What we accomplished together!

In response to the "International Day of Charity" , we found creative and innovative ideas to help Umoja Family Services and the YWCA. We applied some basic Design Thinking to solve real social and business challenges. We brainstormed, designed, coded, explored, learned, and had lots of fun. We brought together people with passion for supporting charities. Lastly, we built friendships and personal networks.

About the charities

The YWCA Youth Education Programs aim to help Grade 7 boys and girls transition into high school. They are run by a team of inter-generational volunteers including high school mentors, university facilitators, and "Wisdom Champions" (adults with life experience)

Umoja Newcomers Family Service Centre works to assist refugee families to integrate into Canadian society; and supports initiatives to improve the quality of life of all people living in poverty around the world.

Order of the day

• Presentation from Simon Fraser University's Community Relations & Engagement coordinator, Rachel Nelson.
• Presentation from Simon Fraser University's Design For Donations representative, Eva Li
• Keynote from Kamyar Asadibeiky (CEO of Machool Technologies)
• Background and business challenges by Peggy Chan (YWCA Metro Vancouver), Jamie Kopp (Umoja), and Amos Kambere (Umoja). These challenges were used for the Hackathon.
• Broke out into teams for Design Thinking sessions. We used this time to fully understand the challenge , then worked on ideas for possible solutions. We used all the whiteboards we could find in the room.
• The hacking: From noon onward, we formed smaller teams of five, and started to work on building solutions. At the end of the day, representatives from the charities reviewed solutions provided. Prizes were awarded to the "most immediately usable solution". Solutions developed included an interactive media campaign Infographic, social media strategy to be used to target teens for volunteer activities, a mobile app, a website with easy editing tools, social media integration into a web site. Our goal was to provide useful and working solutions for the charities involved.

Thanks to our sponsors

Simon Fraser University

YMCA

Artragin

Machool Technologies