The Minneapolis-based GHR Foundation, in partnership with OpenIDEO, has announced the winners of the 2019 BridgeBuilder Challenge.

Through the $1 million competition, five social innovators were recognized for innovative ideas that address urgent global challenges related to this year's theme of "People on the Move," which sought design approaches aimed at improving conditions for immigrants, refugees, and displaced people or that better support their host communities.

The five winners are Top Manta (Barcelona, Spain), which will work to activate a migrant-led streetwear movement to spur opportunity and solidarity within migrant communities; Five One Labs (Kurdistan region, Iraq), which proposes to incubate post-conflict youth- and women-founded startups in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; SAMA for All (Paris, France), which will work to transform cultural exchanges by training newcomers as art interpreters; FaithAction (Greensboro, North Carolina), which will reimagine the identification card as a means of fostering trust and safety among new neighbors; and Talent Beyond Boundaries (the Middle East and North Africa, Australia, and Canada), which will work to help unlock global pathways to international employment and safety for refugees.

"For our third BridgeBuilder, People on the Move was a natural focus," said GHR Foundation chair and CEO Amy Goldman. "We wanted to spotlight and support ideas that are desperately needed to improve the lives of migrants and refugees. More than that, though, we wanted to help change the narrative — to elevate the status of those who have experienced displacement as skilled and creative innovators themselves."

(Photo credit: Five One Labs)