Ignitr
- Pre-Seed
Connect youth in financial difficulty to local homeowners for temporary work such as garden work. This allows the youth to achieve financial independence while gaining experiences, building connections. This can be done through a web app, allowing people from all over the world to access the platform.
We’re working on a platform to help youths in difficult financial situations escape their situation through connecting them to homeowners in the community for work such as garden work or house work. They’re trapped in the cycle of poverty by the pre-conceived biases and their lack of experience. Ignitr, is focusing on these root causes, and finding a sustainable solution; the youth would gain financial independence, work experience, valuable connections in the community and written recommendations for future interviews. We recognize that this isn't a permanent solution for the youth, but we want to be that crucial step that gives the youth the confidence and skills to pursue their careers. There are homeowners in cities all across the world, this can be implemented on a large scale and can help youths across the world gain financial independence and the skills and connections to succeed!
Youths in financial difficulty are often unable to find work due to lack of experience, no income or education. These issues tie into one another and can often lead to the youth giving up their goals and settling for less.
We're already actively working with local youths and shelters, we've talked to the youths using this and they've provided us with confirmation that this was boosting their self-confidence, their ability to communicate and supported them financially.
The target outcome would be that the youth using the platform are able to find temporary work opportunity and experience growth in terms of experience and communication skills, and self-confidence. Homeowners grow more accepting and the community becomes more aligned and tightly-knit!
Track downloads in the app store, track opportunities youths sign up for. - 2,000 local youths register and find opportunities on our platform.
Ratings given by homeowners. - Youth experience growth in terms of experience and communication skills.
Ratings given by youth. - Homeowners experience growth in terms of acceptance and appreciation of the youth.
- Adolescent
- High-income economies
- Male
- Female
- Suburban
- Europe and Central Asia
- US and Canada
- Consumer-facing software (mobile applications, cloud services)
- Digital systems (machine learning, control systems, big data)
Currently, there are no solutions utilizing the power of the community, the homeowners who live there. However, this is the group who are closest to impoverished youths and can provide opportunities on the largest scale.
By using a web app platform, it's easy and extremely efficient for people to use, allowing shy youths or homeowners with social anxiety or nervousness to participate as well. Opportunities are displayed on a virtual map, with easy to understand images and symbols, allowing people from all backgrounds to access and understand this. The entire interaction is between humans: Homeowners are the ones who use this technology to post opportunities, and youths to look for opportunities.
Our solution will be hosted on a web app, anyone with access to the internet is able to access our solution. For people without access, we've partnered with local homeless shelters to provide youths living there with a shared tablet they're able to use to access our platform!
- 6-8 (Demonstration)
- Non-Profit
- Canada
We currently have pitch competition funds/scholarships/student loans to sustain ourselves as we scale our solution!
Factors limiting the ability include the pre-conceived perception of local youths in financial difficulty. If the local perception is extremely toxic then it'd be more difficult for our solution to succeed as we require mutual trust as a foundation for our platform!
- Less than 1 year
- We have already developed a pilot.
- 6-12 months
- Technology Access
- Human+Machine
- Income Generation
- Bias and Heuristics
- Future of Work
By becoming a solver we're hoping to learn from resources and people we'd have no way of reaching otherwise. Solve would allow us to reach people from various backgrounds with difference perspectives and very valuable suggests and mentorship. We hope that through these learning experiences we'd be able to enhance our solution and start making a real difference.
We're currently working with local shelters, employment centres and incubators in Kitchener, ON, Canada. Including oneROOF, Lutherwood Employment, YMCA, Pathways, Conrad Centre, Waterloo Small Business Centre and Communitech.
Our competitors would be lawn mowing services, temporary work services and contracting services.