Global Deeds

Global Deeds is devoted to disrupting the cycle of poverty by assisting schools, teachers and corporations in the process of empowering low-income youth through modern education and employment.  We create customized support systems that enable students to reach their potential as technically savvy, financially stable and socially-conscious citizens.

We have partnered with Tú+Yo Foundation in Tijuana, Mexico, and a community center in Guaricano, Dominican Rep., in order to implement a Career Technical Education program called DigiWork for low-income youth.  Tu+Yo has worked for several years in the process of revitalizing buildings and communities affected by narco-trafficking and vandalism.  We would select a cohort of students from the communities of "Cañadas Del Florido" (MX) and Guaricano (DR) to do Level 1 training (basic online English learning) and Level 2 training (technical).  Students will be provided with laptops and Internet access to do paid digital work from home.

DigiWork- Fighting poverty with digital employment

With a population of nearly 2M, Tijuana, Mexico as of 2019 has been categorized as the city with the highest crime rates in that country.  The high school drop out rate is nearly at 15%; however, the area we are targeting does not even have a high school.  About 42% of Mexico's total population lives in poverty.

In the area of Guaricano, located in  Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with a population of nearly 1M, similar problems exist.  For example, youth unemployment is at 13.4%, with crime rates that have placed the country at the top 10-15% of the most murderous countries in the world.

Additionally, the recent COVID-19 pandemic, has imposed quarantines and increased the need for innovative educational and employment support.

The human potential in these particular areas, however, is extraordinary.  We found a high number of young individuals who desire to belong to a group that could provide them with opportunities for a better life.  This common denominator is important to take into account during the recruitment phase.  We plan to offer those, ages 16 to 24, with safe and dignifying educational and employment opportunities. 

The Tú+Yo Foundation in Tijuana works closely with Tijuana's Juvenile Police Department (under SSPM-  Secretaría de Seguridad Pública Municipal).  Youth that get recruited to become police officers can also participate in the DigiWork program apart from serving as potential recruiters of other youth in need.   Surveys and focus group activities created by Global Deeds and conducted by partnering organizations, in addition to statistical information, will be used in order to develop the safest and most efficient way of educating and alleviating poverty there.  The same model will be used in Guaricano (Dominican Rep.).  The most pressing need of these individuals is simply to survive.  

The inequitable distribution of income, which is historically tied to political corruption, is what  manipulates the root cause of rampant poverty in these countries, lack of quality education.  Global Deeds' "cure" against such "ignorance pandemic" is simply education focused on four areas:

1.  STEM 

2.  Personal Development

3.  Financial Literacy

4.  Civic Engagement

We provide them with dignifying technical employment (1) and make sure that they understand how to manage their habits (2), money (3) and civic decisions (4).  The complement of our technical training is what makes a significant difference.

Global Deeds has a plethora of collaborators that offer top-notch technical training and work opportunities to our youth living in poverty. This new economy, where over 800,000 jobs are currently being automated and where our global health crises has given rise to a dramatic increase in the need for online work, is bringing new challenges and opportunities for innovation.  It is of the utmost importance to train the most vulnerable populations in accordance to their learning abilities and as soon as possible.  Through this initiative, we hope to promote the concept of sharing work and knowledge as a way of bringing peace and prosperity to the lives of some of the most marginalized people on earth, and at the same time diminish poverty and crime rates in such communities.

We constantly request in-kind donations of technical equipment, such as laptop/desktop computers, printers, projectors, screens, servers, among others, in order to offer the best service to potential clients that the students would do digital work for.  For example, we are currently partnering with Colaberry, Inc and the Cisco Networking Academy, among several other companies offering services around the world.  Students get certified in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Python/Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Online Marketing, Web Development, and other less involved tasks that can generate them a steady salary.  They also are required to attend online workshops and employment training on a regular basis, which adds to their salaries, the camaraderie they seek, and personal growth.  With your support we could start a pilot program with up to 25 students in each country to then quickly scale in support of over 1 million individuals in the near future.  The result of the work of those individuals far exceeds that number.  MIT students are cordially invited to serve as volunteer instructors (for possible school credit) and to assist with our in-kind requests of equipment.    Instructors evaluate and help modify lessons to fulfill the needs of students, making those more accessible, entertaining, current and culturally sensible.

This initiative is currently being conducted within low-income areas of Massachusetts, thanks to the generosity of the Schmidt Futures Program.

Global Deeds has studied systems, business models and technologies that work, and we are taking "the best pieces of what works" in order to provide a truly robust platform to lift young people out of poverty by educating them beyond academics and matching them with work opportunities.  It is not only the work and the goal, but the tools used, the teams, the approach and the strategies behind how we plan to operate.  We focus on constantly evolving in order to adapt to current needs, trends and economic situations.  Constantly surveying those we serve and our teams, is a critical part of our advancement.  The most fundamental piece of our work is understanding if it is working...  For this reason, we are planning to use Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) in order to always have a more accurate way of evaluating our impact and process.  Partnering with top companies and organizations is key in order to scale.  Those are typically the places we find great contractors, volunteers, advocates, and people with access to the latest technologies who often want to use us for testing.

