'Civic Hackers Unite' Campaign Aims To Engage Community To Solve Challenges Facing Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the systematic challenges that major urban cities like Baltimore have been grappling with for decades.
"It is a movement, it is a mindset, we're really trying to shift Baltimore," said Dionne Joyner-Weems, CEO, Audacity Group and Chair of HACK Baltimore
Audacity Group, in coordination with HACK Baltimore, is leading the "Civic Hackers Unite" campaign which focuses on identifying, highlighting and sharing the stories of "Challenge Champions," creating sustainable solutions for Baltimore City residents.
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"Right now, it's really approaching problems with a new level of thinking and insuring that you actually have the people that are affected by the challenge at the table. That way you can actually come at it from a user's perspective, challenge your assumptions and your bias, create empathy," said Joyner-Weems.
The concept can be as simple as picking up trash in your community, to something more wide-scale like local non-profit organization, Dent Education, empowering their students through the design of PPE for frontline workers.
"We launched Made at Dent PPE, which was an extension of our program and got students building face shields at home with a distributed network of volunteers and community members such as HACK Baltimore," said Mickey Wolf, director of programs at Dent Education.
It's all about partnership and collaboration.
"HACK Baltimore is bringing together hackers, designers, developers, people that see problems in the community and want to solve those problems with some sort of tech solution," said Wolf.
Wolf says the team at Dent Education was inspired to make a positive impact in the community by the "Unite Hackers movement." Since mid-April, students with Dent Education have built over 5,000 face shields and have sold over 3,000 face shields.
"By partnering with HACK Baltimore, Audacity group and Fearless, we've really seen a proliferation of tech talent going towards solving a community problem," said Wolf.
Joyner-Weems says it's so important to come together, especially during these unprecedented times.
"I think empathy can definitely be gathered in a COVID type of environment where you now realize that you really are dependent on the people around you. You really do have a stake in complete strangers. So, that's a momentum, that's from social innovation and with HACK Baltimore and with #CivicHackersUnite," said Joyner-Weems.
"There's nothing bolder than the people of Baltimore standing up, saying I'm not going to wait, I'm going to do it because I've been doing it all along," said Joyner-Weems.
To watch the #CivicHackersUnite Conversations with Dionne and Delali Dzirasa with Fearless video kicks-off campaign, click here.
For more information on how you can get involved with #CivicHackersUnite, click here.
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