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The Jefferson Awards wants to help tell the country about the incredible service projects youth are doing. By entering your project on the Youth Service Challenge website, your group could gain local and national recognition, earn awards & cash prizes, or even a trip to Washington DC to be recognized at the Jefferson Awards National Gala! Enter your project in 3 simple steps on the website: 1. Sign up; 2. Tell us about your project; 3. Upload your results (photos, videos, etc.). It's simple and free! Be sure to enter before the deadline of April 30, 2013. You are changing the world! We want to tell the country!

Since 1996, DoSomething.org has honored the nation's best young world-changers, 25 and under. Do Something Award nominees and winners represent the pivotal "do-ers" in their field, cause, or issue. In 2013 five finalists will appear on the Do Something Awards on Vh1 and be rewarded with a community grant, media coverage and continued support from DoSomething.org. The grand prize winner will receive $100,000 during the broadcast. The deadline to apply is April 15th, 2013 by 5:00pm EST.

Awarding heroes to help more children. Our Awards recognize real-life heroes working to dramatically improve the lives of children. But that's not all: our Honorees also receive grant funds and media attention, both of which help their gold standard programs grow so that they will ultimately impact the lives of even more children.

In 2013, Green In Action Awards will be granted to inspiring projects based on GEF's sustainability themes. Winners are those schools, classrooms or youth groups who have demonstrated their commitment, creativity, or passion for sustainability in their application. Great application materials include photos, videos, essays, or artwork describing your environmental project, weigh-in, activity, community service project, or green team program! There are so many ways to participate and make a difference so show us how YOU are a champion for sustainability!

The Everyday Young Hero program highlights one outstanding youth a week that are making extraordinary contributions and commitments to service. Nominations must come from a parent, teacher, or other adult mentor; supporting material is recommended. The Everyday Young Hero award is open to those between the ages of 5-25.

GLOBECHANGERS is based on a simple TEN STEP PLAN designed to take young Americans 25 or under from ideation to implementation as quickly and comprehensively as possible. The TEN STEP PLAN is animated right here on our state-of-the- art website, with video explanations, document creation tools, and a mountain of examples to stimulate imagination and get results. As you move through the plan, from "Think Big" to "Communicate," you're not just accomplishing a project: you're gaining valuable leadership life skills, like successful communication and marketing, or fund raising. The tools and skills offered to our Globechangers are the same skills that Jefferson Awards founder Sam Beard developed over 50 years in public service working with seven different US Presidents. As Sam puts it, "If I can create and run a program for seven different Presidents of the United States, SO CAN YOU. And here's how - Step by Step."

We commissioned eight documentaries from award-winning film makers and 30 shorts from new and emerging talents. The films are moving, subtle and thought-provoking stories, but they also tackle big issues and pose difficult questions. The films were shown around the world in November 2012 on more than 70 national broadcasters. The documentaries are now all free to view online. We'll make them available on DVD and in languages other than English soon. We'll also be adding educational resources to help people use them as teaching tools

Shea, Pegi Deitz, and Leane Morin. The Carpet Boy's Gift. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House Publishers, 2006. Age Range: 6 and up Leadership comes easily for Nadeem, the biggest and oldest boy in a rug factory in Pakistan. But how can he lead the other child laborers to freedom after he's been shamed and beaten for his first attempt? Nadeem and his fellow workers are bonded laborers, children who work day and night to pay off loans their families have accepted from a factory owner. While Nadeem and his cousin Amina take pride in helping their poor families, they feel trapped. They yearn to go to school and to have time to play. One day a former carpet boy named Iqbal Masih leads a parade in the village. New laws have abolished bonded labor! Iqbal urges Nadeem to fight for freedom and to lead the children to a new school in town. Can Nadeem summon the courage to try again? This fictional story honors the legacy of Iqbal Masih, a real boy who had escaped from a factory. Protected and educated, he worked to liberate child workers like Nadeem by the thousands. His work won him the ReebokYouth in Action award and special recognition at the International Labor Conference. When he returned to Pakistan after his trip, he was fatally shot while riding his bicycle. He was only twelve, but he had already made a difference in children's lives all over the world. Resources at the end of the story lead to more information about child labor issues and encourage children to support companies that work to make the world a better place for all.

Elizabeth Partridge, Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary (New York: Viking Juvenile, 2009). Age Level: 10 and up Publisher Description: An inspiring look at the fight for the vote, by an award-winning author only 44 years ago in the U.S., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a fight to win blacks the right to vote. Ground zero for the movement became Selma, Alabama. Award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge leads you straight into the chaotic, passionate, and deadly three months of protests that culminated in the landmark march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Focusing on the courageous children who faced terrifying violence in order to march alongside King, this is an inspiring look at their fight for the vote. Stunningly emotional black-and-white photos accompany the text.

