Kristen and Keith Chapman are a remarkable young couple, who have commited their lives to making a difference in the world. Imagine relocating your family to Liberia, West Africa and making the building below your home. It will be shared with other staff members giving their time to work on their project, Trinity Dental.

Liberia is one of the poorest nations in the world. In the United States there is one dentist for every 2,000 people. In Liberia there only 1 dentist  per 1,000,000 people. As a dentist, Keith Chapman's vision is to do his part to restore some hope by opening a dental clinic. They will also have portable dental units that will make it possible to visit remote villages with the option of transporting patients with more critical needs. Kristin teaches dental health to the children.

Beyond offering dental care, the clinic will also serve as a learning lab to help train Liberian's to become future dental professionals. The country lost many of its educators who fled to escape the civil war. The training programs will create jobs to help some lead better lives in the future. To learn more please view the video below.

In 1987, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's Youth Initiative Partnership (KYIP) began with a single mission: to improve the quality of life for children and youth in Detroit who are facing economic, social, and educational challenges. Kellogg committed a 20-year investment to improving outcomes in the area by partnering with communities so they can provide opportunities to youth to grow into healthy, contributing adults. The Detroit Youth Foundation (DYF) successfully evolved from that program. The goal is to "establish viable, long-term vehicles to help communities create, institutionalize, coordinate, and sustain positive youth development efforts and to keep the development of children and youth a top priority." 

DYF’s work is based on four assumptions:

YouthVille Detroit is the signature project of Detroit Youth Foundation. YouthVille was designed to developing youth by enhancing emotional, social, physical, mental and academic well-being through providing direct programs and research in partnership with others. Housed in a 73,000 square foot facility, the program was designed to be the most comprehensive neighborhood youth development center in the city of Detroit and the Midwest.

With programs designed for and by kids, YouthVille Detroit offers a broad range of youth development activities from art to computers, academics to fitness, Web radio broadcasting to music studio recording and much more within six core areas of leadership development, cultural and fine arts, education and academic enrichment, technology, health and fitness and music.  The kids also have It also provides multiple opportunities for adults to volunteer and interact with youth.

Members are given opportunities to hear from professional speakers on topics such as entrepreneurship, financial independence, career planning, personal safety, healthy living, and much, much more. They also have their own career coach to help them create a career plan.

As part of their membership registration process youth have the opportunity to design a personal plan for their future. Through the guidance of trained staff, members will learn how to identify their life goals, set steps toward accomplishing those goals and create a plan for achieving their goals. Throughout the year the plan will be reviewed and revised providing youth with a powerful tool to making their dreams reality.

Best Buddies was created in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver to end the social isolation for people with intellectual disabilities. Through their programs, one-on-one friendships are established between disabled and non-disabled peers to build confidence and self-esteem. The program has grown to include more than 350,000 people throughout the United States and six continents.

"As with any successful social movement, the key to change is changing people’s minds and hearts. By introducing one person with a disability to a peer who does not have a disability, Best Buddies meets the immediate needs for socialization and affects long-term change in people’s attitudes towards individual’s with intellectual disabilities."

Here is another amazing story of a child with a compassionate heart, who has already changed the world. When she was only 4 years old, Hannah was serving food at a rescue mission with her family. She noticed a man in line with a tear in his shoes, and he wasn't wearing socks. It concerned her greatly that he would be cold, so she asked, "Mommy, can he have my socks?" The following day, she and her mother began purchasing and donating socks to the local shelters. Hannah's Socks is now a full fledged non-profit organization which believes "that in a country as prosperous as the United States, no man, woman or child should want for something as basic as a warm pair of socks."

"Everyday I try to make the world a better place" says Julia. Sounds like a beautiful life mission to me! How I Changed The World Today is Julia's blog, and nearly every single day of her life she lends money to help alleviate poverty. To date she has made 390 loans. She does this through Kiva, the the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Everyday she highlights the person she selected to support on that day. When you view her lending history, you find that the loans truly are paid back in time and it is awesome to read about the lives she has impacted.