Facebook is giving away millions to community leaders
The participants in Facebook's Community Leadership Program aim to tackle everything from farming to racial tensions.
Facebook is giving millions to five selected community leaders for local community projects.
Community leaders from all over the world are receiving funds from Facebook .
The tech giant on Monday said it has selected five people into its Community Leadership Program as leaders in residence, and more than 100 people as fellows and youth participants. The company is giving up to $1 million to each leader in residence to fund their community projects, and up to $50,000 to every fellow and youth participant.
The social network announced the leadership program in February and said it would offer training, support and award $10 million to community leaders. Facebook said in a blog post Monday it received more than 6,000 applications across the world. The program came amid criticism that tech companies like Facebook have contributed to divisiveness among people.
Facebook's site for the leadership program offers brief descriptions of every participants' community project. Projects of the the leaders in residence include helping young people lead the way to racial reconciliation in the US, bringing farmers in Africa together online to share knowledge about production and profits, and creating a community for people with hearing loss to share their experiences.
The leadership program has participants from 46 countries. This is its pilot year, and Facebook isn't taking any more applicants as of now.
"We are thrilled to announce the Facebook Community Leadership Program participants," said Deepti Doshi, head of community partnerships at Facebook, in an email statement. "These are people who are at the forefront of community building around the world and we are honored to support them with tools, training, funding and other resources to help them deepen their impact online as well as offline."