Sourced from CFA Media
Facebook has announced the launch of the Community Accelerator programme, available in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
The Accelerator will be a six-month programme that aims to provide training, mentorship and funding to help community leaders grow their communities. Selected leaders will spend up to three months learning from experts, coaches and working within a customized curriculum to grow their communities.
After that, another 3 months will be spent iterating and executing their plans. With this initiative, Facebook will award up to $3 million to about 80 participants worldwide.
Seen as an evolution of the Facebook Community Leadership Programme, the initiative selected from a pool of 6000 applicants where 115 people were chosen.
“Our vision is to empower young people with skills, connect them to caring mentors and help them build networks,” says Lusanda Magwape of the Dream Factory Foundation, a leader from South Africa who took part of the initiative. “Taking part in the Facebook Community Leadership programme helped us to elevate how we use digital platforms to boost our impact.”
Facebook is aiming to invest in the community leaders who have huge groups on the network. The social media goliath has been focusing on groups which attract people of similar interests who will engage in meaningful conversation on the platform.
“We are investing in leaders because we believe and know they will make significant contributions to today’s social challenges, by sharing knowledge and information and helping people connect with others that share interests or passions for a good cause,” said Kiran Yoliswa, Strategic Partner Manager for Sub Saharan Africa at Facebook.
If you’re an interested leader and are 18 years or older and from Kenya, South Africa or Nigeria – you can apply to be part of the accelerator here before 10 April 2020.
The programme will begin in June 2020.
Other Initiatives from Facebook:
Along with the Community Accelerator programme, Facebook has a few other investments in creating community leaders. The Facebook Community Learning Labs brings group admins with similar goals together in a collaborative digital classroom to allow structured learning with a dedicated and experienced Facebook – together, they work towards achieving the goals of the group admins.
The Facebook Community Hub, meanwhile, is a place where anyone can gain access to product education and learn more about Facebook’s programmes. Included within are tips and tools for starting and managing a growing community.
