Chicagoan Lauren Tapper and Highland Park resident Hannah Frazer and are recognized for their extraordinary efforts to embody the value of tikkun olam, to repair the world.
Lauren Tapper, 15, launched COVID-TV, an online platform connecting teenagers to provide emotional and mental health support during the pandemic. The project was launched as a blog in March 2020 for teens to create a virtual community where they could share their quarantine experiences and reduce their sense of isolation and anxiety. Teens from around the world participated, from the U.S., Israel and the UK to China, Singapore and India.
COVID-TV now supports 60 global teen ambassadors leading community fundraising and action campaigns to address pandemic-related crises and other social justice issues.
Tapper, who just completed JUF's RTI program, also was a local 18 Under 18 Honoree this year.
Eighteen-year-old Hannah Frazer is founder and CEO of Question Connection Game, NFP, which has designed and distributed over 1,200 conversation-starting card games across the USA, Spain, Israel, Czech Republic, China, Korea, Germany, and Colombia.
The game, which is designed to facilitate interpersonal connection and cultivate empathy, is available in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, and Hebrew. It continues to be interwoven into multiple curricula at schools and community centers globally and has been employed within programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago and the Joint Educational Project in LA.
"In the face of the unusual challenges of this past year, the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award recipients exhibit courage, commitment, and compassion, bringing hope for the future," said Phyllis Cook, Chief Philanthropic Consultant to the Helen Diller Family Foundation. "These young leaders inspire all of us to do our part to repair the world."
Each awardee will receive $36,000 to support their work or further their education.