The Last Survivor is an award winning, feature-length documentary film that presents the stories of four Survivors and their struggle to make sense of tragedy by working to educate a new generation, inspire tolerance and spark a civic response to mass atrocity crimes. Following the lives of survivors of four different genocides and mass atrocities - The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur, and Congo - The Last Survivor presents a unique opportunity to learn from the lessons and mistakes of our past in order to have a lasting social impact on how we act collectively in the face of similar issues which still exist today.

The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes honors outstanding young leaders who have made a significant positive difference to people and our planet. Nominees, who may range in age from 8 to 18 years old, must have been the prime mover of a service activity, and demonstrated positive spirit and high moral purpose in accomplishing their goals.

Weiss, Elke. Hannah and the Talking Tree. Vancouver, BC: Free Focus Publishing, 2010. Age Range: 5 and up Publisher's Description: 'Hannah and the Talking Tree' is a children s book specially designed to plant the seeds of environmental activism in the next generation. Printed on recycled paper. Gold Medal winner of the 2010 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. Hannah is a little girl with a special and unique gift. She has very, very big ears which enable her to hear things in the world all around her that other people do not notice. She can hear the grass grow, the wind sing, and the ants march one by one. She can hear birds chirping far away and even hear the trees drinking water. Unfortunately, she is teased and criticized by other children and runs away to be alone. With her extra special powers she finds and befriends a very special and solitary tree and learns about the tragic fate of the trees around her. And now the last tree is threatened as well. Is there any way to save the lone tree from destruction? Will anyone listen to Hannah's cry for help? Instead of just giving up and letting the last tree get cut down, Hannah decides to be brave and do something herself to help save the last tree and create a world worthwhile living in.

Muth, Jon J. The Three Questions. New York, NY: Scholastic Press, 2002. Age Range: 5 - 9 years old Publisher's Description: Nikolai is a boy who believes that if he can find the answers to his three questions, he will always know how to be a good person. His friends--a heron, a monkey, and a dog--try to help, but to no avail, so he asks Leo, the wise old turtle. "When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?" Leo doesn't answer directly, but by the end of Nikolai's visit, the boy has discovered the answers himself. Award-winning illustrator Jon J Muth's lovely watercolors are the most appealing aspect of this book about compassion and living in the moment. The simple Zen-based profundity of the boy's philosophical exploration may escape young readers, but they will enjoy the tale of a child who, in doing good deeds (for a panda and her baby, no less!), finds inner peace. Muth based his story on a short story of the same title by Leo Tolstoy.

Fleischman, Paul. Seedfolks. New York, NY: Harper Trophy, 1999. Age Range: 9 and up Publisher's Description: Sometimes, even in the middle of ugliness and neglect, a little bit of beauty will bloom. Award-winning writer Paul Fleischman dazzles us with this truth in Seedfolks--a slim novel that bursts with hope. Wasting not a single word, Fleischman unfolds a story of a blighted neighborhood transformed when a young girl plants a few lima beans in an abandoned lot. Slowly, one by one, neighbors are touched and stirred to action as they see tendrils poke through the dirt. Hispanics, Haitians, Koreans, young, and old begin to turn the littered lot into a garden for the whole community. A gift for hearts of all ages, this gentle, timeless story will delight anyone in need of a sprig of inspiration.

Ntozake Shange, We Troubled the Waters (New York: Amistad, 2009). Age Level: 6-10 Publisher Description: From slavery to the separation of "colored" and "white" and from horrifying oppression to inspiring courage, there are countless stories-both forgotten and immortalized-of everyday and extraordinary people who acted for justice during the civil rights movement that changed our nation. Award-winning poet Ntozake Shange and illustrator Rod Brown give voice to all those who fought for their unalienable rights in a triumphant book about the power of the human spirit.

Helen Recorvits, My Name is Yoon (Canada: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003). Age Level: 4-8 Publisher Description: Yoon's name means Shining Wisdom, and when she writes it in Korean, it looks happy, like dancing figures. But her father tells her that she must learn to write it in English. In English, all the lines and circles stand alone, which is just how Yoon feels in the United States. Yoon isn't sure that she wants to be YOON. At her new school, she tries out different names - maybe CAT or BIRD. Maybe CUPCAKE!