Celebrating 10 years of HOPE Sheds Light

The nonprofit organization looks to 2023 with strength, support and hope.

HOPE Sheds Light celebrates 10 years.

HOPE Sheds Light celebrates 10 years.

TOMS RIVER, N.J.Jan. 12, 2023PRLog — It’s been 10 years of spreading awareness on substance use disorder and providing strength to families and individuals who have been impacted by the disease. Ten years of proving that recovery is real. Ten years of embracing multiple pathways to recovery. Ten years of building HOPE for a better tomorrow.

“As we celebrate 10 years of HOPE Sheds Light (HSL), we are grateful for each person who stood by us and supported our mission to raise awareness and educate individuals, families and the community about the impact of substance use disorder,” said Pam Capaci, CEO of HSL. “Stigma has been effectually pushed to the side in order to make way for new outcomes. Countless families and individuals have seen restoration and started new beginnings. As we continue on this beautiful journey, we look to a future filled with hope and even greater impact.”

Over 28 million Americans have admitted to abusing a substance in the last year alone, according to the National Library of Medicine. There are no easy answers for anyone impacted by substance use disorders, but HSL is grateful for those brave enough to share their stories and show the world that recovery is possible.

“We’ve heard so many stories,” said Steve Willis, Co-founder of HSL. “Stories that eventually led to renewal and transformation. The underlining message in each one is clear – hope is alive, and it is stronger than ever.”

Over the last year, HSL has seen measurable growth and renewal. “With our new doors open in Monmouth County, we are strategically positioned to expand our physical footprint in New Jersey,” said Ron Rosetto, Co-founder of HSL. “Through these outreach and many others, we are able to continue to serve all those who look to HSL for strength, support and hope.”

From its robust event calendar, expanded programming, various support groups and wellness activities to its annual walk, golf outing, gala, newsletter and podcast, HSL has become a distinguished recovery hub in Monmouth and Ocean County. Looking to the future, the nonprofit envisions a modern, repurposed or newly constructed center for recovery.

“We want to create a safe place where families and individuals from the recovery community can engage in programs and activities to build their recovery capital, and rebuild and reimagine their life purpose,” said Arvo Prima, Co-founder of HSL. “The HOPE Center for Recovery will offer wellness classes, mutual aid support services, arts and entertainment and civic engagement.”

“Our next chapter is going to be as beautiful as our first one,” said Capaci. “We can’t wait for the entire community to be a part of it.”

About HOPE Sheds Light, Inc.

HOPE Sheds Light, Inc. is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (Tax ID: 46-3910504) that is supported by friends and families directly affected by substance use disorder and found recovery through continuous love, support and understanding. The mission of HSL is to raise awareness and educate individuals, families and the community about the impact of substance use disorder by having the courage to share personal experiences and offer strength, wisdom, hope and resources that lead to positive community change and long-term recovery. To learn more or to donate, please visit http://www.HOPEShedsLight.org.

Evidence in Days, Not Years: Gesund Partners With ScanDiags to Supercharge the Process of Validating Radiology AI –

Gesund opens the doors to gold standard data needed to validate AI: case-specific data annotated by board-certified radiologists


Boston, MA and Berlin, Germany – WEBWIRE



Gesund, the company ensuring that medical artificial intelligence (AI) is safe and effective for all, today announced it is working with ScanDiags to advance innovation in radiology.



Radiology has emerged as a key area for Gesund because AI itself is making fast progress in the field. A study by the American College of Radiology found that clinical adoption of AI by radiologists jumped from zero in 2015 to 30 percent in 2020. Underlying clinical adoption is the creation of helpful tools which lighten the load placed upon a radiologist, like the software ScanDiags makes that is AI for augmented diagnosis from musculoskeletal MRI. Such software unburdens medical professionals from repetitive and quality-challenged work to analyze and leverage more clinical information than ever to lower health providers’ costs.



