The purpose of The Cipher is to provide participants with the means to envision their future optimistically despite a challenging environment that includes high levels of school dropout and teen pregnancy. The program envisions a group of confident and engaged young people who will gain positive learning experiences, build self-esteem, improve academic performance, and expand possibilities for their future. Our project has recruited 25 young adults residing in this area ages 15-21 that have been referred from probation officers and various social-service organizations throughout Austin.

I have a vision of the severely marginalized students and teachers in Cecil County, Maryland at the Providence School getting a real hands-on, environmental and engineering project. I want the project to put job experience and class skills into the concept of making sustainable choices for the environment and their local community by how we drive vehicles and use resources. Students at the alternative school due to learning or disciplinary issues are those I want involved. The momentum of helping this small school in turn is creating a lot of stir among local high school science classes.

Nearly 2,000 young people in Santa Barbara are considered at risk to join a gang, and the average age of a local gang member is 14. Youth face ongoing peer pressure with violence and gangs, drugs and alcohol, body image, etc. Everybody Dance Now! addresses an important need by motivating, engaging, and mentoring 750 of SB’s most vulnerable youth through a healthy outlet: DANCE. We are run by an 18 year-old Executive Director who founded EDN! when she was 14, a 17 year-old Managing Director, and a passionate, dedicated team of youth.

Cambridge houses a large community of low-income and immigrant families. Youth from these families often do not receive the help they need outside of school because parents work long hours and do not speak English fluently. These young people need help with their homework and a safe environment in which to work, learn, and play. Through the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program, an academic summer program, some of these needs are addressed during the summer time, but parents were left without a term-time equivalent when the summer was over.

There are 6 Pennsylvania communities along the Great Allegheny Passage rails-to-trail that have been designated "Trail Towns" because they have services and amenities to offer to trail users. They are West Newton, Connellsville, Ohiopyle, Confluence, Rockwood, and Meyersdale. These communities are struggling economically, and jobs and businesses have been and are being lost. I am here with 4 other young professionals to help the Trail Towns with revitalization projects, including Sustainability Assessments for businesses.

We are working in the Gardner Pilot Academy (GPA) in Allston, MA. The GPA's 336 students and their families speak over 13 languages ranging from Spanish to Khmer. Over 85% of the students meet the federal poverty guidelines to participate in the Free or Reduced Price Lunch Program. The majority of GPA's students fall within a group of students considered to be academically at-risk. Building computer labs and integrating computers into the classroom is expensive. And, most computers are built for downtown offices, not classrooms.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is a diverse city that provides services to over 1 million people (730 000 live in the city limits alone). As in any city, poverty is a concern especially in certain parts of the city. Many children who want to take music lessons are unable to do so for various reasons. Some simply do not have the money to pay for private or even group lessons. Some cannot afford to buy or rent an instrument for practice. Some are not able to find transportation to lessons because their parents are either working or do not have a means of transport themselves.

Over population of prisons and the environmental hazards prisons create.