Built with input from Harvard and Univ. of Utah, the discovery app launching in Chicago market helps parents, teens easily find programs meaningful to them
Press Release – CHICAGO (August 27, 2018) – This month, the Spotivity™ mobile application launches in the Chicago market to help teens 13-17 years old find after-school activities that are meaningful and develop their passions. Since Spotivity is a double-sided database tool, it also helps after-school activity providers inform and connect with parents and teens – helping grow their participant base. After the Chicago launch, Spotivity plans to expand to the surrounding suburbs and then Detroit, Providence, Los Angeles and Philadelphia on its way to becoming a first-of-its-kind nation-wide database.
“More than half of the 40 million American children between the ages of 13-17 aren’t engaged in an after-school activity,” says Spotivity founder Montana Butsch. “For many of them, the time after school, on weekends and over vacations signals boredom and risk. This means they miss out on activities that may cultivate talent, lift self-confidence, increase engagement with school, and decrease the likelihood of risky or self-destructive behavior.
“With Spotivity, we expect to change that ratio, so more teens find an accessible pathway to pursue meaningful activities and develop their passions,” he continues.
In recent years, after-school programs have attracted new bursts of interest and funding. More than 500 municipal leaders surveyed by the National League of Cities ranked after-school programs among the most pressing needs for children in their communities.
Butsch created Spotivity to help teens and parents make more informed decisions. Not only does it provide greater visibility of available options, but it also provides solutions to logistical barriers-to-entry such as transport logistics and post-high school hour matching. Spotivity’s dynamic mapping tool overlays student interest, program offerings, and transportation networks in a manner that authors a personal itinerary for each member.
In partnership with Harvard University and the University of Utah, Spotivity created a novel points-based system that encourages continual involvement and rewards social recognition and positive reinforcement. Users will be able to check-in to their activities on their phone, share their progress with their peers, rank themselves between different use groups, and create a built-in motivational tool that encourages parents to create their own incentive matrix to further bolster engagement and familial involvement.
Key interface features of Spotivity include:
- Activity buckets which will ultimately include sports, education, health, mentoring, volunteerism, and the arts
- Easy-to-navigate mapped search results
- “Favorite” tagging
- Location-based check-ins
- Sharing function for social media feeds
As Spotivity is a double-sided marketplace, it also addresses the baseline needs of the program provider. This element is greatly informed by Butsch’s experience as the founder of nationally-recognized, inner-city rowing/mentoring organization Chicago Training Center.
“The hardest thing to achieve with any program is a depth and breadth of the participant base,” Butsch says. “Spotivity provides a tremendous participant identification platform while also supporting an easy to use back-end that engages the current group of program participants.”
Services will continually roll out for the user, with the first Premium Program subscriptions available post-launch for iteration 1.1. Planned expansions include:
- Opt-in parental tethering
- Premium program listings
- Transcript purchasing
- Leadership boards
About Spotivity
Chicago-based Spotivity is spearheaded by 1871 member Montana Butsch. He also founded the after-school activities non-profit Chicago Training Center in 2006. Spotivity recently generated support from local angel investors and is an Illinois Angel Tax Credit program member. Spotivity was developed in partnership with Algoworks Solutions Inc. For more information, please visit www.spotivity.com or call (312) 342 5241. Follow Spotivity on social media at:
https://www.pinterest.com/spotivityapp/
https://www.instagram.com/spotivityapp/
