What is Give InKind?
Give InKind is an easy-to-use online tool for organizing support during life’s important and challenging moments. Each InKind page empowers communities to help from anywhere through a Care Calendar, Wishlist, News and Updates, Fundraising, and more. From the birth of a baby, to the loss of a loved one, to medical crisis, and disasters, Give InKind makes support simple so that no one goes through a big moment alone.
Give InKind’s Story
Give InKind was started with a notebook, a sea of flowers, and two grieving parents. After experiencing the unexpected loss of their first child, Founder, Laura Malcolm, and her husband, James, saw how much work was created for their friends and families that wanted to be supportive from around the country. There were questions about where to order delivery meals from, what to send or say, whether or not they were up for visitors or phone calls — and Laura knew there had to be a simpler way to coordinate all of the efforts from the loved ones that wanted to help. …
published in the Web App Market
I Ally: A Bridge For The Caregivers
Being a caregiver can be as taxing as it is rewarding, and the role often goes underappreciated. While a support network of family and friends is crucial, apps can also help in alleviating some of the stresses that come with caregiving.
The world of caregiving apps is growing, and it needs to. People get stress by drawing a wide array of tasks to solve various challenges in their day to day life.
Luckily, more and more app developers are creating tools that make it easier to multitask and be there for each other. …
Originally published in FemFounder
Lucinda Koza is the Founder & CEO of I Ally, a holistic support app for young family caregivers. Lucinda is a Lyfebulb Patient Entrepreneur and has been featured in Authority Magazine & Thrive Global’s Heroes of the COVID Crisis Series. She is a Founding Member of Tech Ladies, owns the social media marketing agency Got It Done Gal, and is proud to be her father’s primary caregiver. www.i-ally.com
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I grew up in South Carolina, where my father was a civil rights advocate in the state legislature, and my mother was a teacher. My mother made sure I was exposed to the arts, and I fell in love with the theatre and was in my first play at age six. I went on to get my degree and work professionally in that field for years. However, there was an important shift that took place within me in my 20s. I believe that art and storytelling have the power to change society and create a social impact. I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing that, and I knew I wanted to help people in a more direct way. I started to try to learn and read everything I could about technology and innovation, and it fascinated me. …
Originally published in Data Bird Business Journal.
UPDATE: Lucinda is also featured in the Book Founded by Women!
Lucinda Koza is the Founder + CEO of I Ally, an app created for and by family caregivers. She is a member of the current TechCrunch Include Cohort, SheWorx + AWS Startups Mentorship Program 2020, All Raise Org’s Visionary Voices Speakers Bureau, and the Lyfebulb Patient Entrepreneur Circle. She just received Honorable Mention in the Lyfebulb + Orexo Innovation Challenge and received Honorable Mention for Intermitten’s 2020 Changemaker Award. Her writing has been published in Thought Catalog and Medium Women. …
GREENVILLE, S.C., Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — youturn, the leader in therapist-led content for people struggling with substance misuse, announced a partnership with I-Ally, a rapidly expanding platform of caregiver resources. The partnership will allow a mutual sharing of resources. youturn member employees will now have access to I-Ally’s robust resources to help unlock young family caregiver intelligence through support, empowerment and other needed resources.
“We’re excited about this new partnership that allows us to better connect families in need with resources around caregiving and addiction support,” Shay Houser, co-founder and CEO, youturn says.
Caregivers are often family members who are committed to caring for their loved ones. And, according to AARP, an estimated 53 million Americans qualify as caregivers. As a result, it’s critical for these people to have access to education and support resources such as those that I-Ally and youturn provide. …
COVID-19 has touched more than just our bodies. Our routines, social interactions, financial situations, and wellbeing have also been impacted. Although social isolation doesn’t necessarily equate to loneliness it can still be a contributing factor. With this in mind, some are calling COVID-19 a double pandemic.
According to YouGov, 19% of US adults reported feeling lonely pre-pandemic, whereas roughly 26% have reported feeling lonely during COVID-19. In order to understand what this means, we asked Joyce Shulman, TEDx Expert on Loneliness, and other experts to shed light on how isolation plays into loneliness.
Joyce indicates that “Isolation can certainly contribute to loneliness, but they are two distinct things. Isolation is the physical state of being alone. Loneliness, on the other hand, is emotional — the feeling that you are missing the kind of meaningful interpersonal connections that all human beings need in one way or the other.” …
Testimonials from I-Ally users.
I created I-Ally from a place of great, deep need — not only my own need, but an enormous need I felt and heard from those like me. There are millions of us, Millennials who are now 40% more likely to be taking care of an aging parent; Millennials who now comprise over 1/3 of multi-generational family caregivers. We don’t relate to the traditional messaging that is geared towards caregivers. We are different. We are younger, more diverse, and most likely providing the bulk of care all by ourselves. We need a new system.
I made I-Ally to connect us, and to empower us. If we join together, there’s no end to the power that our voices have. If we join together, we prove the power we do have: we are the gatekeeper to positive patient outcomes for healthcare organizations. We are the key to the data that scientists and doctors need for research and clinical trials. We choose which vendor we use for medication management or Telehealth or life insurance. …
Originally published on Lief Therapeutic’s blog on January 13, 2021 here.
Many caregiver communities experience dual struggles of managing the needs of someone else, while taking care of their own mental health. For example, parents with special needs kids are not only managing the needs of their child, but can struggle with their own anxiety, burnout, and depression as well. Similarly, individuals who become the primary caregiver for an elderly family member often face the compounding challenges of managing their newfound responsibilities with their own mental health struggles.
Lief Therapeutics has recently partnered with I-Ally, an organization that connects millennial caregivers to resources and a community to help them navigate the unique challenges they face in their critical role. We had the honor of chatting with I-Ally founder, Lucinda Koza, to hear about her incredible journey to empowering herself and others through her shared experience with other caregivers, who all too often go unheard by other stakeholders in the complex caregiver ecosystem. …
