Today we’re excited to kick off audience voting for the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) Aspire Awards, our annual competition inviting youth around the world to creatively express their vision for driving change in local communities.

Over the past 12 weeks, we’ve received more than 1,100 submissions from 51 countries – a record high! We’ve narrowed the field to 20 finalists in each of our content categories, including animation, documentary, music video, narrative, poetry, photography, collage, and collaboration.

Beginning today through June 8, finalist entries will be showcased on our Aspire Awards website. We encourage you – our community members and supporters – to get involved by helping to select our Audience Award winners. You can cast your vote by viewing, commenting on, sharing, “liking,” tweeting, and retweeting your favorite entries.

During the audience voting period, an international panel of professionals working in art, film, and other
creative fields will additionally select first- and second-place winners in each content category and a special category for this year – the UNICEF Challenge – which invites entrants to develop a youth-led project utilizing innovative digital tools and/or digital engagement to bring positive change to their communities.

Winners in our standard content categories are eligible to win software, hardware, and a charitable donation to a cause of their choice. In addition, the UNICEF Challenge winners will receive grants valued at up to $40,000(USD), dedicated to implementing the winning project proposals. Winners’ entries from all categories will be featured at distinguished exhibitions, including international film festivals and other arts organization events.

We’ll announce winners in all categories in mid-June and celebrate the winners and their achievements at the 2013 AYV Summit in August.

To learn more about our commitment to igniting creative confidence in youth, visit our Adobe Youth Voices website. And be sure to watch this space to keep up with what’s happening with the AYV Aspire Awards!

Last year, Adobe’s State of Create  global benchmark study revealed the existence of a major ‘creativity gap’ in five of the world’s largest economies. The research showed us that four in 10 people believed that they did not have access to the tools needed to support creativity in the classroom.

In response to this study, we felt compelled to address this creativity gap by designating more than $1 million to the Adobe Foundation’s Creativity Scholarships for youth. The Creativity Scholarships program was developed to support the next generation of creative thinkers and equip them with resources to apply creative confidence to advance their education in creative fields.

The scholarships provide financial support to high school seniors and students in their first year of post-secondary education who have participated in the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program and will be attending or continuing an accredited post-secondary degree or certificate program. This scholarship reinforces Adobe’s commitment to igniting creative confidence in youth and enables AYV participants to launch creative careers and find innovative ways to improve their communities through creative problem solving and expression.

At Adobe, we believe everyone is born with innate creativity and the Creativity Scholarships are designed to support this belief. The power of creativity is real, and unlocking the creative potential in students can lead to real change in communities around the world.

Please check out our AYV site for more info and be sure to keep an eye out for more Creativity Scholarship announcements in the coming weeks.

To apply, submit your application to www.adobescholarship.com by March 31, 2013. Full details can be found here.

People know Adobe for many reasons, many of which revolve around our technologies that help creative professionals bring their ideas to reality and that enable marketers to create and drive industry-leading campaigns based in smart math. At Adobe Summit this week in Salt Lake City, we are talking about our technologies and the future of the industry, and we have specials guests sharing some incredible stories of overcoming tremendous personal and professional challenges to do something amazing. But we also had the opportunity to share a side of Adobe that isn’t talked about as often as our technology.

Today, at our Digital Marketing Summit, we heard from a great mind – Sal Khan about the idea of breaking down barriers to revolutionize whatever you are passionate about. His work and the vision for the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere, inspired us and evoked a standing ovation from the Summit crowd. In one of those rare moments where I had the opportunity to proudly represent all Adobe employees, I announced that Adobe is donating $50,000 to the Khan Academy to further its groundbreaking approach to education and community change.

That was an incredibly special moment to be able to share with our customers and partners. Beyond our technologies, Adobe has a philanthropic side that does meaningful and inspirational work, but that at times takes a backstage to Adobe’s business initiatives. Adobe Youth Voices represents this side of Adobe, and was created to ignite creative confidence in youth, empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. To date, Adobe Youth Voices has created opportunities for over 120,000 youth. We have a vision of a world where the future creative and mathematical minds of tomorrow are not hindered by circumstance but have endless opportunities to succeed.

Beyond Adobe Youth Voices, our broadly reaching Adobe Foundation is funded by Adobe to leverage human, technological, and financial resources to drive social change and improve the communities in which we live and work. The Adobe Foundation supports innovative programs that further its mission and goals, and we are proud to support Khan Academy as a partner in creating opportunities for the world’s youth. I’m pretty excited about it and speak for all 11,000 Adobe employees in saying that we believe the work we do to better humanity is the most important work we can do.

