Mission: Launch, in collaboration with our sponsors, partners and members of the Rebuilding Re-entry Coalition, invites you to attend the 2nd Rebuilding Re-entry Hackathon - Washington, DC!
This free and open-to-the-public event is designed to be accessible, energetic and innovative. We provide the space and the hospitality (music, food, awesome people, swag gifts) so that we, collectively, can "roll-up our sleeves" and get to work. The entire event is about problem solving and building solutions (on a small scale) together. The tone and spirit of this event is collaborative. We operate in a safe space that believes in "default open" - meaning all solutions and thoughts are for the greater good. Our singular goal is to make prison/jail re-entry more efficient and effective, for us all. Are you a resident, community leader, government official or service provider? Have you served time in prison or jail? Do you have first-hand experience as a family member or friend of someone who has been incarcerated? Do you know how to code - or are you interested in learning and practicing your skills? This is an event for you and everyone like you. Our hackathons are for anyone interested in positively contributing. Re-entry is critically urgent and we are on a mission to create viable tech and non-tech solutions to improve outcomes for those with criminal justice system connections. There will be some best practice and statistics sharing but this gathering is about real action - and getting stuff built. Last year, we hosted the 1st ever social justice hackathon focused exclusively on re-entry - and over 250 people showed up over the course of 3 days. This year we would love to see the ideas sparked by that event and new ones take flight. Register now and join us! * We take a local focus - by working with the practices, programs and policies relevant to the DC region - but if you are traveling to join us, we are sure it can be relevant to your community as well! Event Day 1: Saturday, October 31st @ Impact Hub DC (3rd Floor) We will have a Halloween/harvest themed event. Accommodations will be made for those who need to leave early to trick-or-treat/party it up. 9:30 am - Registration + Light breakfast 10:00 am to 10:30 am - Kick-off + Context setting10:30 am to 11:00 am - Pitches 11:00 to to 6:30 pm - Hack! Hack! Hack! + Lunch & dinner6:30 pm to 7:00 pm - Report back Event Day 2: Sunday, November 1st @ Impact Hub DC (3rd Floor) This is daylight savings day. Translation: you get an extra hour to sleep make up for last night :) 9:30 am - Registration + Light breakfast 10:00 am - Report back 10:30 am to 2:00 pm - Hack! Hack! Hack! + Lunch 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm - Wrap-up + Prototype team formation (in prep for Demo Day April 2016!) Still have more questions? See you below. What is a hackathon? At the basic level a hackathon is an event (lasting more than 1 day), in which a group of people engage in collective computer programming. Our event is a little different. We invite speakers to share their re-entry experiences; and we talk about the importance of tech and non-tech solutions. The aim of our hackathon is to build prototyped solutions that provide the formerly incarcerated fair chances at safely navigating to the core of society. We do this because it is important to engage the public-at-large in this social justice topic. Using tech for social good, driving impact through coalition, and sharing real-life stories that ignite empathy are what our event is all about. Why is this 100% focused on re-entry? Mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, and what could happen if campaigns to "decarcerate America" are successful have become hot topics. We are grateful for this surge in interest, conversation, and true momentum. If you are new to the topic, consider this: 1-in-4 Americans has an arrest or conviction record; Adult Americans unable to vote (due to various felony voting law restrictions) total 5.85 million people; 70% of women and men released are unable to find employment upon release due in large part to social stigmatization and/or competitive hiring markets. Over 700,000 women and men come home annually, with this number expected to increase. It is beneficial for all of us that returning citizens be given a fair chance at becoming self-sufficient, contributing members of society. Ok, but how does this really work? We provide the physical space, the swag (shirts, stickers, buttons type of stuff), internet, meals and music. The program opens with short speeches designed to provide context so that everyone has a baseline knowledge of what the barriers to prison re-entry are in this region. We then move into the pitch portion. Anyone can stand and share a problem they see as well as an opportunity going unnoticed. The pitches are 60 seconds or less and you can pitch as much as you like. This year the Coalition is focused on building solutions in 3 key areas: The right to work;Sequencing service providers; and,Visualizing data. That said, anyone can stand and pitch ideas outside of this. Once pitches are finished, we vote (as a group) by moving our feet. This means teams form based upon the gathering of active participants who are eager to build a particular idea into a prototype. Sometimes there are teams of 1 and at other times there are teams of 15 people working to solve a problem or rising to meet an opportunity. The rest of the day is spent working together on the prototype. Throughout the program, we report back, and ask for help from those present. At the wrap-up, each team reports back to the entire room (sometimes it is a PowerPoint but most times it is a live website). We clap, cheer, and celebrate as we head home for the weekend. The next phase begins. Teams that are committed stick together, and we support them in incubating their ideas for the next 6 months. They come back to present the prototypes after having months to work together, at Demo Day. The projects with viability will be supported in growing to scale. Should I know how to code (or even be good with computers) to attend? Nope. Contributions (such as your lived experience and your outside opinion) are important to teams. That said, we LOVE coders. We find that both expert and newbies are helpful - all programming languages welcome. A familiarity with GitHub may prove useful but there will be folks on hand to help. Do I need to know about the topic to attend? This year our event will take place over the course of 2 days. We encourage everyone to attend the morning session on Saturday because the short speeches will provide context. Hearing first-hand accounts to the barriers will help to inform the work of teams. Can you give me an idea of what teams might work on? Last year, attendees raised nearly 20 well-known barriers to re-entry in the DC region. This wasn't shocking because the reality is re-entering society is multi-faceted. The feedback was that it was helpful to unpack all of the roadblocks a person may face in re-entry but it felt overwhelming because teams didn't know where to start or end in their prototype. To address this, the organizers have decided to focus the event around 3 areas. We welcome new ideas for sure but will endeavor to build real solutions around the right to work (barriers to employment/entrepreneurship), sequencing services (barriers to knowing where to go for help, and when), and data visualization (barriers to understanding the complexities of re-entry. Can I volunteer? Yep! We are always grateful for volunteers to assist in registration, setting out meals/snacks and helping with t-shirt distribution. To volunteer please email: Laurin@Mission-Launch.org. Is it really free? It isn't always easy to rally funding and support, but we keep the event free to ensure all members of the community can attend. If you are able to make a donation, we would love to receive your support. Should your schedule shift and you are unable to attend, please let us know so that we can share your ticket with someone else. Where is Impact Hub? Impact Hub is located in the Penn Quarter section of Washington, DC. The exact address is 419 7th St., NW Washington, DC 20004. The event will take place on the 3rd Floor both days. If you are traveling via Metro, the nearest train station is Archives (on the green line). There are parking lots as well as street parking (sometimes limited) available. Can I wear a costume on Saturday? Of course! If you are comfortable with it, so are we. I'm sure you won't be alone. I am coming from out of town, can you help me? Are you traveling out of town and need suggestions on travel arrangements? Please email Laurin@Mission-Launch.org.