For more information about our process please visit: https://globaldeeds.org/what_we_do

We use a set of measurable deliverables for impact evaluation.   We measure the level of commitment of students (essays / recommendations / attendance), in addition to their academic and technical performance, ability to communicate well and get along, graduation rates, increased salary percent, personal finance skills and community involvement.  Lawrence High School is one of those schools where over 600 students have directly benefited from taking computer courses, workshops, apart from receiving computer equipment from us.  Several students have also obtained higher paying jobs and received financial support to go to college.  With your help, we hope to bring this model to Latin-America and the Caribbean.

By 2028 73% of all departments within companies will have remote workers.    Telecommuters also make ~$4,000 more annually than other workers.  We are preparing students for a new way of life involving independent digital work and critical thinking.  What makes us different as an organization is that we go beyond academics and digital work.  Teaching students how to manage their money, their habits, and how the system works, are also equally important pieces.  Otherwise, they could easily destroy the work they do through bad habits, lack of vision, and civic disengagement.  We are the product of our individual decisions and of how we allow the systems to affect us. 

Ethics, transparency and accountability play an extremely important role in everything that we do.  For more information on testimonials and our core values, please visit the following pages:

https://globaldeeds.org/testimonials

https://globaldeeds.org/core-values

1. the current number of people you’re serving

220

2. the number you’ll be serving in one to five years

This depends on funding available (unpredictable).  But if it all goes well, with a proposed budget of $1.7M we will be able to serve an average of 41,000 people between the ages of 14-24 through one or more of the following:

• New curricula
• Online Workshops
• Online job training
• Online access to opportunities and resources 
• Virtual field trips/college campus visits
• Virtual events
• Work opportunities
• Tracking services and mentoring

This number should reach beyond 2M by year 5.

By the end of this year, we are expecting to have new members of our boards, more administrators, 100 volunteers, and a new Executive Director.

Within five years, we plan to have had overcome our current barriers, running an organization / social enterprise within each continent covering the target 41 cities around the world that we want to focus on.

The main barrier for our organization is funding, and the second most significant barrier is accessing high quality thinkers.  We are looking for excellent team members who are highly analytical, competitive within their fields, diligent, culturally competent, with great communication skills, empathetic, ethical, fun and creative.   We are also recruiting a group of attorneys to join our legal team and help us with several items involving IPs.

Relentless work is imperative in order to attain this year's goals.  Evaluating, editing and submitting grant proposals every week alongside a group of professional grant writers, is an essential part of this process.  Contracting a development professional is also part of the plan in order to recruit top individuals.

Global Deeds targets individuals living in poverty, ages 14-24, to first teach/train them in four different areas, as previously mentioned, with a focus on digital training.  Once students pass the courses and finish the training programs, then they become ready to enter the new workforce.  We plan to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (#4 and #1) through our programs and activities.  Our IMPACT41 campaign is being designed to carefully target those goals.  

Again, with the help of our partners and supporters we plan to slowly scale upon providing tangible evidence of our work being an efficient way of lowering poverty rates (hence crime rates that typically go hand in hand).  We will start with community centers during the pilot phase, to then scale within public schools in those areas through curriculum development and teacher training.

We expect to see an exponential need for remote work due to the global health crisis we are currently going through with the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting particularly under-developed countries.  This unfortunate situation creates overwhelming demand for the work that we do.

Most of our team members work remotely.  We also outsource payroll and HR services through a company called ADP.  The students we are about to enroll will receive small scholarships or stipends to do digital work in support of Global Deeds.  Below is a short list answering your question:

Full-time: 1

Part-time: 1

Contractors: 20

Although we are still recruiting new team members, the people who are currently part of our team are highly skilled individuals whose work will help not only in the further development of the organization, but also in the recruitment of more quality team members.

We are a team composed of graduates from top universities, coming from all walks of life, offering diversity and perspectives that are important when developing programs, curricula and processes.  For more information on our board members and administration, please visit our website at https://globaldeeds.org

1. Colaberry, Inc.(technical and career training for students)
2. Amazon / Amazon Web Services (donations, DeepRacer Tournament, and online technical workshops)
3. Cisco Net Academy (for the last 4 years we have collaborated in support of high schools in Massachusetts; training of teachers over the summers)

For a list of our collaborators and sponsors, please go to our website at https://globaldeeds.org.

We are a hybrid organization consisting of the nonprofit Global Deeds Foundation and Global Deeds, Inc.  Global Deeds Foundation is more focused on the the educational aspect of our work and Global Deeds, Inc. is the for profit sister company in charge of matching students with work opportunities.  This synergy ensures that the nonprofit does not completely rely on donations or grants in order to continue to operate.

We bring funds through individual donations, grants, competitions, and contracts.

I am a fierce advocate of quality education and bridging the opportunity gap for low-income students.  That leads me to ask for support in every chance that I have in order to continue with my mission.

Being part of the MIT community through the TPrize Challenge is analogous to finding an oasis in the middle of a desert.  The Massachusetts Technical Institute has nearly all that we need in order to run a highly efficient organization, brilliant people and access to resources.  We can generate ideas and I am sure we can find multiple people at MIT who could turn those ideas into a reality and even bring those to the next level.  The funding is also essential for us to be able to conduct our programs abroad.

JPAL

The Media Lab

Harvard Innovation Lab

Tech companies and nonprofits that outsource work online