History

The idea for One Hen began with a book and website about microfinance that spurned an educator movement, integrating lesson of entrepreneurship and social change to empower kids to succeed in school and life. Today, One Hen empowers kids to be social entrepreneurs who make a difference for others and the world.

In September 2008, a group of four women who had taken leadership in the volunteer movement around the book One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference and website www.onehen.org - Katie Smith Milway, Amma Sefa-Dedeh, Monique Muri and Karen Schultz - met at Babson College with other volunteers and founded One Hen, Inc. forming a volunteer management team and registering One Hen Inc. as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in January 2009.

One Hen, Inc. is built upon the global lessons of the children's book One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, written by author Katie Smith Milway, and the interactive website www.onehen.org developed as a pro bono project by Sapient Interactive, the marketing services group of Sapient Nitro, and Bain & Company's Community Works program. An educator movement began to grow around these resources and request for more support from the One Hen volunteer team including the JFK Elementary School in Canton, MA which built an entire fourth grade curriculum using the book and website resources.

Today, One Hen, Inc. is inspiring students through its two programs One Hen: Microfinance for Kids which introduces them to microfinance and entrepreneurship; and, The Good Garden: Food Security for Kids which teaches students about food security and sustainable agriculture. Each program includes a book, website and teaching modules, integrated into classroom teaching or run as stand-alone after-school, clwub or summer enrichment curriculum.

Over 17,300 students have participated in One Hen, Inc.’s programs and over 500 educators have been trained or are downloading resources from One Hen's websites. Schools and organizations in the US, UK, Canada and Ghana are implementing One Hen programs. In addition teachers in 50 states and 142 countries self-serve by downloading lesson plans from our websites and using book resources in their teaching.

Key Dates in One Hen’s History

	Oct 16, 2007	Volunteer onehen.org, Development Team, formed by Dan Barnicle and Katie Smith Milway.
	Feb 1, 2008	The book One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference launches in Canada: Publisher - Kids Can Press: Toronto.
	Mar 1, 2008	One Hen Book launches in the US: Publisher - Kids Can Press: Rochester.
	May 15, 2008	Interactive Website, www.onehen.org, launches.
	Oct 2, 2008	First One Hen Teacher Training Event in New York City with 30 teachers from City Year NYC and Teach for America.
	Sept 8, 2008	JFK Elementary School begins fourth grade curriculum using One Hen resources.
	Sept 28, 2008	One Hen, Inc. founders Katie Smith Milway, Amma Sefa-Dedeh, Monique Muri, and Karen Schultz meet at Babson College and form volunteer management team.
	Jan 23, 2009	One Hen, Inc. nonprofit launches and incorporates as a 501(c) (3).
	May 5, 2009	One Hen and JFK elementary are featured on ABC news with Charlie Gibson.
	July 2009	One Hen Co-founders Amma Sefa-Dedeh, Karen Schultz and Sree Balamurugesh begin work as One Hen Inc.'s first paid staff.
	July 1, 2009	First One Hen, Inc. summer program pilots in Boston with education partner BELL National.
	July 2010	One Hen, Inc.'s summer program expands to 2200 children in six cities - Augusta, Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, New York and San Francisco.
	Sept 1, 2010	Second One Hen curriculum, The Good Garden: Food Security for Kids, launches.