Get Media L.I.T.

Solution Pitch

The Problem

According to The American Medical Association, teen suicide and depression rates are the highest they’ve been in the last 20 years—and in the first half of 2020, a record amount of students lost their lives to suicide. When Covid-19 forced schools around the country to close their doors, over 50 million students were separated from their friends and support systems and greeted with academic uncertainty, all while witnessing the devastating impacts of the pandemic. Students of color are faced with yet another grim reality, where they have also been seeing images of people that look like them facing police brutality and other widespread forms of racism.

The Solution

Get Media L.I.T. is an educational program combining diverse comic books that encourage students to be heroes with curricula that uplifts them by centering anti-racist and equity-based social-emotional learning (SEL). 

L.I.T. is an acronym for the program’s three lesson categories: Learn, Inquire, and Transform. “Learn” lessons use the unique power of graphic novels to improve student vocabulary and reading comprehension. “Inquire” lessons directly focus on shifting student attitudes and beliefs and providing tips for how to deal with things like bullying, social media insecurities, and self-doubt. Finally, “Transform” lessons empower students to be heroes in their communities using their unique personal strengths, creating hero projects where they identify issues and injustices in their communities and strategize how they can combat them. 

Stats 

Get Media L.I.T. serves schools across 14 states, and has a direct-to-student reach of over 900,000.

Market Opportunity

The Every Student Succeeds Act federally mandates that schools create conditions where student social-emotional wellness can thrive. Each year through the Title I program, schools spend over $10 billion on SEL programs. Comics and graphic novels are currently the highest-grossing vertical in-print publishing; teachers around the country are incorporating comics because of the proven educational benefits and high student engagement.

Organization Highlights

• Won The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Prize and The Elevate Prize for Antiracist Technology at Solve Challenge Finals.

• Distribution partnerships with Samsung and WarnerMedia.

• Featured in Forbes, CNN, TedX, EdSurge, and more.

• Won the 2021 Sage Scholars Prize and a recipient of the VELA Education Fund.

• Team Lead Tony Weaver Jr. developed an award-winning webcomic The Uncommons with over 1 million readers. 

Partnership Goals

Get Media L.I.T. seeks:

• Business model expertise.

• Media coverage and earned media support.