Federation Awarded Prestigious Grant for “Community Hackathon”

Jewish Federation has been selected as one of only three organizations in North America to host a “community hackathon” as part of a new initiative by the PresenTense Group and the Covenant Foundation, who have provided a grant to facilitate the program and to fund the ideas generated through it. The intended result is a more connected community whose members design the programs and services they wish to see.

Hackathons, which originated in the technology industry, are high energy events where a group of people collaborate to solve a problem. Our hackathon will foster collaboration in a creative, experimental environment. Participants won’t just talk about innovative solutions to challenges in our Jewish community; they will build them in cross-functional teams that represent a variety of perspectives.

Intended to engage young Jewish leaders, the hackathon will be led by our young adult group, Axis. Engaging the next generation is a key element of our 2020 Strategic Priorities and we are committed to creating opportunities, like hackathon, that are platforms for the involvement and leadership of young Jewish adults.

The first phase of the project took place on Sunday, when a core group of Jewish young adults convened for a pre-hackathon workshop focused on improving the Jewish experience for young adults and young parents.

They honed in on how key challenges are impacting these segments of our community and worked together to generate creative solutions. Workshop participants, which included a diverse cross-section of young Jewish leaders and representatives from Jewish community organizations, identified themes that are common to their experiences, including the social, financial and logistical barriers to accessing formal community programs, and the need to develop new inclusive and informal opportunities for Jewish connection. These issues will be distilled down to a single question that will be “hacked” at the community hackathon this spring.

The hackathon, which is open to all community members, is a one-day event where this broader group will generate, prototype, and pitch solutions to this question. The top three ideas will receive start-up funding from Covenant Foundation and mentorship from PresenTense to support their implementation.

More information about how to participate will be available soon. Please contact Dana Troster to get involved at dtroster@jewishvancouver.com Be the first to receive updates by following Axis on Facebook or sign up to receive the Axis newsletter.