Homelessness charity Centrepoint has been announced as one of the winners of this year’s Google Impact Challenge, while the Royal National Institute of the Blind received the people’s choice award.
The Google Impact Challenge is a competition, supported by both Acevo and Nesta, which invites charities to say how they would use technology to change the world.
The winning charities, Centrepoint, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, WeFarm and RNIB, were announced at an event at Google's London offices yesterday.
They each win a £500,000 grant as well as mentoring from staff at Google and Nesta to help deliver their products.
Centrepoint’s project is an app to help young people “check out” of hostels and into independent living. The charity will use the grant money to create an alumni community of former youth homelessness service users, accessed via an app.
Nicholas Connolly (pictured at last night's event), head of corporate development at Centrepoint, said: “Through the app we aim to analyse the most in depth data on youth homelessness ever collated, discovering why they become homeless and the interventions most likely to lead them to a successful independent future.”
RNIB’s smart glasses which help improve the everyday lives of people with sight loss was chosen by the public as the winner of the people’s choice award.
Royal Botanical Gardens Kew will equip villagers in rural Indonesia with wearable acoustic sensors to detect the sound of mosquitoes. It will work over the next three years using crowdsourcing data to create a smartphone app with the eventual aim of preventing and managing outbreaks of mosquito-born disease.
WeFarm’s project is a peer-to-peer communication service to help farmers improve their livelihoods. It uses basic mobile phones to allow farmers to share ideas and crowdsource innovative solutions across continents and languages.
A further six finalists were awarded £200,000 and mentorship to help deliver their products.
These are:
- Relate: An online platform to enable separating parents to resolve disputes
- Virunga Foundation: A crowdsourcing platform to help protect wildlife and communities in the DRC.
- Catch22: An app to give young people skills for work.
- We Are What We Do: Digital games to help improve young people’s mental health.
- Carr Gomm: An app to empower people to manage their social care.
- St Giles Trust: An online hubb to support former offenders transitioning back to the community,
Jacquelline Fuller, Impact Challenge judge and director of Google.org, said: "I've been blown away by the ambition and vision of Britain's social entrepreneurs.
"The 10 finalists had bold projects, nimble teams and innovative approaches to cracking some of society’s most serious issues. They’re sparking a new wave of excitement to change the world."
