🎉 The Next $1M Young Futures Funding Challenge is OPEN!!
Accepting applications through October 1st
Young Futures Community,
As summer fades and the pace of fall kicks into high gear, it seems like everyone’s balancing a bit too much—packed schedules, constant digital demands, a stressful election on the horizon—you know the drill. But we’re eternal optimists here at Young Futures, and we feel lucky to have an opportunity to shake things up, especially for the young people growing up in today’s high-pressure world.
That’s why I am so thrilled to announce our newest $1 million open funding call at Young Futures: the Under Pressure Challenge.
We are honored to collaborate with Emily Weinstein, Carrie James, and the Center for Digital Thriving (CDT), a research and innovation center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on this challenge, integrating their youth research-backed perspectives into the development of our RFP and the criteria we’re using to evaluate potential grantees.
From the pressure to have their future “game plan” figured out, to look a certain way, to create a “perfect” online persona, to being there for friends at all hours of their always-on digital reality, today’s preteens and teens live in a relentless 24/7 pressure cooker.
So we’re here to find and uplift solutions—release valves—that can make growing up in our digital world just a bit easier.
In this week’s issue, you’ll learn a bit more about what inspired this challenge and hear the latest exciting work our Young Futures Innovators are leading (they are crushing it). And as always, we’ve gathered the latest news from our ecosystem.
To our grant-seekers, thank you in advance for your time and energy throughout this process. You have our utmost respect, and our commitment to you is transparency. Two opportunities to learn more:
Check your eligibility, download the full RFP, and access our application portal at our website.
Register here for our Applicant Info Session on Sept 12th at 12:30 pm PST. This Zoom webinar will be packed with FAQs about the challenge, our grantmaking process, and the YF Academy experience. There will be time for Q&A. See you there!
Our ask for the full YF community… please share the Under Pressure Challenge with your networks! Click here for messaging, which you can use on socials and newsletters.
Thank you for supporting Young Futures!
Warmly,
Katya
Executive Director, Young Futures
Young Futures in the News
September 5, LinkedIn, We're committing $1 MILLION to support up to 10 early-stage non-profits working to alleviate the pressures preteens and teens face in navigating our tech-driven world. Read all about our second open funding call: Under Pressure Challenge.
September 5, Businesswire, Young Futures and the Center for Digital Thriving Announce $1 Million Funding Challenge for Non-Profits to Alleviate Digital Tension for Preteens and Teens.
Young Futures Innovators in the News
YF Innovator Niobe Way of agapi.kids shares her decades of research on boys and men in the New York Times on why “many Gen Z men feel left behind.” She’s on a roll with the release of her new book, “Rebels with a Cause” and was recently featured in the Harvard Gazette and NYU News.
YF Innovator NyRee Clayton-Taylor of HH2NL shares the organization’s origin story on Great Day Live on Louisville’s WHAS11 (ABC).
Spotlight on youth voices
Our friends at Hopelab and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation asked young people what mental health and well-being meant to them. Watch to hear what they have to say.
What we’re reading
Teen mental health showing signs of improvement (Education Week, August 10)
Gen Z’s loneliness crisis may be changing entertainment tastes. Can Hollywood adapt? (Los Angeles Times, August 13)
Teen mental health improving, CDC reports. But the kids are far from all right (USA Today, August 14)
Why many parents and teens think it’s harder being a teen today (Pew Research Center, August 27)
Surgeon General: Parents are at their wits’ end. We can do better. (The New York Times, August 28)
Friends of YF
YF Innovator agapi.kids is co-designing an app to help build friendships among youth, and they need your help! They’re looking for people of all ages (3-100+) to fill out a 5-10 minute survey about friendships, listening, and curiosity. Take a moment to fill out the anonymous survey.
Do you know someone between the ages of 13 and 25 who uses social media? Mental Health America is asking for feedback via a 10-minute survey to create recommendations for healthier online spaces—for youth, by youth.
A collection of draft essays written by academics and youth wellbeing experts (including from the Connected Learning Lab at UC Irvine and the Center for Digital Thriving) is open for public comment until September 30th. Intended for scholars, designers, educators, youth wellbeing practitioners, and policymakers, this collection seeks to document the evolving and nuanced relationship between youth wellbeing and technology use.
Talking to Teens
Looking to enhance media literacy in your classroom? The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) is hosting its Media Literacy Resource Showcase on October 5th from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm UTC-4. This free virtual event offers practical, rapid-fire sessions featuring resources for STEM and humanities education, all designed to support your efforts during the U.S. Media Literacy Week. Register for free as a 2024 U.S. Media Literacy Week participant.
Funding Opportunities
We’re excited to announce our latest open funding call, the Under Pressure Challenge—a $1 commitment to support solutions that alleviate the pressures teens feel growing up in our tech-driven world. If you are a non-profit that might be a fit, check your eligibility, download our full RFP, and apply. The deadline is October 1, 2024.
Safe Online has a $5M global open call for proposals to address pressing issues in online child safety. They are looking to support work across multiple sectors that are advancing solutions that address online child sexual exploitation and abuse and other online harms. More information can be found here. Deadline is September 15, 2024.
Upcoming Events
Boston Children’s Digital Wellness Lab is looking for authentic perspectives of young people ages 14-18 to join its Student Advisory Council and shape the future of digital wellness. Apply for the council by September 9, 2024.
Young Futures Innovators Showcase. September 25, 2024 @10:00am PST. Meet the Young Futures Innovators who are tackling America’s youth loneliness crisis head-on. Register by September 13.
YF Innovator HHN2L will take the stage at the Parkchella Music Festival and Day Party on September 28, 2024 @10am-4pm.
The Well New Profit is looking to expand its intergenerational coalition and is inviting young people between the ages of 21 and 25 with demonstrated leadership potential in advocacy, organizing intergenerational movement-building, and storytelling to join its 2024 Emerging Leaders Program. Learn more about the program here. The deadline to apply is September 30th.