December 3, 2007 - Fast Company magazine and Monitor Group announced today that they have awarded one of its 2008 Social Capitalist Awards to Year Up, a one-year intensive education and training program that is transforming the lives and economic prospects of low-income urban young adults across the country.

This year's awards feature 45 non-profits who use the tools of business to solve the world's most pressing social problems - ranging from poor healthcare in developing nations to unequal education access, homelessness, unemployment and substance abuse in the United States - and who have demonstrated a consistent and unusually large impact on society.

Year Up is honored to be recognized for its impact on workforce development. "In order to close the growing Opportunity Divide that exists today for many of our young adults, we must be able to provide them with access to the education, experiences and guidance needed to succeed in both professional careers and higher education," said Gerald Chertavian, Founder & CEO of Year Up.

"Our impact and the success of our students is the result of a unique collaborative approach that directly addresses the business needs of companies, while preparing our young adults both technically and professionally to enter the workforce."

For five years, Fast Company has partnered with global consulting firm Monitor Group to identify, evaluate, and celebrate top-performing nonprofit organizations.

The Awards assess social entrepreneurial organizations of different sizes and ages across social sectors as an explicit effort to further performance measurement and accountability in the social sector in a highly rigorous, data driven, comparative approach. Organizations are rated on five critical components: social impact, entrepreneurship, innovation, aspiration and growth, and sustainability, based on an application that included two years of operating and audited financial data, a statement of mission and objectives, and answers to a survey to assess strategy and activities.

Winners were selected by an independent advisory board of sector experts. "This year we've seen an explosion of diverse experiments, many of them engineered by onetime Wall Street heavies, that attempt to bring new capital - and capital-market dynamics - to the realm of social good," said Fast Company Contributing Writer Keith Hammonds.

"Through these deals, social entrepreneurs and businesses are raising the stakes, creating both business and social impact, and changing old-style capitalism as we know it."

The winners are featured in Fast Company's December/January 2008 issue (on newsstands December 4 - Jan. 22, 2008) and will be recognized during a ceremony at the Westin Washington D.C. city Center on Jan. 8, 2008. Complete information on this year's Social Capitalist Award winners can be found online at www.fastcompany.com.

About Year Up.  Year Up is a one-year, intensive education and training program that provides urban young adults, ages 18-24, with a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, apprenticeships, college credit, a behavior guidance system and several levels of support to place them on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency.

Equal emphasis is placed on developing the professional skills required in today's workplace, such as effective communication, leadership and teamwork. With sites in Boston, New York City, Providence, Washington, D.C. and soon San Francisco, Year Up is expected to serve more than 650 students in 2008.

Through its national expansion plans, Year Up will serve more than 10,000 students by 2016.

Year Up's 80+ corporate partners include Bank of America, Fidelity, CVS/pharmacy, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Merrill Lynch, Marsh & McLennan Companies, MIT, Partners HealthCare, Putnam Investments, and State Street Corporation.

Company Website: http://www.yearup.org