Challenge: Q & A with Michel Gelobter

As we close out the year and our Community Giving Challenge, we reflect on our goals for 2019, our impact on the community, and the challenges we face.​ We sat down with our Executive Director, Michel Gelobter, to talk about Hack the Hood and the Challenge. Here's what he had to say..

1. Why is the campaign important to Hack the Hood?
In 2019, more than ever, Hack the Hood is stretching to do more with our youth. We are lengthening the Bootcamp by 50% and, particularly for the first cohort, we want to be sure we have the resources to make it a great experience and to build scalable ways to do it over and over again.

 Equally important, Hack the Hood is of the community, by the community, for the community, and that community extends far beyond the youth, our staff, and Oakland. HtH is about the Bay Area and the tech industry more broadly. It’s about whether we can build a tech industry that works for all. This campaign is a concrete way our community shows up for each other...a measure of coming together that also provides vital support for our new initiatives.

2. What Challenges does the organization face that more financial support could help with?

• Getting the resources we need to take our youth further into the beginning of their careers...deeper training, more mentoring and coaching, better relationships with prospective employers.
• Scaling our offerings...we have a model that works and that is in demand all over the country and the world.  As we leave our 5th year, our challenge is to meet that demand in scalable and sustainable ways. We need investment now to build a model that works in the future.

3. This campaign is called the Hack the Hood Community Giving Challenge.  What does the term “Challenge” mean to you?
A challenge to me at Hack the Hood is the thing we’re trying to get done - to make a tech industry that works for all. It’s a community challenge because we can’t meet it without everyone at the table.

4. What would it mean for Hack the Hood if we met our goal?
It would specifically mean we could fund an EXCELLENT extra 3 weeks of our spring Bootcamp. More generally it would mean that all the great people we interact with had shown up for us, which means we can find even more of us to make even bigger change.

5. If you had a room full of people in front of you, what challenge would you put to them?
Are you lucky enough to be able to join one of the great challenges of our time?  Is there anyone today who can afford to not be in the debate about the future of work, about how to make jobs that are modern, technology-based, life-affirming AND about how get people to their fullest potential?

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