January 21, 2010 — Six greater Boston nonprofit organizations have been selected as the 2010 Social Innovators by Root Cause, awarding each $75,000 in cash and services, for “demonstrating promising solutions to greater Boston’s pressing social problems.”

This year’s honorees will receive strategy consulting, business planning, executive coaching, and introductions to potential philanthropic investors, to help them gain visibility and acquire the resources they need to expand their work.

This is the seventh year that Root Cause, a national nonprofit organization based in Cambridge that looks to develop solutions to social and economic problems by supporting social innovators and educating social impact investors, has run the award program.

More than 145 nonprofits in greater Boston applied for selection as a 2010 Social Innovator. More than 60 leaders in business, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector reviewed the applications in a rigorous evaluation process. Up-and-coming nonprofits had to demonstrate efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation in tackling a specific social problem in the award tracks of housing, employment and education, fitness and healthy eating, healthy aging, women and girls’ welfare, or youth art and advocacy.

The 2010 Social Innovators are:

• Generations Incorporated’s Experience Corps Program, which recruits retirees and other older adults from their local communities to provide one-on-one reading support to children during school and after-school programs. Sponsoring partner is Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

• Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance’s Home & Healthy for Good, a statewide program which finds and advocates for permanent residential housing for chronically homeless people. Sponsoring partner is the Highland Street Foundation.

• Medicine Wheel Productions, which involves at-risk youths in the production of public arts projects to help increase awareness of self, community, and the human condition. Sponsoring partners are the Hunt Alternatives Fund and the Elizabeth B. Kreske Charitable Foundation.

• My Life My Choice Project of the Justice Resource Institute, which provides services in prevention, victim identification, and intervention to female victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Sponsoring partner is the Anna B. Stearns Charitable Foundation.

• Playworks (formerly Sports4Kids), which sends trained, fulltime coaches into low-income urban schools to support children’s health and well-being through safe, organized play and physical activities. Sponsoring partners are the Stifler Family Foundation and Health Management Resources.

• Project Hope’s Employer Partnerships, which partners with hospitals to train low-income single mothers for entry to mid-level jobs in the healthcare industry. Sponsoring partner is the State Street Foundation.

The Social Innovators’ strategy and business support will culminate May 4 with participation in the Social Innovation Forum showcase event, modeled after venture capital forums in which early-stage organizations present their ideas directly to investors. During the showcase, each nonprofit will seek to present their most compelling case for support to more than 250 potential philanthropic investors.

Social Innovator Forum Achievement Award

Root Cause and the Social Innovator Forum also presented the 2010 Social Innovator Forum Achievement Award to David Howse, executive director of the Boston Children’s Chorus.

Root Cause cited Howse for being “a long-time supporter of music as a catalyst to unite the city’s diverse communities and inspire social change.” The award was sponsored by the Margaret Stewart Lindsey Foundation.