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NEW YORK, Jan. 23 (AP) — This year’s Elevate Award winners include social entrepreneurs who are helping children in Detroit get ready for school, building technology labs in rural Kenya and improving road safety in India.
Joseph Deitch, president and founder of the Elevate Prize Foundation, told The Associated Press that 12 winners were announced Monday instead of the usual 10 because there were too many good candidates for the selection committee to narrow down further. Each recipient will receive an unrestricted grant of $300,000 to continue their work and $200,000 in support services to help them reach a wider audience as part of the Foundation’s “Make It Fame” goal.
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“I realized I couldn’t not have them,” Deitch said. “I want to work with them. I want to be on this journey with them. I just want them to fulfill their potential, they all have great potential, passion and purpose.”
Cindy Eggleton, co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing early childhood development programs to children in the community.
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“We were at such an inflection point and won this game, I was really shocked and in tears,” Eggleton said. “It’s such an honor.”
Brilliant Detroit started with 50 children under the age of 8 in 2015 and now supports 16,000 people, including children and their families in 14 communities, who have seen dramatic improvements in students’ reading proficiency.
The program will expand to 24 Detroit neighborhoods next year, while also helping launch projects in other cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland. Eggleton said 21 cities are currently waiting on her plans, which focus on a holistic approach to helping children by providing health, education and other support services to children and their families in nearby homes.
“We’re doing something because it’s a different model,” she said. “What we want to do with the Elevate Prize Foundation is look at how it can be scaled up.”
Initially, Deitch said he thought Brilliant Detroit was “too local” to be considered for the Elevate Prize, which draws attention to solutions to global problems.
Then, the more he looked at the nonprofit’s process and results, he said he thought, “Cindy’s running for president!”
“We all support Cindy for President!” added Carolina García Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Foundation.
“The model she created—which looks so simple—was fantastic,” Deitch continued. “When people are so full of common sense and clarity, they make things look easy, but she is phenomenal.”
Eggleton, along with 11 other Elevate Prize winners, was selected by a panel of leaders from academia, activism, business and media, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who last year was recognized for inspiring social Received the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award for his work in action.
One of the criteria for selecting the winners is whether they bring a unique perspective to the team, Jayaram said. “When we bring them together, magic happens,” she said, adding that several past honorees are now collaborating. “Diversity does us and the winners a lot. As far as the name cards go, the stories are getting richer because they come from such different parts of the world.”
In addition to Eggleton, this year’s Elevate Award winners are:
— Nelly Cheboi of TechLit Africa, a nonprofit that uses recycled computers to create technology labs in schools. Cheboi was selected as part of The Elevate Prize Foundation’s partnership with CNN Heroes. (Kenya)
— Crystal Echo Hawk of IllumiNative, a non-profit project that amplifies contemporary Indigenous voices, stories and issues to increase the impact of Indigenous peoples. (United States)
— Dr. Cynthia Fast of APOPO, a research nonprofit that trains animals to clear landmines and works with medical professionals to detect disease in patients. (Belgium)
— Atif Javed of Tarjimly, a mobile app that enables multilingual people to remotely volunteer as translators and interpreters for refugees. (United States)
— Namya Mahajan, a Rocket Learning nonprofit focused on distributing research to support early childhood education and community engagement. (India)
— Elijah McKinnon from Open Television, a nonprofit intersectional television platform that supports marginalized and underrepresented artists to help bring their stories to light. (United States)
— Sana Mustafa, member of Asylum Access, a nonprofit that helps forcibly displaced people overcome systemic barriers so they can reclaim their rights. (United States)
— Rachel Silverstein of Miami Waterkeeper, a nonprofit that advocates for clean water and ecosystem conservation and combating climate change. (United States)
— Piyush Tewari of the SaveLIFE Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to improve road safety and access to emergency medical services. (India)
— Bianca Tylek of Worth Rises, a nonprofit advocacy group working to abolish the prison industry. (United States)
— Teresa Wanjiku Njoroge of Clean Start Solutions, a social enterprise that works with women and children affected by a system of criminal injustice to support successful reintegration. (Kenya) (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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