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Category: Employee Volunteerism, Involvement
Team based in the US
Overview: Founded in 1999 and based in New Jersey, F3B (Three Female
Ballers) is a community service organization that works to increase
international awareness and communication between American and African teenage
girls. Each year, between the end of June and mid- July, F3B sponsors two
one-week basketball clinics for 40 young women in Africa, with the assistance
of a team of young economically disadvantaged African-American women. Last
summer, F3B successfully conducted its eighth annual multicultural Scholar
Athlete Program, with a team of seven sports-inclined and academically
well-grounded high school girls. The professional and personal development
dimensions of the program consisted of approximately 24 hours of classroom
instruction, including topics ranging from leadership to AIDS awareness. In
2006, the clinics were conducted in Botswana and Tanzania.
The language of sports is universal and has been a powerful tool in
facilitating dialogue and understanding throughout the world. In the
project, basketball is used as the vehicle for providing young women from two
continents with a unique learning and bonding experience.
As an extension to the 2006 F3B program, an African Scholar Project was
initiated. This program provided cross-cultural experience in the United States
for talented young women interested in math and science from the previous F3B
host countries of Morocco and Uganda. The program featured a three-day
mentoring/job shadow experience with a diverse team of women engineers and
scientists in the Wireless Business Group in Whippany.
Judges' Comment: "This project is a prime example of how
employees within a business can initiate an attractive and socially responsible
project that both creates business benefits and community development. F3B and
African Scholar Project is an innovative way to aid in the development of
underdeveloped societies in Africa through sporting camps that integrate
learning opportunities in such crucial issues for the African continent as AIDS
awareness. Most notably, this project makes outstanding use of Alcatel-Lucent’s
core business, technology and science, to educate African women, providing them
with further opportunities that highlights this project amongst other
nominations. It is through social responsibility and community engagement, that
this project enables Alcatel-Lucent to use its main business to create a direct
connection between the company and potential future employees and/or customers
in Africa."
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