LatinaLista — See any young person these days and there’s a good chance they’re not making eye contact with you — they’re too busy texting, talking, reading, watching or listening to their smartphones.
It’s a fact of life that has become clear to many organizations that want to connect with this ‘mobile generation.’ Where in the ‘old days,’ all any organizations that wanted to reach this age group, or any age group, had to do was create a web site, nowadays it takes a little more creativity and technology. Namely, create an app and give people a reason to use it.
The United Nations Foundation has done just that. Wanting to reach this next generation to hear what issues are important to them and to get them started early on connecting with social good causes, the UN Foundation is partnering with the corporate and entertainment industries to provide youth around the world with a free app called mPowering Action.
With the app, the UN Foundation hopes to get young people to share what issues are important to them and/or their communities. The app also connects contributors with others around the world for whom the same issue is important, search for nonprofits near them and get more involved in their communities.
To add a little extra motivation to get young people to use the app, the UN Foundation, through its partners, will provide contributors with free music, especially made for the platform by partner musical artists — the app was launched during the Grammys earlier this month. In the future, contributors will also be able to download streaming content from their favorite sports and entertainment personalities as well.
In addition to wanting to connect with youth, the UN Foundation, along with its partners, wants to gather data and analyze it to make sure their social good initiatives are working and where else there is need. The overall purpose of the app is to encourage users to take action in healthcare, education, reproductive rights, energy use and employment.
“We want to ask them what they care about instead of telling them what to care about,” says Jeff Martin, CEO of Tribal Brands Inc. and Tribal Technologies Inc., launch partners of mPowering Action. “The second part of the experience is to unite them with people they wouldn’t have known about who have the same story, so they recognize they aren’t alone.”