For people creating the AI tools however, healthcare stands as a uniquely complicated industry where generating algorithm performance metrics can take years. This is why Gesund is building an independent evaluation platform for clinicians and companies to validate medical AI. Purpose-built to be an intuitive and easy to use platform applicable in many scenarios, one of Gesund’s breakthrough features is access to the highest quality data needed for validating a new algorithm.



“We are creating a new way for radiologists to analyze orthopedic MRI scans by augmenting the process through the use of AI,” said Stefan Voser, CPO of ScanDiags. “Gesund is invaluable to what we are doing because it streamlines our regulatory clearance efforts by running our algorithm against case-specific data annotated by board-certified radiologists to generate regulatory-grade performance metrics within days instead of years. An enormous amount of such data is needed for AI solutions to make assessments and predictions with confidence.”



By building a compliant picks-and-shovels MLOps platform that is agnostic to the underlying AI, developers can upload or register their algorithms and share with other collaborators in remote sites while also being able to run the same algorithm on proprietary datasets shared by other parties privately, all happening within the same platform with no PHI data exposed.



“Time-to-evidence, how fast you can get performance metrics on your algorithm, has emerged as a KPI for every AI company in medicine,” observed Dr. Enes Hosgor, CEO and founder of Gesund. “That has now become our own internal KPI and we’re transforming that metric in the field of radiology.”



The news follows on the heels of a series of notable developments for the company since it debuted from stealth in March 2022. Of note, it will be exhibiting at the preeminent radiology conference RSNA and expanding its operations heading into 2023.



About Gesund


Gesund is building the highway of clinical-grade artificial intelligence.



The company connects highly curated and diverse data sets to medtech innovators so they can more quickly and efficiently validate AI that’s effective and safe for clinical settings. It’s designed from the ground up to work in high compliance environments with no cloud access and to be used by physicians, researchers and other medical stakeholders through a simple low-code interface.



The company was founded by Enes Hosgor, Ph.D., in 2021 and is backed by marquee venture capitalists including 500 Global. For more information visit: gesund.ai



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This 19 years old Three-Star Wide Receiver Deserves Your Attention

There are always players that don’t end up getting the attention they rightfully deserve in both college and professional sports. Here we are hoping to change that regarding one player in particular, DeVante Perkins. Perkins is a name that, if you aren’t already familiar with, you certainly will be soon enough.

Perkins is a three-star wide receiver that grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. He started his football journey by attending Horizon Science Academy Elementary School. He started to get a taste for football and wound up wanting to make that dream become a reality by the time he reached high school. The high school he first attended was Cardinal Mooney. However, he only stuck around for one year before he wound up moving to Atlanta, Georgia. This was when he started to play for Stone Mountain High School. He was already getting some time on the gridiron and wanted to further his potential career even more. He transferred into a prep school that’s called Georgia Knights Prep Academy as a way to get more national attention from colleges from all over the country. It was at this point when the D1 offers and visits really started to pour in for him. As it currently stands right now, he’s got a handful of offers from known schools as well as some interests from bigger name colleges without a verified offer. The confirmed offers are from NC State, Tennessee State, Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns and the University of Colorado. The two additional schools that have shown interest are Vanderbilt University and the most important of all, University of Alabama.

Now look, you might not know him through football yet. You might not have ever heard of what he brings to the table out there on any given weekend. Though you might have heard of him through various forms of social media. Believe it or not, Perkins has developed a very strong following on multiple platforms already in his young career. He began posting funny/football content on his Instagram page, where he realized that he was growing fairly quickly. Then he decided to start YouTube channel and continue creating content over there. He also even dove into Snapchat by generating tons of views there as well. In total, Perkins has already racked up 60,000 followers on Instagram, over 100,00 video views when it comes to YouTube and 12,000 subscribers on Snapchat. He’s accomplishing this all at a very young age and he’s clearly incredibly adept at it. There’s no question that this will help further his career by bringing more attention to him as the years pass by.

Perkins isn’t going to let any discouragements get in the way of what he really wants to accomplish. Here‘s to helping Perkins get that opportunity in college that he’s looking for while simultaneously developing all of his social media platforms even further than they already are!

