Hack the Hood Recap- Here's what we've accomplished so far!

Greetings, Hack The Hood Community! 
The Hack The Hood team has been hard at work behind the scenes gearing up to kick off our Summer 2014 sprint and laying the groundwork for expanding the program to a year-round after-school program to serve an additional 60-80 youth each year.  We wanted to take a breathe to update you on what we’ve accomplished so far, what our plans are, and what you can do if you’d like to help!

Highlights from the 6-week 2013 summer program: 
18 youth graduated from the program after attending over 45 hours of training, over 7 hours of guest speakers and career-exploration field trips, and producing a total of 60 new websites, SEO, and online directory listings for 70 local small businesses through their consulting projects.  

Each youth walked away with an online portfolio they could use during their internship and job searches or college application. Three youth, who had no previous plans to pursue higher education, applied and enrolled in community college, at the urging of and with support from our staff. At least one of the youth decided to take a coding class. Several of the youth expressed a new desire to further pursue STEM career exploration.  

We took students to 5 different companies (Pandora, Facebook, Ask.com, Sparkart, & Impact Hub Oakland) where they met people of color in professional roles and had extremely positive experiences. We were unanimously invited back next year. The hosts at Pandora said HTH youth were the best group of students they had seen all year. 

We built a great network of corporate and individual professional supporters who helped us as guest speakers, mentors, volunteers, field trip hosts, donors, and sites for potential internships after program completion.  Click here to learn more about how you can support Hack the Hood as a volunteer.

Hack the Hood highlighted at #OakYouthTech
Back in October, Hack the Hood's Director and Oakland Local Editor Susan Mernit moderated a fantastic panel of leaders in Oakland's Youth Tech scene: Black Girls CODE, Hack the Hood, and The Hidden Genius Project.  All three groups work with local youth of color to teach them tech and workplace skills that can leap to college enrollment, internships, and good jobs, as well as and build apps that will change the world for the better.  Attended by over 75 audience members, the event was a big success and raised important issues that face community organizations working to train low-income youth of color so they can participate in tech economy.  The event was co-hosted by the Kapor Center for Social Innovation, Oakland Local, Impact HUB Oakland.  

In The Press
The Hack the Hood program generated a lot of excitement! We were singled out as an innovative program by the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Van Jones’s #YesWeCode initiative. Our program was written up in Ebony Magazine, Nationswell, Slate.com, the blog of USC Annenberg School of Journalism, and in ‘Journalism that Matters’. 

We were in the New York Times! Kelly Kahn, economic and workforce development director for the City of Oakland, was quoted in the New York Times touting the City of Oakland’s support for Hack the Hood as part of their efforts to increase high-tech training and education programs as a way to ensure that Oakland residents have access to whatever benefits come from the growth of the Tech Sector here.

Get Involved!
We're Hiring!
Our 2014 summer program runs July 8-August 16. 
 We are recruiting for the following paid positions:

• Program Manager
• Lead Instructor
• Associate Instructor

See full job descriptions here:  http://www.hackthehood.org/job-openings.html

We want to work with your company/organization: 

• Do you work for a tech company located in the Bay Area?
• Are you a small business that needs a mobile-responsive website?
• Are you a youth-serving organization that wants to refer a youth who's interested in tech and web marking, or just plain loves social media?

If any of the above apply to you, or if this sounds like someone you know, we'd like to include you/them in our summer program. If interested, please contactamyruben@oaklandlocal.com.

Volunteer Opportunities:
Here's some volunteer roles we're recruiting for right now.  

• Mentor
• Fundraising
• Ambassador
• Field trips
• Curriculum Development

Click here to learn more or please contact amyruben@oaklandlocal.com.

Wish List:
We want our youth to have access to the best technology.  If you prefer to donate things instead of money, then here are some of the items that we'll need this summer to run our program:
Chromebooks
Computers
Tablets
digital cameras

Contact our Development Director at mary@oaklandlocal.com for more information on how to make a tax deductible in-kind donation.