Techfugees Sydney Hackathon 2017

#HACK4REFUGEES: HACKERS, HUSTLERS, HIPSTERS AND HUMANITARIANS BUILDING SOLUTIONS WITH REFUGEES IN FAIRFIELD

GET INSPIRED: JOIN A GLOBAL COMMUNITY MAKING A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN REFUGEES’ LIVES AND HAVE A TON OF FUN DOING IT

Techfugees was founded in 2015 to bring the tech start-up and NGO communities together with refugees settling into a new life in Australia. Our community of 'Hackers, Hipsters, Hustlers and Humanitarians' has grown to many Hackathons and meetups in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. At our events, businesses have been founded, skills learned and friendships made. The model developed in Australia to ‘co-design’ solutions with refugees is now used in the growing global Techfugees movement.

If you’ve never been to a Techfugees event, you’re in for an extraordinary weekend working alongside some of Australia’s most talented and committed tech stars, mentors, designers, business leaders and community people together with newly arrived and settled refugees.

We come together with one objective: to build a community of like-minded people who roll up their sleeves and develop solutions to the challenges faced by refugees when they come to Australia.

Techfugees is now a huge global movement with 15,000 members and dozens of chapters around the world. In Australia, many of the solutions developed at our events are now operating as tech start-ups or social ventures in their own right. This means our weekend events have a lasting positive impact.

And you can be part of it!

FAIRFIELD HACK

Our next Hackathon will be held at the end of October in Fairfield, one of the most multicultural cities in Australia; more than half the residents were born overseas and over 70 per cent speak a language other than English at home.

The presence of culturally and linguistically diverse communities, coupled with the strength of existing local services, continues to draw migrant and refugee communities to the city.

This will be the third hack in Sydney and we will bring together developers, designers, entrepreneurs and community members together to develop creative tech solutions. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to a Hackathon everyone is welcome and you’ll have tons of fun while learning new skills and meeting lots of great people.

Hacker Teams will develop tech solutions for the settlement challenges articulated by our partner Settlement Services International (SSI) the largest not-for-profit humanitarian settlement organisation in Australia.

Our key focus will be on the newly arrived Iraqi/Syrian cohort and themes for the Hack are the challenges that impact settlement:

• Employment and under-employment where the job does not match professional skills or overseas qualifications
• Social integration and community connectedness
• Timely access to support
• Negotiating life events
• Cultural adaptation
• Transitioning to different labour market, education system
• Financial security
• Rental stress and securing long-term accommodation close to work/family

Refugees who have already settled in Australia will participate in the event to help teams deeply understand problems and challenges faced by new arrivals. Those who participated in our first events know that hearing from and working alongside refugees was an absolute highlight of our previous Hackathons.

Leaders from the Tech Community will mentor teams through the weekend. On Sunday afternoon, teams will pitch their solutions to a Judging Panel of Tech and Community Leaders.

There is no cost to participate and wonderful food and snacks will be available all weekend.

Come make a difference, have some fun, learn a lot and help to welcome refugees to the Australian community.

PRIZES, SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS - Please contact us if you'd like to contribute a prize or sponsor the Hack!

Prizes-to be announced!

As we are planning to award sensational prizes including a significant cash prize that help teams complete and launch their solutions/ Stay tuned for more info on prizes!

Sponsors and Supporters

• Settlement Services Australia
• Grok Ventures
• Devpost
• Fishburners
• Chief Disrupter
• Spark Festival
• Fairfield Youth and Community Centre

HACKATHON PROGRAM

DATES

Saturday to Sunday 28-29 October, 9 to 6pm both days. Pitches Sunday Afternoon from around 4pm

VENUE

Fairfield Youth and Community Centre,
55 Vine St, Fairfield 2165

CONNECT WITH US!

Twitter: @TechfugeesAust1 #hack4refugees

Facebook: facebook.com/techfugeesaustralia

Web: Techfugees.com (for the global movement)

For questions about the event including media enquiries please email Nicole Williamson at techfugeesaustralia@gmail.com.

We are also looking for sponsors to cover provide in-kind support for the event.

Annie, Anne-Marie and Nicole