roles to key members of the organization to handle marketing, finance, fundraising, grant writing, politics/legislation, and lobbying.
The issues addressed included the need for recreational equipment for community centers in economically depressed areas, food pantries in urban neighborhoods, pets without homes, school supplies for children in need, recycling, music instruments to students in economically-challenged areas, needs of the homeless, needs of refugees, mental health care for the uninsured, and the needs of veterans.
Check out this video to see one group make their pitch to a potential donor (Mr. Edmonds.) (It's a bit long, but it's worth watching to see how well our students did on the activity.) This group called their company "Depressionless" and was formed to help people with depression who are uninsured.
At the end of the morning-long activity, the potential donors announced which groups they would be funding. Each of the winning student groups will receive a monetary award to donate to the charities of their choice. Activism in action!