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Local child welfare organization invited to pitch T-Mobile executives at annual Changemaker Challenge

A local child welfare organization, known as “A Voice for Kids,” was selected as one of the top three teams, and a category winner, of T-Mobile’s second annual Changemaker Challenge.

The T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge is a national contest and partners with Ashoka and the T-Mobile Foundation to encourage big ideas to improve communities.

The Challenge is open to youth aged 13-23 and, according to T-Mobile, is “a youth career exploration program to prepare young people for great futures in business and technology.”

A Voice for Kids founder Matthew Peiffer started the organization in 2014 with the goal of being a voice for kids that come from child welfare and abuse. It represents both Grant and Delaware counties.

“To be recognized on a national, worldwide level is a great honor to me,” Peiffer said. “I’ve worked hard to build credibility, so it’s just an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.”

A Voice For Kids was one of 428 entries.

As a winning team, they will receive $2,000 in seed funding and an all-expenses-paid trip to T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Wash. Headquarters for the Changemaker Lab.

The Lab is a three-day immersive experience where teams will meet with mentors from T-Mobile and Ashoka while networking with other winners.

A Voice For Kids strives to cover all kids that come from abuse or child welfare and focus on the loopholes that are caused by policy to help try to create ways to fix those for children being forgotten about.

In the future, Peiffer says he would like to provide classes to foster children to prevent them from repeating the cycle and potentially classes for officers as well.

“I’d like to start a curriculum for police departments for their academy where they train officers across the states,” Peiffer added. “If we can hit police departments where they do all the training before they go into law enforcement, it could help them understand what foster kids go through.”

After receiving $2,000 from being selected as a top-three team, Peiffer is looking into his options on how to spend the money but hopes to benefit foster kids in every state and give them a voice.

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