Kirby Salerno’s Post

“The Smart Tech Health Hub will be making its way to Miami, FL. According to a news release provided to AFROTECH™, $4 million has been awarded to the S.E.E.K. (Seeking Education Empowers Knowledge) Foundation Inc., a nonprofit launched by Anike Sakariyawo, in order to make that possible. The foundation, which focuses on STEM education, community involvement, and health and wellness for children ages 3 to 18 plans to open the four-story building in Opa-Locka, a suburb of Miami. This will facilitate access for residents, children, and their families to STEAM education, workforce re-entry programs, and broadband service, dismantling existing entry obstacles. The hub will also provide basic essential health services.” From creating sustainable solutions to fostering innovation and providing new career opportunities, STEM education empowers individuals, improves public health, and drives economic growth. When we invest in STEM, we build a more resilient future for everyone. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/gWpEY5GF #BGDSTEM #Currentevents #Cultivatecuriousity #diversifyinovation #Elevateequity

🌟 Introducing Camelback Fellowship Cohort 13! 🌟 Camelback Ventures is proud to welcome our 13th cohort of education and conscious tech innovators. These 12 founders are addressing systemic inequalities and promoting equity across their sectors. “As we welcome our dynamic new cohort of Camelback Fellows, we’re energized by their passion and commitment to driving equitable innovation in education and technology. Together, we’ll forge pathways to empower our diverse communities and create lasting change for the world.” - Shawna Young, MBA CEO, Camelback Ventures Meet the 2024 Camelback Fellowship Cohort: Adrian D., Executive Director of Empowr (Atlanta, GA) - Empowr teaches software development to high school students of color, establishing the school-to-career pipeline. Chandra Sledge Mathias, Ed.D, Founder & CEO of Sledge Institute(Henderson, NC) - The Sledge Institute is a new charter school serving students in the Kerr Tar region of North Carolina. Gabriela Lopez, Program Director of The Charles Roundtree Bloom Project (San Antonio, TX) - The Bloom Project fosters a connection to the land, creating a sense of community among youth and promoting healing from trauma. Hillary Do, Founder & Executive Director of Build Our Lives Together (Philadelphia, PA) - BOLT cultivates, supports, and empowers grassroots leaders to drive community-led change. Melissa Pintor Carnagey, LBSW (she/they) Founder of Sex Positive Families (Austin, TX) - SPF is an online platform that teaches families about bodies, puberty, sex, and porn literacy without shame or taboo. Stephane Manuel, Founder of TrueFiktion (Chicago, IL) - provides culturally responsive historical fiction comics and curricula for secondary classrooms. David Henderson, Founder of Giving Credit (Philadelphia, PA) - Is a web-based social credit network that brings transparency to community finance. Isis Ashford-Swain, Co-founder & COO of Greens Health by Xplosion Technology (Houston, TX) - Is a tech-driven venture dedicated to revolutionizing diabetes management for underserved communities. Julie Ciccolini, CEO of Techtivist (Scottsdale, AZ) - Supports software for public defenders and innocence organizations to track, aggregate, and analyze data about police and prosecutor misconduct. Kim A. Smith, FACHE, Founder & CEO of Health Evolve Technologies (Columbia, SC) - Health Evolve is a patient navigator that helps women manage their health from pregnancy and beyond. Melinh Rozen, Co-founder & Co-executive Director of Euki (Charlotte, NC) - Co-creates accessible, private, and secure digital health tools with and for people facing barriers to sexual and reproductive healthcare and education. Sarah Medina Camiscoli, Founding Co-executive Director of The Peer Defense Project (New York City, NY) - Makes law a superpower for youth leaders. Help us in welcome these outstanding entrepreneurs to the Fam! #SocialImpact #Innovation #TechForGood #Entrepreneurship #CommunityBuilding

