Article
Senior Fellow Surayya Walters built Still Knowing, a new app solely dedicated to bridging the gap between faith, spirituality, and mental health for youth.
The Inspiration behind the Project
This project addressed the disconnect that often occurs for youth with communities of faith and mental health care. Still Knowing is designed to fill the gap that exists between both spaces – bridging the mind, body, and soul for youth.
Still Knowing addresses the disconnect that occurs for youth when trying to navigate issues of religious identity and mental health. “We seek to be a safe space digitally where youth can engage in self exploration, care for their minds, and embrace spiritual possibilities,” Surayya explains.
“I chose this topic because it is close to home and a pain point I experienced. I worked as a mental health peer counselor and interfaith fellowship leader in college,” Surayya discusses the inspiration behind her project. In both spaces, she began to realize both sides’ disconnect and distrust for the other. “I wanted to create a solution that represented a middle ground between both faced based and mental health ideologies, with the integration of popular culture for youth,” she adds.
Project Development
Surayya gained the necessary resources through fellowships and pre-accelerators.
Surayya won a grant competition from LookUp, which provided her with some preliminary funding to explore the idea. After that, she was accepted into Square One Startup School, which helped her to design the platform using UX/UI design principles. Finally, she was accepted into Bubble’s Immerse Fellowship, which gave her the support to build the product.
In other words, the resources used were grant funding, Figma, and Bubble no-code developer. Surayya gained these resources through fellowships and pre-accelerators.
“If we look very closely, most things are interconnected.”
Lessons Learned
The project has inspired Surayya to continue seeking and building solutions at the intersection of disparate worlds.
The project has inspired Surayya to continue seeking and building solutions at the intersection of disparate worlds. “If we look very closely, most things are interconnected,” she notices, adding that she is excited to continue this journey working at this intersection.
Surayya further found it surprising how willing she was to change her initial idea. “My initial concept was a fellowship model with an existing non-profit organization,” she explains. However, over time, she began to realize that there are avenues for exploring technology and also creating an app around this concept.
Next Steps
The next steps are building out the app and starting to license it to religious and youth mental health spaces. Others can get involved by joining the founding team or signing up for their waitlist.
Updated August 2023
