SCI FI ENGAGES AMERICA'S YOUTH IN SERVICE LEARNING COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
Destination ImagiNation's Visions For Tomorrow curriculum Reaches Students, Parents, Teachers and Community Groups
New York, NY, June 18, 2007 -- SCI FI Channel today announced a partnership with Destination ImagiNation, a leading nonprofit organization, to engage children, educators and parents in service learning community improvement projects as part of the Channel's public affairs platform, Visions for Tomorrow. The Channel's campaign to galvanize individuals around a positive outlook on the future represents SCI FI's commitment to leveraging the creative power of science fiction to inspire the next generation of leaders and visionaries.
"The future is in the hands of our children, and it's up to us to stimulate the kind of thinking that will create a better tomorrow," said Bonnie Hammer, President, USA Network and SCI FI Channel. "By partnering with Destination ImagiNation, we'll be able to help kids open their minds to the possibility that they can, in fact, change the world."
"SCI FI's support of ProjectOUTREACH will help the community-based program to meet its mission to implement solutions to real problems in American communities," said Robert T. Purifico, President and Executive Director of Destination ImagiNation Inc.
Destination ImagiNation's flagship program, ProjectOutreach, encourages participants to apply creative problem solving to neighborhood and community challenges. ProjectOutreach now features a Visions for Tomorrow-inspired curriculum that challenges participating youngsters, teachers and parents to tackle important issues facing their communities, with an eye towards making a positive impact on the future. VFT curriculum strands feature challenges such as the "Energy Counts" and "Committed to Conservation" activity sets, and is available in printed or downloadable versions that are available free-of-cost to schools, after school programs on other community groups. Participants can compete individually, in small groups or in larger teams. Participants may also compete in the broader team challenge, which culminates in May with national Global Finals, the largest creative problem-solving event in the world, with 987 registered teams from 14 countries.
ProjectOUTREACH combines the energy of youth, the educational value of creative problem solving and the motivation of peer support and recognition into a service-learning program. ProjectOUTREACH participants are middle school through college-age youth who want to make a difference in their communities. Adults can get involved as Team Advisors, Tournament Managers or Tournament Volunteers. Since the establishment of the first ProjectOUTREACH teams in 1995, teams have developed numerous projects with major community impact, such as clean-up drives and environmental education programs, recycling programs and clothing drives for the homeless.
Visions for Tomorrow is SCI FI Channel's public affairs campaign to leverage the power of imagination to engage individuals, organizations and corporations in exploring creative ways to make a difference today for a better tomorrow. Campaign elements include public service announcements, an informational web site (www.visionsfortomorrow.net), nonprofit outreach and youth engagement. It launched last fall at the Nextfest conference in NYC with a focus on energy.
SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 89 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.
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