Sixto Cancel (standing, fourth from right) and Think of Us staffers at their new office on West Broad Street (Photo by Megan Irwin)
Sixto Cancel has met former President Barack Obama four times. He’s been interviewed by NPR and The Huffington Post. In April, he traveled to Israel as one of Forbes’ “Top 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.”
The 25-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University graduate runs Think of Us, a nonprofit organization with 12 staff members that’s developing technology to guide youth as they age out of the foster system. Yet, he says, not many Richmonders know about what he does. “We’re like a secret [here].”
Inside the new Think of Us office at 318 W. Broad St. — the organization moved there in May after operating in a smaller space on West Grace Street since 2015 — the diverse staff of 20-somethings is preparing for the launch of its app in Omaha, Nebraska, and Santa Clara, California, at the beginning of August.
Foster care agencies will deliver the app to youth, enabling them to set goals such as finding a job or an apartment, and invite supportive adults to assist and guide them.
“This is to make everything digital and it’s to put the young person at the center of driving it,” Cancel says.
Typically, 90 days before aging out of the foster system at 18, youth and their caseworkers fill out a transition plan listing goals and supportive adults.
“We’re not setting up our young people to succeed,” he says. “It takes more than 90 days to prepare to be on your own.” With Think of Us, the preparation starts at age 15 and follows the youth through age 26. Cancel estimates that 300 young people will be using the app by the end of the summer, and 800 by year's end. The Think of Us team is also talking with Richmond’s Department of Social Services and exploring partnerships with local nonprofits, he says.
Cancel’s personal experience of growing up in foster care in Connecticut drives his sense of mission.
“When you’re in a family, your parents are obligated [to you],” he says. “When you’re in foster care, you get suspended too many times? New home. You break the car window, you definitely get a new home. Being in foster care, the trauma is to be disconnected … so one of the things we’re looking to achieve is to have young people build their own personal advisory board that will stay connected to them, will be there, but also rewiring what connection means.”
