Introducing 6 new Ashoka Fellows in the U.S.
How can foster parenting feel less isolating and benefit from shared responsibility? What if prosecutors were partners in ending mass incarceration? What do housing solutions look like when they work for everyone – including residents with disabilities? What new networks are needed to strengthen democracies worldwide?
Our latest Ashoka Fellows in the U.S. are working on these and other solutions – creatively, persistently, collaboratively, and in ways that allow all of us to contribute as changemakers. Discover more below (alphabetical by first name).
Hillary Blout | For The People
New idea: Hillary has created a legal mechanism that allows prosecutors to revisit and adjust their sentences after the fact. She and her collaborators work with counties across the country to use this tool to decarcerate those serving time who meet certain thresholds and recruit prosecutors to contribute to justice reform efforts.
Why we’re excited about Hillary: Prosecutors wield such power via their sentencing discretion, and Hilary and her collaborators tap them to bring those they have previously sentenced home from prison when they are rehabilitated and no longer pose a threat to public safety.
Lenore Skenazy | Let Grow
New idea: Lenore is driving a cultural shift among parents in the United States – away from fear and over-protection and towards trust and reasonable independence for children. She coined “Free-Range Kids” and now leads a movement of parents, educators, lawmakers, and healthcare professionals who are making it easy, normal, and legal to give kids back some independence.
Why we’re excited about Lenore: Lenore and her organization, Let Grow, nudge parents and schools to start letting kids do more on their own and create more space and time for play and independence to become the easiest, default choice – a normal part of every school, every day.
Micaela Connery | The Kelsey
New idea: Just 6% of the national housing supply meets even the minimum basic standards of accessibility. Micaela has designed an alternative: affordable housing for residents of all abilities (including wheelchair users and those facing mobility challenges) that supports belonging and self-determination in one of the places that matters most: home.
Why we’re excited about Micaela: Uniquely positioned as both a housing developer and advocate, Micaela is meeting immediate housing needs, moving an entire field forward, and proving that accessible, affordable, and inclusive housing is possible.
Reyna Montoya | Aliento
New idea: Reyna founded Aliento to do something new and transformative: elevate a rapidly-growing but vulnerable group – undocumented young people – and help them channel their shared experiences, many of them traumatic due to their legal status, into bold changemaking action.
Why we’re excited about Reyna: Latine young people make up the fastest-growing demographic in the United States. Reyna supports young people who are undocumented or of mixed-immigration status to build community resilience and skilled leadership.
Susan Silverman | Second Nurture
New idea: Susan is transforming the experience of fostering from isolating to supported via community and shared responsibility. A rabbi, she taps into the existing social capital of faith communities (all faiths) and creates new roles for everyone to support young people.
Why we’re excited about Susan: Susan is making the decision to become a foster parent less daunting and making it possible for people who want to support foster kids to have far more opportunities to do so, even if they don’t play the foster parent role formally.
Yordanos Eyoel | Keseb
New idea: Yordanos’ founding insight is that if ideas and strategies for dismantling democracies can be imported and exported, such strategies can also be used to strengthen democracies. She and her collaborators are building up a global ecosystem of champions for free and open societies.
Why we’re excited about Yordanos: At a time of rising authoritarianism in many places, protective and resilient global networks are needed to secure and strengthen democracies via constant learning, collaboration, and innovation.
Hillary, Lenore, Micaela, Reyna, Susan, and Yordanos join our global network of 4,000+ social entrepreneurs in 90+ countries (since 1981), including 300+ Ashoka Fellows here in the U.S. (since 2001). As ever, we extend deep gratitude to each Ashoka Fellow and to their colleagues and communities. We also thank Ashoka’s friends and supporters.