By Sara Gilgore

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Halcyon has rolled out a new program for startups tackling the world’s biggest challenges — and this time, it didn’t look very far beyond its home base.

The D.C. nonprofit, which runs a Georgetown incubator for social entrepreneurs, has opened its doors to a group of startup founders from the District’s opportunity zones — federally designated areas where investment is incentivized because they are traditionally under-resourced. It’s the organization’s first effort to focus exclusively on companies growing up in its own backyard.

“We just really wanted to run a program that found some of the best entrepreneurs from opportunity zones in our city and give them the same resources that we give to the entrepreneurs that we have in our usual cohorts,” said Halcyon CEO Kate Goodall in an interview.

Investors in businesses based in opportunity zones can see their capital gains tax eliminated or reduced. Halcyon won’t reap any of the benefits afforded to opportunity zone investors because it doesn’t invest in its companies, but that could change in the future as Halcyon raises its own fund with plans to invest in some of the startups it is incubating.

The opportunity zone model is similar to that of Halcyon’s two-week intensive summer program, which in recent years has welcomed entrepreneurs from Korea and Saudi Arabia to help advance their ventures. The new Opportunity Intensive, as it’s called, holds two one-week periods of residency — one now and a second in the summer — and provides support throughout the year leading up to a December pitch event.

The roster has some familiar faces, including Candy Schibli of coffee roaster Southeastern Roastery, Fonta Gilliam of fintech platform Sou Sou, Anika Hobbs of social impact-focused retailer Nubian Hueman and Kimberly Moore of carpooling service Go Together.

Black Girl Ventures and 1863 Ventures helped select a total of nine companies for this program, which counts Capital One and Amazon Web Services as partners and Deloitte, Bracewell and Lyft as supporters, according to Halcyon. The new offering consists of mentorship, networking and coaching in areas like pitching and branding, similar to Halcyon’s flagship incubator program.

That incubator, now welcoming its 12th cohort, continues to roll along. Eight startup founders are scheduled to start Feb. 13 — and this time around, there’s a noticeable health care trend, according to Goodall. That’s partially fueled by Halcyon’s partnership with Healthworx, the corporate investment arm of Owings Mills, Maryland-based CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

Among those companies are WearWorks, a haptic device that uses wearable navigation for visually impaired users, to guide a blind runner through a marathon, for instance; Rose, a mental health platform used for early detection of depression and mood disorders; and Win-Win Homesharing, which provides young adults reduced rent in exchange for companionship for the homeowner, “which you may not think of initially as a health venture,” Goodall said. But “given the real economic health costs of isolation and loneliness, how real they are, this is actually something that’s of great interest to Healthworx as our partner and, certainly, to us,” she said.

The cohort also has a focus on incarceration, with both FreeCap, an investment firm setting out to reform the criminal justice system; and Flikshop, the “Instagram for prison” and an alum of Grammy-winning artist John Legend’s accelerator. The rest range from civic engagement to culinary arts and skills training.

Since the Halcyon incubator started in 2014, its alumni have raised more than $100 million in investments and created more than 1,000 jobs, per Halcyon’s count.

Beyond the incubator, Halcyon continues to act as a think tank of sorts, rolling out a set of guidelines for companies developing technologies as a “turnkey way for the private sector to actually behave a little smarter,” said Josh Mandell, Halcyon’s chief operating officer. The report, released Tuesday at the State of the Net conference, is the product of the latest Halcyon Dialogue, which each year chooses on a topic and taps experts to weigh in.

Halcyon is also building an angel investor group, raising a $6 million fund to invest in its fellows and their startups, and preparing for its annual By the People festival this summer.