Gary Community Ventures

Honest Jobs helps people with criminal records find employment. Honest Jobs is the nation's largest fair-chance employment platform. Founded in 2018, the company operates in Columbus, Ohio, United States.

Guardians Collective provides a community platform for parenting. Its platform harnesses the power of dialogue through mobile technology to eliminate early learning gaps and erase institutionalized boundaries, enabling parents and early educators to collaborate, connect and support each other.

EveryDay Labs unites behavioral science, data science, and family engagement to reduce chronic absenteeism while empowering educators to optimize student supports districtwide.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations. The foundation works in seven program areas: arts and culture, community development, Detroit, education, the environment, health, and human services. In 2011, the Board of Trustees approved 346 awards totaling $170 million; $140 million was paid out to grantees over the course of the year.

Started in 2016 by a group of educators and technologists in California, Wonderschool offers a platform where people can start infant and toddler programs and preschools out of their homes. Wonderschool supports experienced educators and childcare providers to start their own childcares or preschools out of their homes, whether they live in apartments, condos, or homes that they rent or own. Wonderschool provides assistance with licensing, program setup, marketing and everything in between. The company’s software platform allows teachers to manage their students, parents, and their program from one dashboard. Along with this, Wonderschool has built a marketplace for parents to search Wonderschool programs, schedule visits, enroll their children, and make payments. It’s been proven time and time again that children should start developing cognitive, motor, behavioral, and social skills from as early as 6 months and Wonderschool is committed to increasing families’ access to high quality care and learning environments for children.

Developed by education experts, Peekapak's award winning learning platform and digital games provides educators with easy-to-use, standards-aligned, research-based tools that make integrating social-emotional skills fun, engaging and effective. Peekapak is backed by Y Combinator's Edtech Vertical, Imagine K12, NewSchools Venture Fund, Uncharted and the DMZ and has been covered in EdSurge, Entrepreneur Magazine, Kidscreen, Flare, International Business Times, Flare, BetaKit, TechVibes, Yahoo Finance, CBC, CTV and Toronto Star.