We’re excited to announce our partnership with UNICEF Kid Power, a program of UNICEF USA well-known for its major impact on children’s health around the world. UNICEF Kid Power gives kids the power to save lives by connecting their everyday activity to real-world impact. By getting active with UNICEF Kid Power, kids unlock therapeutic food that UNICEF delivers to severely malnourished children. The more kids move and learn, the more lives they save.

This is a meaningful partnership for Niantic because we believe every child has the right to a healthy and happy childhood. Millions of children and their families around the world play our games, and we continue to find ways to support the communities in which our players reside and interact.

Our partnership will focus on ways in which we can use Niantic technology and social good to create impactful initiatives. First off, Niantic and UNICEF Kid Power empowered students to identify locations of importance in their community, highlighting the use of mapmaking skills and local history using Niantic’s location-based games. Winning submissions, featuring stories by kids explaining these meaningful places in their community, will be appearing as Niantic games locations by March 31st.

Bringing together the resources from the technology, educational, and non-profit sectors is something we’re passionate about and are consistently looking for ways in which we can help empower the next generation to make positive change.

We can’t wait to kick off future collaborations and look forward to updating the UNICEF and Niantic communities on our progress.

—Yennie Solheim, Social Impact