Lead in your community
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a grave toll on us all. Take care of yourself; take care of your loved ones. And if you can, step up and lead so your communities come out of this stronger. Here are some resources to help you get started.
Stay Safe, Stay Well
Get what you need to stay healthy and safe.
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 mental health support via text message.
Meditation can reduce stress and increase calm. Explore this guide or find balance in just a few minutes a day with the Calm (Opens in a new tab), Headspace (Opens in a new tab), Reflectly (Opens in a new tab), and Happify (Opens in a new tab) apps.
The Living Room Cup offers a variety of mini-workout challenges you can do at home, measured against athletes.
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.
OnwardUS is an initiative designed to provide essentials services to American workers displaced by COVID-19 so they can get back to work as quickly as possible.
Connect and Engage
Help make your community stronger and more resilient.
Type in your zip code to see local and virtual volunteering opportunities in your community.
A campaign asking young people to swap stories with an older adult to decrease isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Service Year Alliance is working to make a year of paid, full-time service a common opportunity—and expectation—for all young Americans.
Plug into a mutual aid system in your neighborhood if there is one; start your own if there’s not.
Learn and Prepare
Get training and tools to lead today and in the future.
Learn techniques to lead and make a difference within your community by following this guide.
Learn the technical skills to help prepare you for jobs or personal projects.
Stay on top of the latest developments in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with stories, research, expert perspectives, and updates from the Gates Foundation.
MIT Solve is a marketplace for social impact innovation with a mission to solve world challenges. Anyone, anywhere can apply to the 2020 Global Challenges by June 18 to access over $1.7 million in prize funding.
Meet Our Leaders
Get to know young leaders making a difference in their communities.
To see more stories of emerging leaders, follow us on Instagram (Opens in a new tab), Twitter (Opens in a new tab), and Facebook (Opens in a new tab) . (Opens in a new tab)
"Our generation doesn’t really have an awareness surrounding the value of the census—and that’s something we could have an impact on."
Rocio Ortega
Member, Community Leadership Corps Chicago
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Community Leadership Corps member Rocio Ortega, along with her teammates Oscar Sanchez, Jarol Rendon Jimenez, and Martha Armenta-Robles, launched an initiative to ensure under-resourced communities are counted in the 2020 census. Earlier this year, they teamed up to hold an outreach event with local organizations, which are now pivoting to virtual methods to continue the work. Learn more about the Community Leadership Corps.
"I am bettering my community by providing a sense of fun, unity, and love through the work I do."
Boo Milton
Youth Delegate, MBK Alliance
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After listening in to a My Brother’s Keeper Alliance town hall about how vulnerable communities can respond to COVID-19, Boo Milton heard former Secretary of Education John King mention that some cities were using buses to create Wi-Fi hotspots in underserved neighborhoods. Boo was inspired and got to work right away connecting with leaders in his hometown of Baton Rouge. On May 1, 2020, he announced the Drive-In Wi-Fi Initiative in partnership with the city’s parks and recreation commission. Thanks to his leadership, community members will now be able to drive up to six designated facilities to access Wi-Fi from the comfort of their cars. Learn more about the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.
"Being able to collect real-time data about this epidemic just helps us increase our chances of winning this battle."
Gabriela Galilea
Obama Foundation Scholar
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Gabriela Galilea was an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University and is the CEO and founder of Okimo Vision, a diagnostics software that uses sensors for early detection of vision and developmental problems in children in Paraguay and around the world. She teamed up with several organizations to build an open source platform for self-reporting COVID-19 symptoms. Learn more about Gabriela and the Scholars program.