New grant will support up-and-coming female streamers on Twitch
49 comments
Grants range from $500 to $2,000
By Julia Alexander Feb 23, 2018, 12:00pm EST
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A charity organization is partnering with Twitch to promote promising female streamers on the platform, offering them a series of financial grants to help sustain their channels.

The 1,000 Dreams Fund launched in late 2015, and defines itself as a non-profit organization that supports the “dreams of talented young women in need by providing access to critical funding, resources and meaningful mentor relationships. Now, it’s teamed up with Twitch for the 1,000 Dreams Fund Twitch BroadcastHER Grant.

The organizations will award the grant to at least two high school or college students every semester, with funds ranging from $500 to $2,000. The grants are supposed to be used for conference travel, equipment upgrades, workshops and other tools that align with the 1,000 Dreams Fund’s mission, Twitch said in a press release.

The goal is to help illustrate the gender gap women often face in specific fields, including streaming, which is still predominantly male. A 2016 study reported that women make up 35 percent of Twitch’s streaming landscape, and there aren’t any female streamers in the current top 10 list.

“Many of the problems women face are because of lack of respect,” caster Tina “shadowfoxx086” Degenhart said. “But gaming is just another platform that we shouldn’t shy away from. The industry won’t understand how to treat women if we don’t show them how to treat women.”

The 1,000 Dreams Fund also announced that it will host a livestream event next week, in order to bring further awareness to the campaign. “Streams for Dreams” will kick off March 1 and run through April 1, with the intention to put the spotlight on a number of streamers.

A press release from the organization states that this is more than just an effort to spotlight casters on the platform. It’s also “raising awareness for the continued gender gap in financial funding for young women in the ever-expanding gaming and broadcasting space.”

The 1,000 Dream Fund Twitch BroadcastHER Grant’s rules states that only Twitch Affiliated or Partnered casters are eligible. More information can be found on the charity’s site.

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There are 49 comments.
Jigabachi

nice

now if we could just find a way to make Twitch chats less of a cesspool nightmare mess and teach men to not harass women on social media they may even stick around
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:06 PM
NYCman100

    teach men to not harass women on social media they may even stick around

"listen boys just play nice".

Has that advice ever worked in the history of asshole-ism on assholes?

Unless by teach you meant implement a way to easier ban people or something.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:11 PM
Jigabachi

im upset that you put so little effort into that strawman, i’m worth more than that
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:30 PM
NYCman100

What else does it mean to say "teach men not to harass women". I think people who harass women know they’re being dickheads they just dont give af.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:32 PM
Jigabachi

if only there was some way to come up with an answer that you don’t already know without putting words in other people’s mouths
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:34 PM
NYCman100

its the best way to communicate with you
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:34 PM
Lil Kut-Ku

Telling someone to do something isn’t teaching. There are lots of existing programs that teach people how to change behavior, including not harass women, if you want to use them as examples.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:11 PM
NYCman100

Thats assuming they want to change their behavior. Lead a horse to water but cant force it to drink kind of thing.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:45 PM
Lil Kut-Ku

Only some of these programs are focused on adults. Many focus on providing this education earlier in life.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 2:04 PM
NYCman100

So then we are not talking about "men"; we are talking about educational programs for children?
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 1:13 PM
gatzter

I believe it’s more complex than simply creating and implementing programs. It start with parents (or lack there of). Then you have to consider the experiences of children and young adults. Some people harass because they don’t care. Maybe they were taught right or not. May they were hurt by the opposite sex. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try, just that we should keep in mind that this is a complex situation.
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 4:47 PM
Katholikos

I don’t doubt that you’re telling the truth, but could you please link to some of those programs? I’d be interested in seeing the approach they take!
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 12:41 AM
TJ Max

you didnt exactly put a lot of effort into coming to the conclusion that Twitch chat is just a cesspool despite there being hundreds of thousands of streamers representing all different types of communities
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:56 PM
Jigabachi

it’s not too bad for straight white dude gamers, admittedly
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:05 PM
Menage

Unless you’re getting doxxed of course. Heck, I read a 12 year old was doxxed last week.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 5:08 AM
BusyOrc

Thats a load of bullshit and ypu know it, you simply dont look nor care what guys go through.
Posted on Feb 27, 2018 | 9:36 AM
Lil Kut-Ku

I’m curious how much effort needs to be gone into. My experience is that Twitch is a stone’s throw away from 4chan and YouTube comments, so cesspool seems like a reasonable way to express that.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:12 PM
TJ Max

Very little effort? If your experience with Twitch only involves chaotic mainstream events like E3 and clicking on some random PUBG stream with 10,000 viewers then thats not really having experience with Twitch.

