Philanthropic Ventures Foundation (PVF) is pleased to announce our first Bay Area Inspire Awards recipient. The Bay Area Inspire Awards program was established by PVF to provide funding to young social innovators with fresh ideas for creating change.  

Beginning in a small town in Michoac�n, Mexico and ending in Oakland, California, Christian Martinez's story is one filled with struggle, pain, and perseverance. After having been shot as a high school student, Christian received no support from his teachers, who assumed he was just another statistic. Rather than conform to their assumptions about him, he chose to thrive and use his experience as a way to create change.

This was Christian's "aha" moment, in which he realized he could help others in similar situations by fostering better relationships between teachers and their students through home visits. This out-of-the-box idea landed Christian the first ever Bay Area Inspire Award, a program run by Philanthropic Ventures Foundation (PVF) which aims to ignite creative ideas for cultivating change in the Bay Area. 

Christian's "Home Visit Project" aims to build trusting relationships between teachers and their students and families. The project will be piloted at Epic Middle School, a new Oakland charter school opening in fall 2014 and managed by the nonprofit, Education for Change. By allowing teachers to visit students' homes to see firsthand the experiences they face outside of the classroom, the project encourages an increase in understanding. The project operates on the idea that when a teacher-student connection is stronger, the student has more opportunity to succeed.     

Recognizing the potential of young community members to tackle community issues, PVF donors created the Bay Area Inspire Awards to provide grants of up to $10,000 to young social innovators. The awards provide the capital often necessary to make an idea become a reality.  

Do you know a young person, aged 18-30, living and working in San Francisco or Alameda Counties who wants to create change? If so, encourage them to apply for one of the four remaining Bay Area Inspire Awards! We are currently accepting applications until the June 30th deadline. For more information about the program, please visit: bayareainspireawards.org.