Adobe believes creativity not only makes the world a more beautiful place, but it is also a critical component to addressing some of the most difficult challenges we face as a society.

The global State of Create report Adobe released last year revealed only one in four people believe they’re living up to their own creative potential. In response, we’ve aimed to address this “creativity gap” by further imbedding creativity into our products, communities and schools.

Through Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), Adobe’s global philanthropic commitment, we’re working to ignite creative confidence in youth by empowering them to find their voice and make it heard. In doing so, we can help them become more active and engaged members of their communities and society at large. As an extension of this commitment, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of this year’s AYV Aspire Awards competition.

Now in its second year, AYV Aspire Awards is a global, online challenge that invites youth to creatively express their vision for driving positive change in local communities. Participants can convey their ideas using a variety of visual storytelling methods, from videos to photo essays. In addition, a new category for this year – the UNICEF Challenge – invites youth to develop a video proposal for a project they’d like to implement.

The Aspire Awards call for entries is now open, and we’re looking forward to kicking-off online voting for the public in late April.

Last year’s entries showcased remarkable talent. Below are a few of our favorites.

It’s an exciting time for us – please check out our AYV site for more info, and keep an eye out for more AYV-related announcements in the coming weeks.

Hoodforts dispels misconceptions about “hooded” youth in the Mile End area of London.

Cambio Jovenes explores how youth can shape the world around us.

Keep Pushing is about the importance of persistence in the face of hardship.

This past Tuesday, we coordinated a worldwide takeover of the Adobe Instagram channel with our employees. Offices from Asia, Europe, and the U.S., all took shifts managing the Instagram channel to share a glimpse of #AdobeLife with all of you – our days at the office, commutes to work, the teams behind your favorite products, and more.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the collection of pictures on our Instagram channel. You’ll get an inside peek at our sites in Japan, Singapore, India, France, United Kingdom, Dublin, Utah, San Jose, and San Francisco.

Follow us on Instagram for more inside peeks from upcoming events like Adobe at SXSW and Adobe Summit.

Adobe’s newly remodeled open workspace on the 12^th floor of our San Jose headquarters’ West Tower was awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification for Commercial Interiors at the Platinum level – marking the first space to receive LEED-CI Platinum distinction at Adobe San Jose headquarters. Among the features of the 25,000 square foot open office space is natural light for all workspaces and enhanced energy management, resulting in a 50% reduction in energy use. Wood and glass from the old doors and offices have been recycled into dividers that define one of the many collaboration spaces on the floor. The open floor plan is flexible and improves collaboration, as communication is much easier within teams and across functional groups. Over time, Adobe’s goal is to expand this open, collaborative floor plan to most of its San Jose headquarters as well as other offices worldwide.

The company’s newest LEED Platinum CI certification is Adobe’s 23^rd LEED Certification and 17^th LEED certification at the Platinum level. I want to extend my congratulations to all who worked on this project. For more information about Adobe’s facilities initiatives, visit the Environment section of our Corporate Social Responsibility Page.

More than 1,100 Adobe employees around the world rolled up their sleeves and gave back to our communities in the spirit of Community Action Month during April and May, making a big impact in the communities in which we live and work.

Employees helping to beautify the Mount Pleasant High School campus

Adobe volunteers gave over 4,400 hours of service to a variety of organizations, with a focus on Adobe Foundation grantees, resulting in an impact extending beyond just the cash grants. Activities ranged from sorting food at local food banks to building playhouses, to giving career advice to Adobe Youth Voices students.

A key benefit is the great teambuilding that is cultivated while volunteers work side by side in service of their community.  Adobe’s Senior Vice President of HR, Donna Morris, is a big advocate of Community Action Month. Her team in San Jose volunteered at Mount Pleasant High School, an Adobe Youth Voices site, where they gardened, painted and cleaned.

“A day volunteering in the community is definitely not your typical day in the office, but it is not an unusual activity for Adobe. We take pride in showing our ‘involved’ value at work year-round. I know my team had a lot of fun tilling soil and painting together. Then, seeing the excitement on the faces of the teens after we finished made the experience that much sweeter.”

Here are highlights from the different sites around the world:

Adobe Youth Voices: Adobe Youth Voices held several events for Community Action Month, including career panels in New York City and San Francisco, rough cut reviews in Boston, Ottawa and New York City, and a career day at the San Jose headquarters.

Bucharest: Employees donated meal tickets to the Red Cross, toys and clothes for a local shelter, and participated in a blood drive.

