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We were fortunate to be present and help sponsor last week the 15th Anniversary of Groundwire’s founding, originally started as ONE/Northwest.  Groundwire is a truly innovative organization with a storied history of impact and innovation for environmental non-profits in the Northwest and across the U.S.

A who’s who of environmental leaders from Seattle were on hand to hear co-founders and enviro rockstars Dennis Hayes (President and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, founder of Earth Day) and Paul Brainerd (President of the Brainerd Foundation, co-founder of Islandwood, Social Venture Partners) lead off the festivities at the beautiful Colman Estate in West Seattle with some historical perspectives and their pioneering efforts in the environmental movement.  They then handed the baton to Groundwire’s new Executive Director, Neil Myrick, who discussed Groundwire’s ambitious plans for the coming months and years.

Groundwire is focused on building online tools and strategies for environmental non-profits to create a more sustainable world. They are a nonprofit deeply committed to creating a sustainable society and believe their work helps bring about the change needed to sustain the planet for centuries to come. Because they are so passionate about getting people inspired and engaged in the building of a sustainable society – locally, nationally, globally – they are totally focused on making sure hundreds of environmental groups have the online tools needed to accomplish real social change.

Through generous funders and individual donations they are able to subsidize the cost to environmental nonprofits.  They are experts in tools used to build websites, databases, and email & social media tools.

Congratulations to the Groundwire staff and supporters for raising over $27,000 from this event and reaching their matching grant goals to help fund Groundwire Labs.  We look forward to working with Groundwire in the months and years to come & hopefully finding some amazing partnership opportunities to help bolster their critical mission.

For more information and how you can get involved: www.groundwire.org

In service,

Gina and Matt

Last week we had the pleasure of attending the World Affairs Council’s discussion with Larry Cox, the Executive Director of Amnesty International.  It was a truly enlightening and informative discussion as Larry covered both the history and future of Amnesty, tracing its roots from being the international voice for the “forgotten prisoners”, those silent voices that stood out for decades against oppression and dictatorships worldwide to now where Amnesty also fighting for elimination of poverty as a top issue on its agenda.

The event was hosted by Larry Brooks, from the World Affairs Council of Northern California, who posited a number of amazing questions both of his own and from the audience. “If you focus on a particular problem, solutions appear,” noted Mr. Cox…”We don’t have to accept a world where women die in child birth,” he added.  He discussed their efforts in Sierra Leone and Brazil, which have netted huge gains in the areas of women dying in childbirth and poverty, respectively.

BetterWorld was able to field a question regarding how technology, the Internet and communications has helped Amnesty’s cause over the past few decades - to which, Mr. Cox answered that it has been critical in Amnesty’s success in many corners of the world, and continues to reap positive benefits.  “Information and Communications Technology has had tremendous impact,” noted Cox - from Iran to China, they haven’t seen any measurable downsides of ICT, except where governments like Iran and China have limited access to it - but it is not enough, we must still come together and be there in person in some shape and form.

While our focus at BetterWorld is more here in America, it is great to keep an eye and ear on global impact organizations like Amnesty, and focus on how the telecom industry, as a subset of ICT can and will continue to influence the world in a positive way.  For more information and to see how you can help, please visit www.amnesty.org.

In service,

Matt

We try not to toot our own horn much in the BetterBlog and keep the focus on our customers and partners, but hard to resist here as we got a great affirmation in last week on the BetterWork front. As part of the National Telecommunications Information Administration’s (NTIA) stimulus program, BetterWorld was awarded a $2.5M grant to roll out BetterWork in the U.S. Virgin Islands, here’s an excerpt from our upcoming press release:

{BetterWorld Telecom has partnered with the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority to establish a virtual call center that will identify, train and recruit teleworkers in the Virgin Islands & match them up with virtual call center jobs in the U.S. This project is a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiative funding administered by the NTIA for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). BTOP provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure, enhance and expand public computer centers and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service.

Specifically, this Sustainable Broadband Adoption (SBA) Program grant focuses on increasing broadband Internet usage and adoption, including among vulnerable populations where broadband technology traditionally has been underutilized. The USVI Bureau of Economic research reports the 23.7% of the Virgin Island population are living below the poverty line as a result of unemployment and low-paying service jobs. This project will assist in the creation of over 400 new energy-saving telework jobs, which could significantly increase as other funding sources become available.

“In a globalized 21st century economy, when you don’t have regular access to high-speed Internet, you don’t have access to all the educational, business and employment opportunities it provides,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Locke says in response to these Recovery Act investments. “These critical Recovery Act investments will create jobs and lay the groundwork for long-term sustainable economic growth in communities across America.

From the U.S. Commerce Press Release: “The Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority has formed a public-private partnership with a wide range of broadband-related entities as part of its viNGN network. This comprehensive effort intends to provide digital literacy and job skills training, launch a telework program, and conduct a multifaceted outreach campaign to increase broadband subscribership and stimulate job growth in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Project partner BetterWorld Telecom plans to establish a virtual call center for use by large companies throughout the United States that will recruit teleworkers in the Virgin Islands. The project also proposes to maintain an electronic database and job bank that would be available to local and national employers, documenting key information about program participants who wish to be included, including courses taken, class-hours spent, tests passed, and certifications achieved.”

“This is just the beginning, our belief and mission at BetterWorld is to put telecom services and applications at the forefront of job creation, environmental sustainability and economic growth in the United States and U.S. Territories, noted Matt Bauer, President and Co-Founder of BetterWorld Telecom. “The entire BetterWorld team is excited to bring our Industry-leading BetterWork™ framework to the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of this stimulus grant from the NTIA. Training our workforce for broadband jobs and the ability to work from home or anywhere/anytime, is better for business, better for the environment and will provide hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of much-needed jobs to our citizens in the coming years.” added Bauer.}