🚀 Empowering Neurodiverse and Minority Individuals with Neuro.Inc 🌈 Hello LinkedIn Community, I am working on creating my own startup, Neuro.Inc, a transformative service dedicated to advocating for and supporting neurodiverse and queer students in education and beyond. As someone who is neurodiverse, queer, and living with multiple mental and physical health conditions, I have firsthand experience of the significant challenges in transitioning into university and navigating systems not designed for people like myself. Neuro.Inc will be focused on: -Advocating for Systemic Change: Promoting neuro-inclusive practices in primary and high schools to create a more supportive learning environment. -Providing Personalised Support: Offering consultation and mentorship for students and individuals transitioning from secondary to tertiary education, industry, TAFE, or academia, particularly for those diagnosed later in life. I have identified many gaps in the tertiary education system that I am passionate about addressing. Seeking Support: I am seeking support from individuals and organisations that share a commitment to fostering inclusion and support for neurodiverse and queer communities. Specifically, I need: - Collaborative Partners with tools, resources, and techniques that have been effective in supporting neurodiverse and queer individuals. - Financial Support through grants and funding opportunities, especially those aimed at supporting minority-led initiatives and neurodiverse projects. - Network Connections to assist Neuro.Inc through funding, mentorship, or resources. Personal Branding and Community Building: I am also focused on building a personal brand on social media to create a safe space and network for minority group individuals and students. This platform will be a place of support, resources, and community engagement. Podcast Initiative: I plan to start a podcast that interviews individuals with lived experiences of being queer, neurodiverse, lower-resourced, mature-aged students, and more. The podcast will explore: - Their experiences within the education system from an accessibility and inclusion standpoint. - Their experiences accessing support services. - Their experiences making friends and building social networks. - Their experiences with debt and financial hardship. - Insights on degree changes, attrition rates, and the perceived waste of not using their degrees directly in their current roles, highlighting transferable skills and gained insights. Your expertise, networks, and resources can help make a real difference. If you or someone in your network can provide support or has connections to potential grants, funding, or in-kind contributions, I would love to connect and discuss how we can work together to create a more inclusive future for all. Kind regards, Aaron Saint-James Founder of Neuro.Inc #Neurodiversity #LGBTQIA #Inclusion #EducationReform #MentalHealth #PhysicalHealth #NeuroInc #SupportDiversity

As part of Yavneh Academy's Healthy Tech Initiative, Dr. Yoni Schwab, the Assistant Head of The Shefa School, recently led a workshop on the topic of "Raising Children in the Age of Screens". Dr. Schwab presented research from Dr. Jonathan Hadit’s book, "Anxious Generation" on the negative impact of Smartphone and Social Media use on children. He emphasized that excessive screen time can hinder emotional regulation, attention and executive functioning, language development, and social development in children. He made a case that these lead to increased anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Dr. Schwab highlighted the negative reinforcement cycle in which children use screens to escape discomfort, reinforcing avoidance behaviors and comfort addiction. Dr. Schwab stressed the importance of pushing children out of their comfort zones and encouraging self-reliance. Finally, he emphasized the need for realistic and balanced tech use, modeling behavior as parents and educators, increasing non-screen activities, and stressed the importance of collective action to make change community norms. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eGBb-5f2 #Education #Jewish #HealthyTech

🛠️After months of dedication, we've reached the semester's conclusion, marking a significant milestone in our journey. Balancing active reserve service for over 120 days, this semester presented its unique challenges, yet it was a period of profound learning and development. 🎯This week, we celebrated a pivotal moment in the milab - Media Innovation Lab, having crossed the halfway mark. Our journey so far has been enriched by engaging with experts, conducting interviews, and having insightful discussions with end users. These interactions were pivotal in deepening our understanding of the core issue we aim to address. 💡Our primary research question, which we will delve into over the next year, focuses on enhancing parental interactions with their teenage children. Our approach is grounded in empowering parents through self-reflection rather than prescribing behaviors. We believe that fostering self-awareness allows parents to recognize and understand their behavioral patterns, leading to more meaningful interactions. 🪞In our pursuit of an effective tool, we identified self-reflection as a key mechanism. It enables a bird's-eye view for parents, encouraging a deeper comprehension of their actions and their impacts. This understanding is crucial, as our responses are often shaped by our interpretations of situations. 🖊️The past two weeks have been dedicated to designing low-fidelity wireframes for our app's homepage. Our goal was to create an intuitive interface that clearly communicates the core action of self-reflection, ensuring an accessible and user-friendly experience. 📝In our recent presentation, alongside my colleague Omri Aboudi, we shared our progress and insights with our mentors. The feedback received was invaluable, highlighting areas for further contemplation, particularly regarding the execution of the reflection process and the framing of questions. 🌱As we look forward to the next semester, we're energized to explore, innovate, and deepen our commitment to solving this crucial issue. The journey ahead promises to be both challenging and rewarding, and we're ready to embrace it with open arms. Naama Israel Ori Grotto Ron Rozen #MilabProject #SelfReflection #Parenting #Innovation #PersonalGrowth

Last week, Melissa and I were sitting on the plane back home from Stockholm and we finally had a moment to reflect on our meetings with potential new investors for Tiimo. It was an eyeopening experience. Only a few years ago, we were spending the first twenty minutes of a presentation explaining the neurodiversity space pretty much from scratch. What does Autism and ADHD mean and is it even worthwhile making neurodiversity more accessible and less taboo? This time, the conversation had a whole other starting point. It wasn’t about explaining neurodiversity as a legitimate space for research, knowledge, awareness and thus, funding. This is becoming increasingly acknowledged, and the community is breaking stigma and advocating for change 👏 every 👏 single 👏 day. We’ve definitely seen a shift in the way we talk about being neurodivergent. But — there’s still work to do. And our journey of actually enabling life for those whose brains work in a different way through cutting-edge technology is just getting started. Right now, we are working hard at closing our next funding round. We want to do even more for a significant group of people, who have been neglected for far too long. With funding comes resources, and we have big plans for the future. We’ll continue to knock in doors, raise awareness and empower the neurodivergent community with everything we’ve got. The conversation might be getting easier, but the actual change is still just in its early stages. We hope you’ll join us in these conversations, and cheer for us along the way ❤️ ————— New here? Hi! I’m Helene, co-founder and co-CEO of Tiimo app, enabling life for people who think differently. We’re a woman-founded, Copenhagen-based 1.35M ARR business with a diverse team of neurotypical & neurodivergent profiles. We’re creating awareness about, designing for, and helping the world’s neurodivergent community (that’s around 20% of us — 1.6 billion people) with tools to support, plan, learn and grow to fulfill their potential. Our pioneering app is the no. 1 planning tool designed for neuroinclusion; now at 60,000 monthly downloads worldwide.