McLean: Twenty three employees volunteered at two homes supported and operated by the Alternative House. Employees painted, cleaned, steam cleaned carpets, assembled furniture, completing a list of projects in three hours that would have taken two people multiple days to finish.

Noida: Eleven employees participated in various sessions organized for career counseling. The activities included mock

Employees sorted and packaged donations for the HOPE Foundation in Noida, India.

interviews, quizzes, focused group discussions and two guest sessions. Saji Geevarghese, senior Program Director, HOPE Foundation said, “I was very impressed with how the Adobe volunteering team engaged with our youth in different ways, leaving them encouraged and visibly more confident. I am looking forward to more such engagements in the near future.”

Ottawa: More than 60 employees volunteered in the sorting and packing of food at the Ottawa Food Bank, painting a young men’s shelter and sorting clothing donations a local underserved school. Employees held a silent auction and raised more than $5,000 for the Youth Services Bureau and the Ottawa Food Bank.

San Francisco and San Jose: Ten employees volunteered with GRID Alternatives to install a 3.88 kW solar system for a low-income family home in East San Jose. The Adobe Green Team, along Adobe matching gifts, raised more than $7,500 for the GRID Alternatives workday to help bring the power of solar energy to a family in need.

Tokyo: Employees rallied around a clothing donation drive to benefit the Refashion organization that provides clothes to those in need. They also donated computers to high school students in damaged areas of Japan.

Visit the Community Action Month album on the Adobe Corporate Social Responsibility Facebook page to check out photos of various activities from different sites.

A Culture of Giving Back

Community Action Month activities are just a sample of all the great activities that happen throughout the year. In 2011, Adobe contributed over $54 million in community giving and we have a variety of programs that encourage employees to volunteer in our communities. These include:

• Dollars for Doers program – Adobe donates $125 for every 10 hours employees volunteer at a nonprofit organization.
• Adobe Youth Voices – Adobe Foundation’s global signature philanthropy program designed to provide youth in underserved communities with the critical skills they need to become active and engaged members of their communities and the world at large.
• Matching Gift Program – The Matching Gift Program supports individual contributions to qualified nonprofit organizations and schools. Adobe matches employee donations up to a maximum of US$5,000 per employee, per calendar year.
• Employee Software Purchase Donation Program – Adobe offers this program for K-12 Schools, whereby U.S. employees can purchase up to 30 products (at a reduced rate) to donate to local schools.

Learn more about Adobe’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.

We are delighted to welcome Michelle Crozier Yates to Adobe as the new Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Executive Director of the Adobe Foundation. Michelle spent the last ten years at Warner Bros. Entertainment in Southern California where she was Director, and subsequently Vice President, of Corporate Responsibility. During that time, Michelle developed, implemented and oversaw the company’s corporate responsibility program at what is the world’s largest film and television studio. Michelle has a BA in International Relations from Tufts University, and an MBA in International Business & Corporate Responsibility from the London Business School.

Michelle joins us at a special time of the year. This month is Community Action Month, Adobe’s annual community involvement initiative where employees at sites all over the world show how they embody our “Involved” core value. Employees have the opportunity to participate in more than 70 different volunteer initiatives including sorting food at the local food bank, building playhouses for children, or assembling toiletry kits for families in need. We know that just a little bit of our time can have a big impact in local communities.  Although volunteering happens year round at Adobe, employees look forward to Community Action Month as a great way for teams across the company to dedicate some time away from work to come together to share the Adobe spirit of generosity and volunteerism. Last year, more than 1,200 Adobe volunteers gave more than 4,000 hours to local communities across the globe.  Adobe has a proud tradition of supporting our communities through volunteerism and we’re looking forward to even more employee involvement this year.

Curious about her background and why she decided to make the move from Warner Bros. to Adobe, we interviewed Michelle. Here is Michelle’s story:

Many companies have a Corporate Social Responsibility program, what makes Adobe’s unique?

Adobe’s CSR program is unique due to the commitment from leadership, some standout initiatives such as the Adobe Foundation’s outreach program, Adobe Youth Voices, and a sustainable facilities strategy. But fundamentally the core values of the company are truly embodied in an engaged employee population and responsible corporate citizenship.

Having been at Warner Bros. for 10 years, what intrigued you to join Adobe?

I was approached by recruitment at Adobe and although I wasn’t looking for a new position, once I researched Adobe as a company and their CSR work specifically, I was very impressed with everyone I met with and with the company’s commitment to building their CSR program and profile.  It seemed like a great new challenge and opportunity, and I love the culture here.

