Stanford Social Innovation Review

The Montana Meth Project’s graphic ads saturate TV, radio, billboards, and newspapers to portray the reality of methamphetamine use, in all its grit. Scabs and body sores are just the beginning. So far, the shock factor is working.

The violence, noise, and crowding of poor neighborhoods stress kids and parents, bringing out their bad sides and breeding psychopathology.

Universal child care may not be the best option.

SEX TRAFFICKING: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara

National Instrument’s partnerships not only energize science education, but also boost the company’s brand and employee morale.

Left: An engineer readies her robot at the 2008 FIRST Lego League World Festival, an annual competition that brings together teams of students to show off their engineering chops. Powering her robot was sophisticated software developed by National Instruments. Her team, the Power Peeps of Swartz Creek, Mich., placed third.

To grow to full scale, serving 50,000 students a year, YouthBuild’s federal funding must increase from $60 million to $125 million annually. Local programs will also need to raise $250 million annually from state and local education and criminal justice funds, and from private donors. How does YouthBuild plan to achieve this breakthrough and help five times as many people? —By Dorothy Stoneman, founder and president of YouthBuild USA

Manchester Bidwell Corporation replicates by adapting general strategies to local cultures. —By Suzie Boss

The fine arts in America are on a perilous path. Attendance at opera, theater, jazz, symphony, and ballet performances has dropped precipitously in recent decades. Just as worrisome, the median age of people attending these events has increased dramatically. If the fine arts are to survive as a living, creative, and significant force in American life, arts institutions need to radically recreate themselves.

Development experts have long known that educating girls is one of the surest ways to improve life for everyone in poor countries. Yet the path to school has not been smooth for many girls—especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 17 years, however, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) has delivered high-quality education to millions of girls across 35 African countries. The secret to FAWE’s scale and impact, say its leaders, is its flexibility.

Joanne Weiss is in charge of the federal government’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top Fund, a new program that is funding innovations in K-12 education

Elaborate partnership network supports
circus workshops for at-risk youth.

Nonprofits are buying Ben & Jerry’s franchises
to help train at-risk youth.

Artists for Humanity students are also employees.

Raising a Reader simplifies its message—and takes off.

Guerrilla marketing surveys power Urban Peak.

Teaching inner-city kids business skills to build their confidence and aspirations. 

How personalities count when
pairing protégés with Big Brothers and Sisters.

President of Seeds of Peace.

Tough love programs hurt addicts and adolescents.