Medianos - An innovative synergy to combat #Cyberbullying Addressing cyberbullying requires more than just regulatory intervention; it necessitates a radical cultural shift that can only be sparked through education on #empathy and #digitalawareness. Enter Medianos, a revolutionary approach that goes beyond mere cyberbullying prevention to touch on the deeper roots of the issue: the lack of #humanconnection and #understanding. Medianos is not just a program; it's a movement aimed at reconnecting young people with the fundamental principles of digital humanity. By using conflict simulations and interactive scenarios, Medianos brings #experientiallearning directly into classrooms. Instead of merely outlining the contours of the problem, Medianos equips young people with practical tools to address and prevent cyberbullying, promoting a grassroots change that impacts the digital culture itself. Medianos teaches us that behind every screen, behind every comment or post, there is a person, with their emotions, insecurities, and needs. Through play and simulation, Medianos opens a window into the inner world of others, allowing us to see cyberbullying not just as an act of aggression but as a cry for help, a sign of a lost or never-found connection. This innovative synergy aims to forge a generation of digital citizens who are not only aware of the dangers of cyberbullying but also actively engaged in creating an online environment based on mutual respect and integrity. Medianos’ approach is radical: it transforms digital education into a living experience, inviting every student to become not just a skilled navigator of cyberspace but also a guardian of #onlinedignity. By incorporating Medianos into the educational fabric, schools can become living laboratories of digital civilization, where every dialogue, every exchange becomes an opportunity to weave together a safer, more #InclusiveNetwork. Collaborating with digital platforms opens another front of action. Medianos can inspire moderation policies that reflect a deeper understanding of youth social dynamics, creating online spaces that not only mitigate cyberbullying but prevent it at its root, promoting a shared ethos of #responsibility and care. While Law 71/2017 has laid the legal groundwork, it's the synergy with programs like Medianos that provides the cornerstone for a safer, more respectful digital future. This blend of legislation and educational innovation is the key to transforming cyberbullying from a dark threat to a thing of the past, paving the way for an era of collective digital responsibility. Medianos is a tangible possibility, a path we can choose to walk together to transform cyberbullying from a shadow threatening our digital world into a bridge of #dignity and #respect online. Because when we talk about cyberbullying, we're not just talking about laws or policies; we're talking about people, relationships, communities. We're talking about us. https://adrmedianos.com/

In case you missed it, this important article from our friends at Axios cannot be ignored and is absolutely critical to understanding the need for community investment in Boston's communities and young people! At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, we recognize the imperative to address Boston's opportunity gaps through comprehensive community partnerships and robust educational initiatives that enhance leadership and workforce readiness among our youth. Read the Axios article below to see why transformative action is essential now more than ever! #BGCBoston #OpportunityGap #Equity

The importance of funding organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston who are working to address these real education and workforce readiness gaps.

➜ Parenthood Ventures Parent Tech sector roundup! Parallel, whose tele therapy options include speech-language pathology, specialized instruction, behavioral and mental health coaching and executive function coaching for kids with special needs, closed $6 million in new funding led by Rethink Impact, LP. This brings their Series A total to $20 million. https://lnkd.in/ehHPd7AM Tween-oriented TV studio Brat TV (creators of shows including Chicken Girls, Total Eclipse, Attaway General) acquired Crypt TV to expand their digital Footprint. https://lnkd.in/e6azU--V Granata Bio, a biopharma company specializing in fertility medications, has announced the closure of a $14 million Series A funding round. Led by GV (Google Ventures), this funding round includes significant contributions from CooperSurgical, Gedeon Richter, Alumni Ventures, Amboy Street Ventures, Vibe Bio, and others. The investment aims to accelerate the development of Granata Bio’s fertility biopharma pipeline, addressing a critical gap in the $3.6 billion global infertility medication market. https://lnkd.in/eGKevCFN For more #ParentTech companies and news - follow us on LinkedIn and head to our website to learn more about how to get involved! #ParentTech #futureofparenthood #founders #startupstories #startups #careeconomy #venturecapital #vc