(Picture from Herra)

Okay, so I only had two people vote in our first Robin Hood Awards, and they each voted for two different people. An appalling turnout, or simply a statistical dead tie, it's your call. We are just getting underway here, so bare with me. Since this is my blog and I sort of make the rules (other than the ones imposed by the ruthless wizards that run Creative Weblogging) I'll do something different this time around and make a call on that tie in the last vote between Jamie Oliver and Helmy Abouleish and go with Oliver since he was on CBS's 60 Minutes last night. So that means Oliver goes on to this, not yet second, round.

For those not familiar with what I'm doing here, the Robin Hood Awards are something I came up with last week to highlight social entrepreneurs that I find in my scavenging. What I ask is for people to write the name of the social entrepreneur they'd like to vote for in the comment section below. Whoever gets the most votes moves on to the next week and into the next round. I'm not really sure how this will work down the line, but maybe I'll tally up those with the most votes from each week, as well as ones who have advanced into a next round, and have a vote for the Audeamus Social Entrepreneur. Other ideas are always welcome.

So, to this week's, not yet second, still not first round awards ...

*From last week, advancing on is Jamie Oliver for his work training unemployed teens at his restaurant Fifteen and for tackling the poor nutritional standards of British school lunches. See this story at Spiked and also the 60 Minutes piece I caught from last night.

*Second this week is John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope, who's social entrepreneurship works to empower low-wealth communities largely through banking education initiatives across the United States. More on Bryant at the weblog Cobb or Bryant's own blog as well.

*Next is Irshad Manji, author and reformer called "Osama Bin Laden's worst nightmare" by the New York Times. Manji has set up something called Project Ijtihad, an initiative to develop the world's first leadership network for reform-minded Muslims. This from the website:

Ijtihad (pronounced "ij-tee-had") is Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. In the early centuries of Islam, thanks to the spirit of ijtihad, 135 schools of thought thrived. Inspired by ijtihad, Muslims gave the world inventions from the astrolabe to the university. So much of we consider "western" pop culture came from Muslims: the guitar, mocha coffee, even the ultra-Spanish expression "Ole!" (which has its root in the Arabic word for God, "Allah").

*Fourth on my list this week is Charles Best, CEO and Founder of DonorsChoose and Spring 'Social Entrepreneur in Residence' at Pace University's Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship. DonorsChoose helps individual donors attach themselves to specific public schools and programs through project proposals that teachers submit and which online 'citizen philanthropists' can fund. Find out a lot more here at the 4Nonprofits blog.

*Next is Summer Rayne Oakes, a model and social entrepreneur who has broken out into sustainable eco-fashion trends. More here at the Lazy Environmentalist.

*Our final SE up for voting this week is Liz Green who, in 2000, formed the 'Potluck Society,' an employment initiative for residents of the Downtown Eastside district of Vancouver, British Columbia. At her Potluck Cafe, Green helps provide training and employment for up to ten former "at-risk" residents of the area, many who are considered "unemployable" because of drug and mental health issues. More on Green here at Global National.

All right. That's it for this week. Be sure to vote and when you do write the name of the person you are voting for in the comment section below.