Show Your Impact First Place Winner: Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma

Last month, TechSoup and Adobe announced the winners of the first-ever Show Your Impact design contest. I posted about it when the results were in, but since then also wanted to give some snaps to each of the winners since they did a fantastic job using their TechSoup-donated Adobe software to create compelling materials, moving messages, and speak to their constituents.

With that in mind, today I'm highlighting the first place winner — the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma. Their winning submission was pretty awesome (even though I'm somewhat biased as a former green girl myself). Targeting young girls in Oklahoma who may be at-risk of incarceration or who have women in their family in prison, they created Girl Scouts Behind Bars: Project M.E.N.D.

Their submission was a full multimedia showcase of talent. Great photos, graphic design, original songs composed and recorded by their members, and a coordinating CD booklet to convey their important message about stopping the cycle of violence, drug use, and crime to other young women.

Here's more on the program from the Show Your Impact Web site:

In Oklahoma there are more women in prison than anywhere else in the United States (per capita), and their daughters are 4 to 5 times more likely to end up in prison than their peers. In response to this crisis, in 2002, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma created Girl Scouts Beyond Bars: Project M.E.N.D. As part of this project, the girls wrote and recorded songs about their lives and experiences, and using Adobe donated software, created a 16-page album booklet. Through the project the girls learned the principles of graphic design, and gained confidence and the determination to make a good life for themselves. Since 2002, the program has expanded to its 5th prison and is now working on including a re-entry program for the mothers as they exit the prison system. Eastern Oklahoma is forever changed because of Project M.E.N.D. and TechSoup provided the tools to give the program a voice.

You can see their winning submission and show your support for their local work with a donation to their programs.