Sproutreach recently had the pleasure of designing a series of banners celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Northern Essex Community College. The banners are displayed at various outdoor and indoor locations throughout the college’s Haverhill Campus, and were designed to complement the campus existing signage.

Click on any of the thumbnails below to view samples:

To learn about about NECC’s history and the college’s celebrations surrounding this important milestone, visit http://www.necc.mass.edu/celebrating-50-years-of-making-a-difference/

Root Cause, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing innovation for social impact among individuals and organizations in the nonprofit, governmental and business sectors, recently announced its 2011 Social Innovators. These Social Innovators represent Greater Boston’s most promising approaches to addressing some of our region’s toughest social issues—in the areas of early childhood development, education and employment opportunities for youth, financial capability, healthy aging, and grade school academic success. Each of the award recipients will receive $109,000 in professional services and cash over the next year.

FISCAL HEALTH VITAL SIGNS (FHVS), A PROGRAM OF DOTWELL
The Fiscal Health Vital Signs © (FHVS) assessment tool – which DotWell developed in imitation of clinical, evidence based screening tools used in the medical practice and in financial risk models (such as the credit-based FICO score) – seeks to “diagnose” individuals’ financial health problems.

FUTURE CHEFS
Future Chefs (FC) is a high-impact school-to-career program, annually engaging approximately 100 low-income high school students and recent graduates from four Boston area high schools.

MASSACHUSETTS SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL (MSAC)
Massachusetts Senior Action Council (MSAC) is a democratic, grassroots, senior-run organization that empowers over 1,000 low- and moderate-income seniors statewide to use their own voices and experiences to address issues that affect them. MSAC enables seniors to identify the issues they wish to address, determine ultimate goals, develop strategies to achieve them, and actively carry them out.

MATHPOWER
MathPower is dedicated to developing proficiency in advanced mathematics and personal resiliency as vehicles to bring about transformational change in the lives of urban youth.

SMART FROM THE START
Smart from the Start is a family support and community engagement initiative that expands and strengthens early learning opportunities; promotes parents’ role as their child’s first teacher; and builds neighborhood will, understanding, and capacity to support school readiness.

CONGRATULATIONS to each of these organizations! For additional information on Root Cause, their Social Innovators Forum, or any of the award recipients listed above, check out rootcause.org.

If you don’t enjoy small talk, or are an introvert by nature, you likely find much of today’s self-promotion and marketing advice difficult to follow. If so, you might be interested in the fresh, honest perspective offered by Sacha Chua in her “Shy Connector” slideshow below.

In fact, I think much of her approach lends itself just as well to extroverts. “It’s not about selling yourself. It’s about helping others. It’s not about becoming popular. It’s about learning and sharing.” That’s good advice for anyone.