Looking at the many CSR initiatives that you’ve been involved with throughout your career, which one are you most proud of? Why?

Looking back, I am really proud to have created and implemented the Warner Bros.’ Impact worldwide employee giving program, which combined the giving of time and funds and has become the signature outreach and employee engagement program.  Since the launch, employee participation has grown every week and hit 35% in the first year, well surpassing the targets.  Millions of dollars have been contributed to community based organizations around the world and thousands of hours volunteered, and employees have really embraced it.  Programs like that contribute to overall employee recruitment, retention, engagement and loyalty, in addition to the benefits in the community.

What career advice would you give to someone who’s interested in pursuing a career in the CSR field?

CSR is an inter-disciplinary field, and to lead a CSR team or program, it’s important to be somewhat of a generalist, but one who has done a deep dive in many areas of CSR at some point in your career.  So for example, spend some time working with community organizations (from the corporate, nonprofit, or civic side), grappling with challenging supply chain issues such as human rights and resource use, gaining a deep understanding of the many facets of environmental sustainability, building and improving employee engagement programs, practicing strategic philanthropy, formally engaging with shareholders and other stakeholder groups….the list goes on.  But learn every area over time.

On the personal front, can you tell us something interesting about yourself that others may not necessarily know about you?

I have been an avid snowboarder for more than 20 years, having converted from skiing after my first ride.  I actually broke my arm on that very first day, but kept going back (and breaking a few more bones doing snowboardcross along the way!) because I just find it to be such an exhilarating experience.  I’ve become a lot more cautious now that I’m a parent, but I’m the first one on the lift on a nice powder day

Visit the Community Action Month album on Facebook for photos of our Adobe employees in action! Check back throughout the month for updates.

Also visit the Adobe Corporate Social Responsibility Facebook page to get the latest news on all of our CSR efforts.

A picture from our latest Community Action Month event with Habitat for Humanity

If you were anywhere close to downtown San Jose on Saturday night, you’ll have to excuse us if we had the music turned up a little too loud.  But there was good reason to celebrate as we wrapped up a fantastic week with the Adobe Youth Voices Live! party at the California Theater.

The mission of Adobe Youth Voices is to provide youth in underserved communities the opportunity to create media that express their emotions and concerns about issues that are affecting them and our world.  To date, The Adobe Youth Voices program has impacted 150,000 youth and 4,000 educators in more than 40 countries.  The celebration on Saturday was the grand finale of our second international Adobe Youth Voices Summit, a four-day conference which brought together more than 90 AYV students and educators from 16 countries around the world.  Their stories are amazing and so are they.

The week’s highlights included a moving keynote from journalist Laura Ling, who you might recall was held captive in North Korea for nearly five months while on an assignment covering refugee movement between the China/North Korea border.  On Saturday, the Adobe Foundation joined forces with the Black Eyed Peas Peapod Foundation to open the newest Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy at Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in San Jose.  MACLA joins the growing network of academies in New York, Los Angeles, Oakland and Redwood City, California.

But Saturday night was all about celebration with performances by AYV students and a special appearance from Fergie, apl.de.ap, and Taboo of the Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas.  Photos from the AYV Summit can be seen here.

Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, center, dances with members of the Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy during the Adobe Youth Voices Live! celebration

Since its beginnings in 2006, the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) program has given more than 80,000 young people and educators in more than 45 countries a voice. It’s a voice these young people have used to comment on their world, share their passions – and sometimes their perils – and take action on issues that matter to them and their communities. Today, AYV’s collective voice was heard on one of the largest and most prestigious stages in the program’s history.

As part of the United Nations General Assembly on Youth, AYV program director Miguel Salinas had the privilege of addressing the General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City. Miguel shared the experiences and successes that AYV has realized in using technology to empower youth from underserved communities to express themselves and create change. In his remarks, Miguel discussed the broad impact that AYV is having and the lessons the program has unearthed for using technology to bridge social, economic and geographic divides. He also shared specific testimonials from AYV youth and educators on how social expression through media has changed them as individuals and changed their worlds.

Miguel’s address to the General Assembly came as part of the UN’s high-level meeting on youth in which member states and invited speakers are gathered under the theme of “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding.” The meeting is the highlight of the UN’s declared International Year of Youth.

The proceedings of the two-day, high-level meeting, along with videos of invited speakers, can be accessed at the United Nations webcast page. Miguel is also planning to blog about his visit to the United Nations later in the week. We’re tremendously proud of Miguel and proud of the entire AYV community as it continues in its drive to “Create With Purpose.”