Wheel Houz™ to join in Literacy Day activities Co-Hosted by UNESCO and UNOP at UN Headquarters

Sept. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Contact Information:                  
Anne Andiorio, President
Wheel Houz, LLC, 732.539.9271
anne@wheelhouz.com
demo link:  http://wheelhouz.com/demo
full event info link:  http://wheelhouz.com/press
UN credentials:  http://www.un.org/media/accreditation/mediaalert.asp

Wheel Houz™ to Join in Activities Co-Hosted by UNESCO and the United Nations Office for Partnerships at International Literacy Day Event at UN Headquarters

Former First Lady Laura Bush to Keynote along with Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova and Jacob Atem, Founder of Sudanese Health Care Among Other Top Corporate, Philanthropic and UN Officials Moderated by Byron Pitts, Chief National Correspondent, CBS News

Global Wheel Houz 5 Yrs & Counting CSR Campaign in Support of the UN Millennium Development Goals, Slated for Achievement in 2015, Launching Following the Event

Via Wire: 8:00am - September 7, 2010 – New York, NY - Wheel Houz, LLC, (http://wheelhouz.com) an innovative inquiry-based applications company for children ages 4-18, today announced it will join in activities co-hosted by UNESCO and the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) in connection with an International Literacy Day event taking place at UN Headquarters, September 8, 2010. The day's activities includes a high-level symposium themed “Literacy: A Foundation for Development,” followed by the launch of the Company’s Global Wheel Houz 5 Yrs & Counting Campaign (GWH5).  The campaign is a corporate social responsibility, (CSR) youth marketing platform, designed to engage youth in raising awareness for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).

Keynote speakers at the Symposium where the campaign launch will take place immediately following include Mrs. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, Mrs. Laura Bush, Honorary Ambassador to the UN Literacy Decade, Mr. Jacob Atem, Founder, Home at Southern Sudan Health Care, along with Mr. Olav Kjorven, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP, Mr. Amir Dossal, UNOP Executive Director, HE Mr. Raff Bukun-Olu Wole Onemola, Ambassador to UN, Nigeria, Ms. Mmantsetsa Marope, Director for Basic Education, UNESCO, Mr. Gary Knell, CEO of Sesame Workshop, Ms. Irene Pritzker, President, IDP Foundation, Ms. Mary Gordon, President & Founder, Roots of Empathy, Mr. John Bell, Managing Director/Executive Creative Director, 360° Digital Influence, Ogilvy & Mather and Mr. Brian Reich, Managing Director, Little m Media.  Moderating the proceedings will be Byron Pitts, Chief National Correspondent, CBS News and “60 Minutes” Contributor and author of “Step Out on Nothing,” (MacMillan Press) which chronicles his own triumph over illiteracy.

Mr. Pitts will conduct a book signing immediately following the Symposium., Additionally, Fiver Children’s Foundation (www.fiver.org) program participants, grades 9-12, along with Mr. Tom Tucker, Founder of the Fiver Children’s Foundation and Mrs. Christie Ko, Executive Director will discuss their participation in the GWH5 Campaign along with Ms. Mary Gordon of Roots of Empathy (www.rootsofemphathy.org). The Fiver Children’s Foundation UN Campaign Team wheels will be shown at the event and will also be displayed on the new Wheel Houz GWH5 online campaign and community site.

A Global Network of Schools Invited to Collaborate
The GWH5 platform utilizes a custom Wheel Houz UN Goal Team Building Application which helps youth identify a UN Goal to support, develop a slogan, recruit goal team members and create an action plan for raising awareness.  Additionally, Wheel Houz will implement PopRule’s (www.poprule) action technology platform which will provide state of the art online and mobile application support.  To be integrated with the Wheel Houz community site launching October 1st, these applications allow youth, classrooms, brands and prominent individuals to build team momentum and later in the campaign, raise funds for non-profit organizations working to advance the achievement of the MDGs. The UN Goal Team Building Application is one of a number of applications Wheel Houz provides which are billed as part of a “21st Century Visual Learning Platform,” designed to maximize self-actualization, collaboration and communication in the classroom and across diverse groups.

Applications Suitable for Enrichment, Prevention and Intervention Programs and Purposes
“The Wheel Houz inquiry-based platform empowers children by helping them enhance self awareness and initiative and communicate important information about themselves and their ideas in both text and visual game formats,” said Anne Andiorio, President of Wheel Houz.  “Suitable for enrichment, prevention and intervention programs and purposes for all skill levels at school, after school and at home, our patent-pending approach distinguishes itself from others by connecting self-examination with problem solving skills in a highly accessible, creative and non-threatening interactive process.  Additionally, by engaging children in The Global Wheel Houz 5 Yrs & Counting Campaign, we reinforce their new-found awareness with something important to be a part of in a highly collaborative and public context.”  

Empathy Fundamental in a Global Society
Educators nearly universally agree that global citizenship is a key 21st Century skill, requiring not only the ability to empathize but the development of a broader, global perspective.  A June, 2010 report* chronicled the accelerating decline in children’s ability to express empathy for others, along with a dramatic increase in bullying.  Introducing children to something bigger than themselves, regardless of inclination toward introspection, is what the GWH5 Campaign is all about.  According to Wheel Houz Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Shamir A. Khan, a Columbia University educated clinical psychologist, Wheel Houz’s educational approach is unique in trying to address the gaps in children’s self-awareness and social awareness and connecting these skills to an increased sense of citizenship. The campaign reinforces this process by helping children realize they can be effective in helping others while also learning that what they care about most, matters to others,” Continued Dr. Khan.  

Schools for children ages 4-18 and families are encouraged to participate in the campaign and become familiar with Wheel Houz free personal assessment online applications also launching October 1st at http://wheelhouz.com.  The campaign will support print, PowerPoint-based software and online formats and includes a community platform for selecting a goal, joining a “goal team,” creating, submitting, viewing, comparing and tracking UN Campaign Team Wheels and performance metrics.  

About Wheel Houz
Wheel Houz, LLC is a privately held company focused on providing children, ages 4-18, with a new way of looking at information and themselves by helping them develop, ask and answer questions about themselves, others and the world.  The Company’s patent-pending, inquiry-based applications are structured to allow children to navigate information, formulate responses and self-publish these responses in a visual, profile-based game format and are grouped into Personal Values & Self-Assessment, Group Values, Social & Civic Values and Topics for Integration Series.  Across the board, applications are presented in sets of ten questions with accompanying answer placement rules.  Other areas the Company is working on applications for include entrepreneurship, activism and personal health. Built on an, interface layer innovation that makes customization for multiple educational and social purposes extremely efficient, Wheel Houz self-assessment applications were first embraced by It’s My Life®, an award winning PBS Kids website for Tweens.  The Wheel Houz online self-assessment game, developed under license by It’s My life can be viewed at (http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/games/wheelhouz).

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Wheel Houz, LLC provides patent-pending, inquiry-based applications are structured to allow children to navigate information, formulate responses and self-publish these responses in a visual, profile-based game format.