 

Ten years of Reporting Matters: reflecting on a decade and gearing up for the future 

To celebrate the ten years of Reporting matters, this year’s report highlights what corporate sustainability reporting has achieved over the past decade and the developments in reporting that can support systems transformation.

Geneva – WEBWIRE



We are celebrating 10 years of Reporting matters, WBCSD’s annual review of its member companies’ sustainability and integrated reports in partnership with Radley Yeldar (RY). To mark the occasion, we are publishing the findings of our annual Reporting matters 2022 report, commemorating ten years of corporate sustainability reporting.  


For this tenth anniversary edition, Reporting matters 2022 includes a focus on what reporting has achieved over the past decade and how it needs to evolve to continue helping our members to drive improvements in their sustainability reporting. Since 2013:  

  • We have reviewed 1,623 reports.  
  • We have held 671 one-to-one feedback calls with member companies.  
  • We have seen a significant increase in the overall score from 52% in 2013 to 67% in 2022.  
  • In fact, there has been a 700% increase in the number of companies scoring 70% or over since 2013.  

As it has done for the last decade, the 2022 edition of Reporting matters offers insights into the current state of corporate sustainability reporting. Its research spans 154 global companies and shows continued progress. Key findings are outlined below and will also be shared in a webinar on 23 and 24 November 2022. The sessions are available to all, and you can register here.   


Reporting is improving  

  • 93% of member companies in our benchmark have improved their Overall scores since the baseline year of 2019; 34% have improved their Materiality score.  

The state of SDG reporting  

  • 94% of reports reviewed acknowledged the SDGs in some way; 34% prioritize 5-8 Goals to focus on.  

The state of integrated reporting  

  • 35% of reports reviewed combine financial and non-financial information, slightly down from 39% in 2019; 19% are self-declared integrated reports.  

The state of GRI reporting  

  • 76% of reports reviewed reference the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), similar to 77% in 2019; 75% of whom claim to be in accordance with the Core or Comprehensive level.  

The emergence of SASB and TCFD  

  • 45% of reports reviewed reference the SASB standards, up from 10% in 2019; 78% reference the TCFD recommendations.  

Online content shoots up  

  • 98% of members with an offline-first approach produce complementary online content, up from 64% in 2019; 21% of reports reviewed provide a digital-first experience, similar to 23% in 2019.  

Peter Bakker, President and CEO of WBCSD, said: “Reporting matters has been supporting companies over the last 10 years, improving the effectiveness of reporting and its ability to drive and explain sustainable business transformation. It is more important than ever that we provide investors with accurate, timely and actionable information about the material environmental and social risks companies face, as well as the positive and negative impacts they are responsible for. Transparency and reporting are essential in helping to drive progress and demonstrate that we are achieving real change, providing a true reflection of a company’s ability to generate long-term value for its owners and the communities and ecosystems that its success relies on.” 


Jennifer Black, Sustainability Reporting Director at RY, said: “Sustainability reporting has transformed over the last decade and it’s rewarding to see such positive results from our long partnership with WBCSD. Reporting matters has proved instrumental in supporting businesses to improve the effectiveness of their reporting, respond to the changing demands from external stakeholders and keep up with an ever-evolving regulatory landscape. We’ve witnessed steady progress in the rigor that underpins reporting through more rigorous materiality assessments, the integration of sustainability strategies into business plans and the broadening use of communication channels and platforms – all driven by diversifying audience needs. These changes are making sure reporting remains relevant and fit for purpose for the decade ahead.” 


Going forward, the evolution of the materiality landscape, the ongoing digitalization of reporting and the development of a global baseline for sustainability reporting will help meet the needs of global capital markets.  


With this backdrop, Reporting matters will continue into the next decade as WBCSD and our member companies work to improve corporate reporting and accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. We would like to thank our members for their continued commitment, dedication and efforts to improve their sustainability disclosures and reporting, and for their engagement with Reporting matters over the years.  