The type of game being streamed generally determines the type of community in the chat. If you hate online shooters but like RPGs then chances are you will find Skyrim streams a lot more relatable than a CSGO stream.

Its not hard at all to find a stream that isnt about trolling and spamming, since those people almost exclusively stick to the most popular streams where they can hide behind anonymity. The only hard part is finding a streamer that fits your personality since there are so many streams and no way to know if they are funny/chill/energetic/whatever, once you narrow it down by game its just trial and error until you find a stream you like.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 2:40 PM
CrabbyCrabberson

I don’t know much about how Twitch works for streamers – do they not have a way to kick people out of their chat rooms?
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:27 PM
Jigabachi

it’s pretty complicated but to sum it up: nothing sticks and the deterrants are easy to bypass
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:35 PM
CrabbyCrabberson

Well, fixing that seems like it would solve a lot of problems!

Teaching guys not to be a-holes in the first place would be ideal, but who are we kidding.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:42 PM
MJD86

how come it’s always "teach men"? I hate being tarred with the sweeping "white male privilege" line. I’m poor and don’t have a voice, women get paid the same I do at my level. I try to treat everyone with respect. yet media teaches that I’m sexist and racist (guilty before proven innocent).

Could we not just call them cretins or some other specific category?
How would you feel if I said – yea, we just need to TEACH WOMEN how not to be slutty on camera and abuse/encourage treating women as meat or objects (not nice is it).

It’s a sub-section of people, not half of Earths population.
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 6:57 PM
bnjrmn

100% of men harassing women are men though. It is a male issue. That doesn’t mean you’re being blamed.
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 8:55 PM
bnjrmn

Do you genuinely believe that slut shaming comment?
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 8:56 PM
MJD86

No i don’t, i was trying to illustrate a point. Not %100 treat or talk to people like this, so to suggest that men (not boys or children, as in both genders) need some training in equality is insulting.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 5:16 AM
bnjrmn

The problem though isn’t that 100% of men harass people online. The problem is that almost all online harassment is by men. That is why it is a male issue. It’s not insulting, it’s truthful.
Posted on Feb 27, 2018 | 12:54 AM
keggerous

"The problem though isn’t that 100% of men harass people online. The problem is that almost all online harassment is by men. That is why it is a male issue. It’s not insulting, it’s truthful." According to actual studies of online harassment that’s completely not true. In fact, the number one harassers of women online is other women . . .
Posted on Feb 27, 2018 | 7:49 AM
Menage

I’m pretty much in the "if I don’t think I’m responsible for bullshit, I don’t feel spoken too" boat.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of assholes out there. But I doubt they will learn anything real quick I agree on that sadly.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 5:06 AM
silentwind

see, as a generic internet asshole, i want to make some commentary about how we’re paying people to be basement-dwelling losers who play video games all day.

but i feel most people would be too stupid to realize i’m talking about the general idea of this (getting more people on twitch) and instead think i’m attacking women for whatever reason losers do that for.

i’m an asshole to everyone regardless of race, gender identity, sex, whatever.
i don’t want my bad name being sullied because people misinterpret my insults.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:25 PM
NYCman100

ehh I think you’re overestimating the attention your opinion might get haha.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:33 PM
silentwind

Yeah, that shitpost went through several rewrites and i still feel i could do better. but someone thinks i’m cool so it’s still a win!
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:25 PM
Jigabachi

oh man you’re so cool
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 12:40 PM
MJD86

is this an actual troll?
if so it’s not helping your "teach men how to behave" argument.
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 6:37 PM
robochi

i have to say, never have i gone to a comment section about something women-related and actually enjoyed the commentary. you guys are hilarious, thank you
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:04 PM
Menage

This thread seems super inviting to get involved in. Is everybody having a shitty day or something.

