1000 MORE Founder Awarded a Prestigious 2022 Echoing Green Fellowship
D’Seanté Parks will receive seed funding and strategic support to advance civic empowerment
Brooklyn, NY —1000 MORE Founder D’Seanté Parks has been selected as a spring 2022 Echoing Green Fellow. One of 18 Fellows selected by the leading global fellowship program for emerging social entrepreneurs, Parks will receive an $80,000 stipend, as well as leadership development to support 1000 MORE’s growth as an innovative solution to address disenfranchisement.
Since 1987, Echoing Green has accelerated the work of some of the world’s best and brightest social innovators. Parks joins the ranks of Fellows that include former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (’91), political commentator Van Jones (’94), and the organization’s own President, Cheryl L. Dorsey (’92).
“The work of revolutionizing our democracy will take everyone. The funding and community backing we receive in joining Echoing Green’s powerful network is monumental to this movement,” said 1000 MORE Founder D’Seanté Parks. “We look forward to using this momentum to put civic power in everyone’s hands with a web app that removes barriers to civic participation by centralizing non-partisan information, tools and resources.”
This spring 2022 Fellows class was selected from a pool of over 1,400 applicants working in over 100 countries. Selected Fellows are driving social change with and for their communities in 10 countries: Afghanistan, Germany, Guinea, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United States.
“Working across an array of timely and deeply entrenched issues, this class of Echoing Green Fellows expands our view of what is possible when the world’s systems are rooted in justice, equity, and community. In this class, we’re witnessing innovations that have the potential to transform the lives of millions globally,” said Cheryl L. Dorsey, president of Echoing Green. “These extraordinary innovators should inspire us all to harness our own talents and imagination to support transformational efforts for a more equitable world.”
Spring 2022 Fellows’ projects address a range of societal issues from tech solutions that dismantle health and civic participation barriers for communities in the U.S., India, and West Africa; to digital resource hubs and communities for migrants, refugees, and stateless people. For the third class in a row, one hundred percent of this Fellow class identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color. To learn more about the 2022 Fellows visit: https://echoinggreen.org/news/introducing-the-newest-class-of-echoing-green-fellows
About Echoing Green:
For 35 years, Echoing Green has been on the front lines of solving the world’s biggest problems, raising up the transformational leaders willing to speak truth to power and challenge the status quo. The organization finds emerging leaders with the best ideas for social innovation as early as possible and sets them on a path to lifelong impact. Echoing Green’s community of nearly 1,000 social innovators includes past Fellows such as First Lady Michelle Obama and the founders of Teach For America, Center for Black Innovation, BlocPower, and One Acre Fund. Built and refined over three decades, Echoing Green discovers tomorrow’s leaders today, and then funds, connects, and supports a new generation of social impact leaders. For more information, visit www.echoinggreen.org.
About 1000 MORE:
1000 MORE provides nonpartisan information about bills coming up for a vote, written so that users don’t need a law degree to understand them. The app is a central space to learn about legislation, communicate with elected officials, and crowdfund advocacy efforts to increase access to collective financial power behind legislation. It is building a movement of people-centered political activism in every step of the democratic process—not only during elections.
Founder D’Seanté Parks, created the 1000 MORE app to make it easier for people from underrepresented communities like the ones she’s from to engage in politics—an industry that is vitally important to everyone’s well-being and growth but often difficult to participate in. Her mission of civic empowerment started at Louisiana State University, where she contributed to several published works on the roots of propaganda in America while earning her degree in political communication. Her path led to meetings in the White House and work on historic campaigns up and down the ballot, including U.S. Senate campaigns for Mary Landrieu and Kamala Harris.
With a decade of experience on the campaign trail communicating with thousands of voters, hundreds of donors, and numerous organization leaders and elected officials, she has taken all that she learned and created a one-stop marketplace for political engagement. D’Seanté serves as a senior vice president at renowned public affairs firm SKDK in New York CIty. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she contributed to various publications, including a handbook for campaigns to combat misinformation and disinformation attacks.