Searching for the Next Great Social Innovator

Business Wire, Oct 17, 2007

NOW on PBS invites audience to vote in contest

Winners to be chronicled over time in broadcast and online reports

NEW YORK -- Who's next up to change the world? To showcase enterprising ideas that use innovation and business savvy to solve global problems, NOW, the award-winning newsmagazine from PBS, has created a competition to discover and track the progress of a breakthrough social entrepreneur.

A panel of expert judges chose four finalists from a pool of over 100 submissions, from Latvia to New Zealand. Until the end of October, visitors to NOW's "Enterprising Ideas" website will vote on a winner (http://www.pbs.org/now/enterprisingideas/poll.html).

The Finalists:

Benevolence Farm - Gives life skills and job training to women leaving
prison centered around an organic farm. (www.benevolencefarm.org)

Intelligent Mobility International - Builds and distributes durable
wheelchairs for the millions of disabled and poor people who live in
rural areas. (www.intelligentmobility.org)

Materials Matter -- Distributes low-cost surplus building materials to
nonprofit affordable housing developers. (materialsmatter.org)

Speak Shop - Uses Internet videoconferencing to connect Spanish
language tutors from poor countries with students all over the world.
(www.speakshop.com)

Already, more than 3,000 votes have been cast for the winner, whose efforts to secure financing, gain support, and measure impact will be chronicled regularly by NOW Online. The winner will be announced in early November and featured on the NOW broadcast, which is seen by nearly 2 million people each week on PBS.

Vote here: http://www.pbs.org/now/enterprisingideas/poll.html

ABOUT NOW

The Emmy-winning PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW engages viewers with documentary segments and insightful interviews that probe the most important issues facing democracy. Hosted by award-winning veteran journalist David Brancaccio, NOW is a production of JumpStart Productions, LLC, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. The show can also be accessed through On-Demand television, audio podcasting, video podcasting, and streaming video on the NOW website at www.pbs.org/now. "Enterprising Ideas" is a NOW spotlight on social innovation and business-modeled initiatives to make the world a better place.