The Lulu Strong Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the RIVL Foundation to help develop an AI-powered app designed to guide amputees through recovery by connecting them with personalized resources, expert information, and local support networks.
The grant, announced Wednesday, marks the foundation’s second grant distribution. RIVL Foundation, founded by four-time Paralympian and amputee Jarryd Wallace, plans to build an app that uses an agentic AI platform and RIVL’s expert-built information library to provide personalized guidance, recovery milestones and connections to localized resources. The foundation said the more users engage with the app, the more it learns, allowing it to serve as a guide, mentor and coach throughout recovery.
Foundation leaders said many amputees face the separate challenge of finding reliable information, quality care and a supportive community after limb loss. The foundation said the grant reflects its commitment to supporting not only technologies that transform recovery, but also the tools that help amputees find and use those technologies.
“Recovery is a long, emotional, and sometimes messy process,” said Lulu Gribbin. “So much of my recovery happened in the small moments between doctor visits, and this new app from RIVL aims to give patients a way to be heard in those moments. It’ll give their care team a way to catch problems before they turn into setbacks, and that kind of support builds real confidence in your recovery. I’m proud the Lulu Strong Foundation gets to help bring this app to life.”
“After my amputation, I had to piece together my own network of doctors, other amputees, and resources through trial and error,” said Wallace, CEO and founder of the RIVL Foundation. “This grant lets us expand on what we’ve already built and share it with amputees everywhere, so the next person doesn’t have to start from scratch.”
The RIVL Foundation said it combines the lived experiences of amputees with clinical expertise and research to improve standards of care while uniting rehabilitation, research, performance and innovation into one data-driven system centered on amputees.
After waking from lifesaving surgery following a 2024 shark attack that severed her left hand and part of her right leg, Gribbin’s first words were, “I MADE IT.” Since then, she helped champion Alabama’s Lulu Gribbin Shark Alert System Act, and on June 26, 2026, Lulu’s Law was signed into federal law. Her foundation works to accelerate the development and affordability of AI-powered prosthetics, virtual reality therapy and other emerging technologies that restore confidence and independence for amputees. She has also spoken before the Alabama Legislature, at TEDx Youth, and appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings.
No one heals alone. The Lulu Strong Foundation encourages those interested in supporting its mission to visit its website, follow the organization on Instagram or donate by texting “LULU” to 91999.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
