Refresh Basin Families

By: M. Michelle Spencer

It
started out as "an easy idea", but quickly changed into and what will ultimately be described as a community in change. The plans for "The Basin Youth Center" are in place. Building plans are set and local students have a program ready to go for troubled teens, they just need the money to make it all happen. The Basin Youth Center is the brainchild of the Master's of Social work class at USU Uintah Basin and they're looking for help from soft drink giant Pepsi for a way to fund the project. The MSW class has a grant application for $250,000 in place with the Pepsi Corp in order to help make our community a better place but they need YOUR help.

    "The idea was presented last year to over 200 participants at a child welfare summit here in the Uintah Basin. There are not many resources available to troubled teens and their families. So it was suggested that a program and a physical location be created for those kids that need just a little extra help but who either slip through the cracks because of a lack of charges or they are charged with additional crimes by Juvenile Justice Services when they really don't need to be just so they can gain access to the juvenile services that we do have available out here. It is a no win situation for a lot of these kids that just need a little redirection," stated Derrik R. Tollefson, Associate Clinical Professor and MSW Program Coordinator.

    The idea of trying to create a program and provide a location that would be of benefit to teens and their families was a challenge that the MSW class was more than willing to take on but they knew their ultimate challenge would be how to fund it properly. Luckily, MSW Student, Joslin Batty, spotted a Pepsi campaign that looked like it would work perfectly. The "Pepsi Refresh" campaign awards money to "people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact." Pepsi encourages people to "look around your community and think about how you want to change it." Anyone can submit an idea and everyone can vote for their favorite idea each day. Pepsi is awarding 10 grants each month in six different categories in the amounts of $5k, $25k, $50k, and 2 awardees each month in the amount of $250k

    "I had an email sent to me when one of the first "Pepsi Refresh" votes came out asking me to vote and it gave me the idea that this could be an "easy" way for us to get the money for the youth center," explained Joslin Batty, MSW student. "I immediately emailed Professor Tollefson and said this looks easy and he told me to go ahead and try it!"

    It wasn't as easy a Batty had initially thought it would be however. The first step in the process was to actually get their application filled out and make sure that it met all of the requirements put forth by Pepsi. The class worked hard at developing their mission statement and then at mapping out how the program would actually function.

    Pepsi only accepts 1,000 applications every month and the slots for submission open up on the first of each at midnight EST, or 10:00 PM local time. For three months Batty sat at her computer and would hit the send button just as soon as it read 10:00 PM only to be told that either there was too much online traffic or that all slots had been filled for that month. So Batty began to enlist the local community to help her with the MSW class's cause. She contacted Strata Networks and asked exactly how she could get a faster upload so that she could get her application submitted in time. Strata Networks informed Batty that her best bet would be to use the computers right there on the campus at USU-UBC because they had the largest and fastest server in the area.

    "Well it worked! My fourth month of trying to submit we finally got it to go through and it worked!" Batty stated excitedly.

    During the month of August people worldwide have the opportunity to go in and vote for their favorite refresh project idea. It is here where the amazing people of the Uintah Basin are needed again because in the category of $250,000 grant applications, only the two receiving the most votes are selected. People can go online and vote once a day for all 31 days of the month of August which Batty and her fellow MSW class members encourage you to do. In fact, not only do they want you to vote, they want you to tell everyone you know to vote because the more votes this project gets, the better chance there is of the grant money being awarded to help the youth here in the Uintah Basin.

    "We have gotten it ready because we think the area needs and deserves it (the youth center), now it is up to community to say that they think they deserve it by voting. So please vote!"

 
 

To cast your vote and to read more about the

proposed project go to http://refreshbasinfamilies.com

and text 101793 to the # 73774