KAYR for Communities, Inc.
Organization Details
KAYR is an app to help students find & build community... What we provide is a centralized hub for students to find groups, peer help, events, challenges & much more. Underlying the KAYR platform is also a system of "Karma" points to incentivize students to get involved & reward those who do. Our clients are student unions, and KAYR works with them to ensure points can be redeemed for real-life prizes, therefore using gamification strategically to recognize students for giving back to their schools! Our motto: Get involved. Build community. Win prizes.
Impact Story
Here’s a stat for you: In 2018, 31% of students in the Maritimes region of Canada, where we are, dropped out of their four-year degrees (per CBC). A key underlying reason: 70% of Canadian students suffer from some level of loneliness during the school year (also per the CBC), with so many finding it hard to feel part of their school communities.... And these aren’t just statistics. My co-founder and I experienced the problem firsthand, with her struggling at university due to those social challenges & my dropping out because of intense feelings of isolation. And as someone who served on student government in the past, I've also learned from the other side how difficult it is to build community in the first place.
Indeed, we at KAYR know millions of students have experienced or are experiencing some of the same issues we did. Students all over the world face these struggles, and COVID-19 has made the social isolation so many students face that much worse. We know how important it is to bring students together, and a successful university experience depends on co-curricular just as much as academics, and finding and creating community is not just a nice-to-have, but a central human need.... KAYR therefore is about getting students more involved in co-curricular life, building community and bringing in cool technology + promising innovations like gamification to make it all happen! Community always first.