Download the full Reporting matters 2022 report here to read more about key findings, dive deeper into detailed analysis and good practice examples and much more. Keep a special eye out for the introduction chapters celebrating 10 years of partnership and laying out what Reporting matters needs to offer going forward.   

Celebrating 20 Years of the Documentary Film Program

WEBWIRE



Twenty years ago, the late Diane Weyerman set out to create a home for nonfiction storytellers at Sundance. Launched with support from the Open Society Foundations, the Documentary Film Program (DFP) was grounded in human rights advocacy with an international lens from the very beginning. In the years that followed, DFP has remained fiercely committed to supporting resonant, urgent storytelling; building community for nonfiction artists; and helping to develop fearless projects through its funds, labs, and artist support for global storytellers. 


It was this unshakable commitment that inspired me to join the DFP two years ago, during one of the most precarious moments in living memory.


In the midst of political, cultural, and environmental upheaval — not to mention an ever-changing industry — I knew that whatever the future held, the Sundance Institute had an essential role to play.


Independent voices, free expression, and a free press are foundational to a thriving democracy. They are the building blocks of a more just, equitable, peaceful, and sustainable world. These values have shaped my career as a filmmaker, journalist, educator, and funder, beginning with the first feature documentary I ever produced, The Weather Underground (dirs. Sam Green and Bill Siegel), which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. 


Since then, each project has presented unique challenges and opportunities. What has remained constant is a stubborn belief in independent artists determined to manifest their visions without undue pressure or influence from political or commercial forces. Nonprofit programs like the DFP and many others in the ecosystem make this possible. 


Over these last two decades, under the leadership of visionaries like Diane Weyerman, Cara Mertes, and Tabitha Jackson, the DFP has supported films that elevate human rights, social justice, and the art of nonfiction. Hundreds of groundbreaking, prolific artists have found community and connection here at Sundance — from my own beloved mentors Jon Else (Wonders Are Many, Land of Gold) and Debbie Hoffmann (Long Night’s Journey Into DayUnrest) to creative North Stars like Lourdes Portillo (Senorita Extraviada) and Natalia Almada (El General, El Velador, Users). It is a privilege to help carry on a legacy that has so significantly contributed to the two most robust decades in independent documentary history. 


Thanks to our many partners and supporters who share Sundance’s commitment and vision, the DFP has supported more than 1,000 projects in 20 years. We are currently investing nearly $2 million a year in nonfiction storytellers by providing unrestricted funding from development through post production, in addition to the Edit, Story, and Producers Labs. 


This work has always been important, but it has never been more crucial than it is today. This is a unique moment of disruption within the industry, given the impact of COVID, the prevalence of streaming platforms, and the consolidation of media companies. Sundance Institute’s DFP will continue to support the field at large by advocating for producers and editors, prioritizing marginalized storytellers and regions with developing documentary fields, and investing in initiatives like the collaborative revamp of the Documentary Core Application and the National Endowment for the Humanities Sundance | Sustainability Fellowship. But there’s much, much more to do, from helping filmmakers navigate digital and legal risk to nurturing rigorous and ethical filmmaking practices. 


In these times of human rights atrocities, grave threats to democracy, and widening inequities in the U.S. and around the world, DFP is even more committed to supporting those independent watchdogs and artists who indelibly expose realities that are at best invisible and at worst concealed. There has never been a greater need for artists who can take us beyond our lived experiences, inspiring us with beauty, possibility, and understanding. 


As a form, documentary refuses to be constricted. Whether a revolutionary act, an artistic expression, a reexamination of history, or a personal or prophetic journey, documentary is as surprising, nuanced, and messy as the conditions it seeks to capture. Documentarians often begin a project not knowing how a story will end. None of us knows where our collective story ends, but I do know that nonfiction artists will continue to lead the way, and DFP will be there to uplift and support them.


Happy 20th anniversary, DFP. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being part of this 20-year journey. And here’s to the next 20 years!


Carrie Lozano

Director of Documentary Film Program and Artist Programs