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Grants awarded to young people making games that address social change

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

The video game industry’s lobbying group and a nonprofit are giving away grants to 20 minority teens and adults who are creating games that address social problems in their communities.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Leaders on the Fast Track (LOFT) today announced the recipients of the award known as the ESA LOFT Video Game Innovation Fellowship. The 20 winners are ages 16 to 24 and earned grants aimed at stimulating community change. The grants are part of a movement in the game business, dubbed Games for Change, to do social good through gaming.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.