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We believe that social agenda is a must for businesses in the 21st century and therefore turned certain SDGs into our compass. This is the story of ReShuffle’s impact agenda.
I came up with the idea for ReShuffle during COVID, when I saw both my children struggling with the new reality that was forced on them. I saw the system collapsing, failing to make a change in the way we pass knowledge, eventhough the pandemic changed everything around it, including space of learning, topics that were relevant to the situation, or the mental state students were in - which fundamentally impacted their ability to cope with learning altogether. I did my research and found out that the number of students suffering from depression and anxiety, that was high to begin with (1 in 4 suffering from anxiety and 1 of 3 suffering from depression), skyrocketed throughout the pandemic. I was determined to use my knowledge and expertise as a seasoned media specialist and high-tech executive, and look for a way to help.
I saw the system failing to make a change eventhough the pandemic changed everything
ReShuffle is a holistic startup that combines the need for students to learn English, the need to focus on real life subjects that are relevant to their future careers, and the new ways in which gen Z students are consuming content, to make a different in their motivation to learn. Seeing students as people, not “captured customers” of an old-fashioned education system, ReShuffle was focusing on their major concern - their emotional well being.
As a gen Z targeted startup, we could not look away from the future of our target audience, therefore binded ourselves to the UN rolls, aka as the UN SDG goals, to make sure we socially, economically and environmentally committed. Good health and well being (3), Quality education (4), Gender equality (5), Reduce inequalities , are some of the values we’ve put at the core of what we do and how we operate. In Reshuffle we firmly believe in the importance of all of the SDG goals and this is how we implement them.
Good Health and Well Being
Good health and well being refers to both emotional and mental health of all ages, as the UN understands that one cannot be without the other. The goal is to enable access to both and help as much as we can.
Besides the fact that we have courses (ReShuffle Quests) both in medicine and sports, which contributes to the awareness of our students to the way they should treat their bodies and the importance of good health, we seek to improve all of our students' emotional and mental well being. Reshuffle uses personal projects withing personally chosen quests to improve our students' sense of purpose. We use relevant, meaningful tasks to develop students’ sense of capability. Combined, our quest help students design their own path and increase their self-belief, which in turn builds their motivation, develop their skills and enable achievements.
Quality Education
The UN goal is to bring equitable and inclusive quality education to everyone. They want to broaden the options of all “classes” for education, and specifically practical education, things that will serve them later on in life.
At Reshuffle we bring world class experts to write our quests with us and mentor the students throughout their professional and personal journies. Our experts inspire our students to discover their talent, expand their knowledge, gain experience, work hard and think outside the box.
As our quests are online, we are available for every school that wants to use our program, to every team that cares for the development of their students and is ready to innovate, be it urban and well-off, or underprivileged and remote. For example, last year we’ve worked with Bedouin schools at the south of Israel and with Druze students up north, while also investing time and effort in the success of immigrant kids in a Tel-Avivian school.
Besides implementing our programs, we develop internship and volunteering programs with local corporates, to support students in their effort them build a better future for themselves using lifelong learning skills, amongside other 21st skills connected to a field they’d like to pursue later on in their lives.
Gender Equality
The UN set this goal because even today, in 2023, the world is not the same world for men and women. As a woman it is much harder to get into power positions, and if you have a family it could become even harder. This company was conceived and founded by a women, and in a way, the reason for its existence is motherhood. Then, the development of the values, the concept and the go-to-market strategy, involved the target audience, school students from around the world to whom I listened and learned from, in order to provide the best and most relevant solution. This is still how we work, and our most important features usually come from the feedback of our usewrs, also in their teenage.
Since the start of Reshuffle, at least 50% of us are women if not more, and we also we make sure we have as many women as experts in our quests as we can, in order to inspire our students to see what they can become. As the important saying goes: you can’t be what you can’t see.
Reduce Inequalities
The aim is to create a more equitable and just world, where all individuals have access to resources, opportunities, and services, regardless of their background or circumstances. This goal is meant to better the state of disadvantaged populations, by reducing income inequality, ensuring equal opportunities, promoting inclusion and improving the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets to address the root causes of inequality.
In Israel, our pilot market, you have many different populations that are disadvantaged. We implemented our program in most of them: in the Bedouin community, in religious Orthodox schools, immigrant students, and a small Ethiopian group of students that started off as non-readers. We believed in them, and it worked, beyond all expectations. Check out our testemoneals to learn more about how we transform English and life skills for social periphery students.
We believe in equal opportunity, not only to facilitate the integration of all segments of society later on but also because we recognize that diversity and inclusion are fundamental principles for Gen Z. When we bring together different populations, we are actually making our platform more interesting, more desirable and more valuable to humanity.
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I will quote Maoz Inon, an incredible social entrepeneur and peace ampbassador, who I’m proud to call my friend, who said every company should have a social agenda. I totally agree with this statement and that’s why at ReShuffle, we sharpen our social vision every day, think of new ways to pursue its related tasks and come up with new thoughts and ideas on how to expand it, constantly. Our driving force is to think how we can give adolescents worldwide relevant technological tools and hybrid frameworks, that will help them explore and maximise their own potential, and build the best future for themselves.
I’d like to end this article with one more quote of the person whos’ in my opinion the greatest educator of all time, one that managed to do the unimaginable, in the most horrific circumstances, and leave a heritage that’s a great inspiration to all of us trying to make an impact in the education world, Janusz Korczak. “Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with tenderness and respect, as equals. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be - The unknown person inside each of them is the hope for the future”.
Yael Shafrir is the CEO and Co-Founder of ReShuffle.