Welfie wins for Helping Kids Play their way Back into School
Welfie chosen for OpenIDEO’s Solution Exchange
San Diego, June 15, 2021: In the fall, millions of children will return to their classrooms, desperately behind and disconnected because of the pandemic. So Welfie created a challenge called “A Little Healthy Competition is Good for You” to help kids and their families reconnect with their school community and each other through play. It was announced today that Welfie’s challenge has been selected for the Solution Exchange of the Education (Re)Open, an initiative of OpenIDEO, in partnership with USC Center EDGE and Andrew Nikou Foundation, because, in the words of OpenIDEO, “it represents the greatest potential to meet the needs of school communities as they navigate reopening.”
Through Welfie, the challenge allows parents to create a family community and teachers to create a classroom community, and the communities can issue challenges to each other. Imagine a “20 Day Screening Streak” where each student in a classroom needs to screen for 20 school days in a row to win their classroom a pizza party (healthy pizza of course - cauliflower crust anyone?). Or families competing with each other in our COVID Shield challenge where families that screen and test on schedule are awarded a “Shield Badge” that shows they are doing their part to protect their community.
“When I saw the OpenIDEO challenge, I knew our team had to take part,” said Dr. Steven Moyo, a hospital internist and the founder of Welfie. “Play is such a powerful force for education and healing. Our kids, and their families need both. This time is about reconnecting to each other and our school communities. We wanted a way for everyone to have a little fun while doing it.”
Winning solutions selected by OpenIDEO, including Welfie’s, will be featured in a searchable repository, the Solution Exchange, for global sharing, and may be implemented as early as August across Los Angeles and beyond. In addition, select submissions receive a share of funding, professional learning, and technology support through TED Masterclass. All education professional participants receive a 3-month Heartbeat subscription. The Education (Re)Open is a chance to reconnect school communities for the better — in this moment and beyond.
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OpenIDEO is an open innovation platform where people from all corners of the world collaboratively tackle some of the toughest global issues through launching Challenges, programs, and other tailored experiences.
Welfie was founded by two black doctors, one, a pediatrician, who grew increasingly frustrated watching people who looked like them die way too young. It is a movement that is focused on health and education equity through community, and the goal is to help families thrive. We do that by empowering them to take care of themselves (self-care), take care of each other (social care) and we create a safe, secure place for them to connect with health and education professionals (shared care). This three-pronged approach is designed to eliminate health barriers to education and address social determinants of health.
Contacts:
Susan McLennan
CMO
Welfie
Ph: 416.699.1846
Cell: 416.568.5974