s4story -- OctoNation, a community that inspires the conservation of the ocean by teaching the world about octopuses in a fun and informative way, today announced that it had been accepted to participate in the North American cohort of Facebook's Community Accelerator.

The Community Accelerator is focused more specifically on communities that are already established, have a business model, and are looking to grow their community through Facebook family of apps. The Community Accelerator Program is a six-month program aimed at helping community leaders quickly and strategically achieve their growth goals. The initiative is part of Facebook's mission to empower and invest in these leaders to start, grow, and sustain significant communities that positively impact people's lives.

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Changing climate, pollution, plastics, and overfishing: our ocean is well-studied and known to be facing threats, yet many people find these issues confusing. Octopuses are spread throughout a vast ocean area and are solitary, which makes it difficult to determine the status of their populations. While there are over 300 species of octopus, some are believed to be under threat. OctoNation is creating awareness, comprehensive education plans for educators, and bringing a community of octopus lovers together to inspire conversation.

"It is our pleasure to be accepted to Facebook's Community Accelerator," said Warren Carlyle, the founder of OctoNation. "I started OctoNation to inspire conservation by teaching the world about octopuses, but then realized we could do even more if we had access to more funding and better training."

Facebook said $3 million in total would be awarded to participants globally. Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to fund participants' approved growth plans.

According to Facebook, participants will learn how to optimize Facebook's family of tools, features, and apps to grow and scale their community. They will learn multiple growth strategies and how they can leverage each of them to build and improve their community. They will also learn how to define, measure, and communicate the influence their community has on the world.

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The Community Accelerator is an evolution of Facebook's Fellowship program, which in 2019 supported 115 participating leaders worldwide. Together, those leaders reported that their projects impacted over 1.9 million lives through online community support, the use of helpful resources, and other activities made possible by the program.

People looking for a Facebook Group and community to learn the coolest Octopus facts, art, videos, and meet people in the process can reach OctoNation on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.