About

About

Selected fellows will partake in a 10-month long fellowship that will occur in three phases: Ideation, Pitch Summit, and Execution.

• Ideation: Selected fellows will form teams and follow an ideation curriculum, where they each will conduct a needs assessment, create deliverables, and develop a “prototype” for a community project within a chosen Focus Area. Throughout this phase, fellows will be matched with an expert advisor and participate in various professional and team development workshops to guide their projects.

• Summit: After robust project creation, fellows will convene in-person in January 2025 to pitch their project, budget, and plan of execution to a panel of judges from various backgrounds and communities. A $20,000 innovation fund will be disbursed among teams based on the judges' discretion and the teams’ projected budget.

• Execution: Based on judges' feedback and funding, teams will begin implementing their community project for the remainder of the fellowship until July 2025. During this time, Ma’rifa will support teams in connecting with community partners, potential donors, and project advisors. After a successful pilot, project implementation can continue independently and scale afterwards, if desired.
  

Project Focus Areas

Building Shared Futures will support accepted cohort members with interest in various Focus Areas:

1) Environment & Sustainability

Projects in this category encompass a broad range of critical areas addressing the environmental and sustainability challenges facing our community locally and broadly. For example, ideas may include but are not limited to promoting renewable energy, waste reduction, or water conservation. Overall, the objective of this Focus Area is to implement environmentally conscious practices, products, and more within mosques, programs, and communities at large.

2) Health

Projects in this category encompass the broad spectrum of challenges to health and access to healthcare within our community. This bracket seeks projects that strive to improve the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the community in areas including but not limited to disease prevention, wellness, and digital health. For example, ideas may include scalable community clinics, mental health awareness and counseling, health literacy and competency, and accessible telemedicine resources. A key element of this Focus Area is to orient innovation around the unique health priorities, challenges, and needs of Muslim communities in North America, specifically.

3) Education

Projects in this category encompass the development, dissemination, or design of education. This bracket seeks fellows who aim to implement novel and innovative changes in education, address gaps within education systems, and build developmentally-appropriate academic interventions specific to our communities. For example, ideas may include but are not limited to education services, technological platforms, and event programming for any age range. 

4) Community Engagement

Projects in this category encompass a tailored and meaningful view of community engagement. Although community engagement can take many forms, this bracket will focus on ideas that examine how the community interacts with each other internally and with others externally. Ideas may include but are not limited to civic engagement, urgent responses to community crises, or inter- and intra-community relationships. Overall, the objective of this Focus Area is to delve into sustainable and ethical ways for the Muslim community in North America to establish relationships and meaningful engagement within and beyond our locales.

5) Interdisciplinary & Innovation

Many projects may fall under multiple or entirely different categories, and problems in the community can arise in some of the least expected areas. While all projects will be interdisciplinary in essence, this bracket encompasses ideas that fellows are passionate about that do not fall within the Focus Areas above. 

The video does not reflect the updated deadline. The correct deadline for the application is Sunday, September 8th 2024 at 11:59pm PST.