Good for the girls. But I def will ban any streaming aspirations with my kids (boy and girl). The real world is shitty enough to expose them to dickwad universe.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 1:07 PM
Peddie

So going over the exact criteria:

    Criteria: To be eligible for this grant you must be female, a Twitch Affiliated or Partnered Broadcaster, and currently enrolled in high school, a two-year, four-year college/university or graduate school. Applicants must demonstrate financial need. Applications must include an essay explaining how the grant would be used. Selection will be based on application contents and financial need.

I do have some questions. Why must the streamer be in school? There are plenty of streamers who work part time, or not at all, due to a number of reasons, up to and including invalidity, or just being down on their luck, or who simply can’t afford college or grad school, especially in the US. Plus if you really want to promote diversity you should also ensure that women over twenty-five get a chance to shine, too.

Also I’m not sure why partnered streamers are valid for this? The fact they’re partnered shows they’ve already had a measure of success and are getting funded by their fans to some extent. This shouldn’t be a system to make the successful more successful.

Plus ultimately, why yes, Twitch definitely has a problem with gender representation, gender isn’t the only diversity problem it has going on, they could do better.
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 2:40 PM
Katholikos

I think part of it is probably "I don’t want to encourage people to drop out of school to get this grant", which would be terrible PR.

As for the partnered thing, there are 10 trillion streamers that aren’t partnered for every 10 that are – it would be hard to manage that many applications.

Honestly, they seem valid to me – it’s a small grant (a couple thousand dollars isn’t a ton of money, and the restrictions tells me they probably aren’t looking to send this money to a TON of people). I imagine they’re just looking to get a few legit professional female streamers an extra boost to help them rock the house and potentially get famous enough to stand next to ATP, T1, etc.
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 12:44 AM
boquaz

How would that be terrible PR? We’ve talked about Twitch and streaming in general enough here to establish that it is, in fact, a job. Leaving school to work a job is success, not failure.

The real reason they’re requiring grantees are students is that the manager of the foundation backing it writes and sells guide books for women college students. She set up the foundation to be a non-profit focused on scholarships. There’s nothing nefarious here, she’s giving in the areas she knows best.
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 9:39 PM
Katholikos

It’s incredibly rare to call dropping out of school to start working at an extremely low-income job a success – especially if you were in school for something that pays fairly well.

It’d be awful PR.
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 2:06 PM
tolkienfanatic

Ah, more of your beloved "equality"
Posted on Feb 23, 2018 | 3:20 PM
SunAraw

    Must be female

Are we talking sex or gender here?
Posted on Feb 24, 2018 | 12:51 AM
MJD86

I’m glad we’ve covered all the worlds important pressing issues enough to pay women to play games…. sigh…
Posted on Feb 25, 2018 | 6:31 PM
Menage

Like we pay athletes with a scholarship cause they can play sports.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 4:57 AM
MJD86

I don’t agree with how much money goes into sports either IMPO.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 5:09 AM
Menage

Oh I agree, but I suspect a lot of the commentators on this topic (not just here) will never have argued against it in a way this will be attacked.
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 5:46 AM
BusyOrc

Except playing sports takes a mountain of hard work and physical training compaired to the mole hill of girls wanting to be popular on twitch.
Posted on Feb 27, 2018 | 9:38 AM
Aqua-Regis

Yeah forget grants to engineers or scientists, let’s help them become minor streaming celebrities?

Dream bigger girls, dream so much bigger
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 6:18 AM
Paul_M

Yes because that’s exactly what’s happening. Grants for engineers and scientists are dropped in favor of grants for Twitch
Posted on Feb 26, 2018 | 9:00 AM
StuiWooi

    talented young women in need

Anyone streaming video games on the internet is by my definition not in need
Posted on Feb 27, 2018 | 10:07 AM
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