It is finally time to introduce you to our grantees, the inaugural cohort of Young Future Innovators!
Are we honored? Of course.
Are we excited? An understatement.
But really, we just want to start. While we may have launched a funding challenge, a website, launched YF via our panel at SXSW, and spearheaded a newsletterand this blog you’re reading (thanks by the way 🥹) that’s just the launchpad. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for.
So how did we actually get started?
With a question that had no answer.
We invited each selected grantee to a totally ✨not mysterious✨ Zoom and told them we had just ONE question, which was actually… a congratulations!
After 10 zooms, some shouts, some eeks and “I’ll have to change that hold on my calendar to an actual thing!” we have finally formed our cohort of Young Futures Innovators tackling our first challenge:
The Lonely Hearts Club❤️💔 a call for “early-stage organizations and solutions focused on fostering meaningful social connection, teen belonging, and wellbeing in a tech-driven world. They’re caught in a paradox of digital tension — hyper-connected through tech yet feeling a lack of meaningful social connection. And we know that social connection is critical!”
In short, the internet can be a lonely place but these wonderful people make it less lonely, how?
⭐️ With help to stop digital harm in its tracks
🚀 Trisha Prabhu (she/her) @ ReThink Citizens
Trisha Prabhu is the 24-year-old inventor of ReThink™, a globally acclaimed technology that stops cyberbullying before the damage is done. ReThink instantly detects offensive content and encourages users to rethink sending it, stopping online hate proactively. ReThink Citizens is a youth-led movement with the mission of tackling cyberbullying and online harassment by equipping all youth with the skills they need to be responsible digital citizens.