Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh and Vodafone Americas Foundation today announced the U.S. launch of Bright Sky—the latest digital resource available to support anyone concerned about or experiencing domestic violence. A free, safe, and easy-to-use mobile app and website, Bright Sky connects those impacted by domestic violence to practical information to educate, detect warning signs, and deliver life-saving information and features to respond to domestic violence, while offering a secure route for support.

Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute for Technology with a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges, revealed the new Solver teams and Indigenous Communities Fellows selected for its 2022 Global Challenges. The Innovation for Women Prize supported by Vodafone Americas Foundation awarded 3 winners for $75,000 total.

As part of Yitzi Weiner’s series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Director of Vodafone Americas Foundation June Sugiyama. June has been in corporate philanthropy for more than 20 years, specializing in identifying the power of technology for social good.

A research study by The National Center for Women & Information Technology showed that “gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings,” which could explain why tech companies have started to invest in initiatives that aim to boost the number of female applicants, recruit them in a more effective way, retain them for longer, and give them the opportunity to advance. But is it enough?

Four years ago, we launched a diversity series aimed at bringing the most inspirational and powerful women in the tech scene to your attention. Today, we’d like you to meet June Sugiyama, Director of Vodafone Americas Foundation.

MIT Solve, an MIT initiative aimed at driving innovation to solve world challenges, has announced the launch of its 2022 Global Challenges and the Indigenous Communities Fellowship. Solve seeks tech-based solutions from social entrepreneurs around the world that address specific challenges. The program invites anyone, anywhere to submit a solution to this year’s challenges by March 31. Finalists will be invited to pitch their solutions to a diverse panel of cross-sector judges, the Challenge Leadership Group, ahead of Solve Challenge Finals on Sept. 18-19 in New York City.

To date, the funding available for selected Solver teams and fellows includes:

• The Innovation for Women Prize (supported by the Vodafone Americas Foundation) — $75,000 for up to three solutions that empower and enrich the lives of women and girls

Across her career Meena has led large-scale technological changemaking networks in the Global South. She has developed the resources that have allowed communities to work with each other to respond to crisis and disaster – from floods to Covid. In this episode we learn from how she has created scaled change, focused on listening, valuing people, working with communities and providing spaces for neighbours to help neighbours.

On Friday MIT Solve announced its newest class of Social Entrepreneurs solving global challenges with over $2.3 Million in funding. Vodafone Americas Foundation supported the Innovation for Women Prize, awarding three organizations $25,000 each for their social impact initiatives. I’m very excited about our winners’ solutions which range from coding without computers, accessing banking and management data to the unbanked, to providing healing and justice to indigenous women. They all embody the power of organizations to empower women and girls through technology, solving some of the world’s most pressing issues around gender equity and safety, and closing the digital gap. 

MIT Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a mission to solve world challenges, today announced its annual Global Challenges and Solve’s first US Challenge on Antiracist Technology. There is more than $1.5 million in funding available for the next class of tech-based social entrepreneurs, called Solver teams.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, ThriveGlobal has had the pleasure of interviewing June Sugiyama.

June Sugiyama has been the Director at Vodafone Americas Foundation for the last 20 years. She is responsible for leading and providing strategic direction for Vodafone’s corporate foundation in the United States. As part of her role, she supports projects that advance the use of technology for social good by assessing community and nonprofit needs.

Part of the impact of a landmark election year is the inevitable urge to look toward the future. Where are we headed in terms of women’s leadership? Are we doing enough to support girls of color and their families? A new report from Girls Leadership, supported by Vodafone Americas Foundation, seeks to address the research gap surrounding the experiences of girls and girl-serving organizations putting in the work to present intersectional approaches and center the needs of girls of color.