Innovation

President Obama recently tapped two Pittsburgh companies as national models of social innovation and community transformation.

Andrew Butcher and Chris Koch of GTECH Strategies and Felix Brandon Lloyd of Skill-Life received a White House invitation on June 30th to join a select crowd of 100  to celebrate the creation of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.

“Now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries,” Obama told the group gathered in the East Room. The $50 million Social Innovation Fund will support  community partnerships and projects.

“It seems clear the White House’s agenda for social innovation is committed to identifying the best practices throughout the country for community revitalization,” says Butcher. “This was an invitation to work on a larger scale. It was pretty empowering for us.”

GTECH and Life-Skills were awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008.  Butcher and Koch, 2007 Carnegie Mellon grads, founded GTECH in 2007, a firm that reclaims vacant land through the growth of alternative energy crops to transition blighted space and serve as a platform for green jobs.

GTECH recently completed a project in New Orleans, has addressed the Brookings Institute and is working to expand its model to other regions. (For the Pop City story, click here.) Skill-Life, an Alpha Lab startup, is developing a game-based platform that teaches life skills, financial literacy, nutrition and citizenship to tween-agers. Both companies are located in Point Breeze. 

 “This is a special time to be in a place like Pittsburgh, not just because it has a culture of entrepreneurism, but it’s on the forefront of old industrial cities that have the potential to be the future,”  adds Butcher. “We’ve survived the downturn in the economy and Obama recognizes that. “

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Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: Andrew Butcher, GTECH Strategies

Image courtesy GTECH Strategies