South of England’s Top Tech Talent Seek Charity Challenges for Free Hack Day

Studio Republic, one of only a few sustainable creative agencies in the UK, is hosting its annual charity hack day on Friday 17th May to support Mental Health Awareness Week. ‘Hack for Good’ will bring together the South of England’s top tech agency talent to form five teams. In just one day, these teams will create digital solutions in response to five charity briefs completely free of charge. One team has already been allocated a brief so four more lucky charities can benefit from this free tech expertise.

£100,000 of agency resource donated to charities
Hack for Good offers charities over £100,000 of digital agency resource completely free of charge. Agencies involved in the initiative include; Etch, Rareloop, The Idea Bureau, Steadfast alongside Studio Republic. The tech solutions created during the day will be used as working prototypes or proofs of concept to help the charities involved seek funding for further investment.

Why is this hack day dedicated to charities?
Hack for Good is born out of the need to address the ever widening digital skills gap within charities. A recent report revealed that 75% of the charities surveyed had very little access to digitally skilled people.

The hack hunt for five students
To support the agency teams, Studio Republic is also looking for students from local universities. The five winning students will join the agency teams and work alongside some of the brightest minds in the UK’s tech industry for the day.

How does Hack for Good work?

  • Five charities will submit brief for which they require a digital solution.
  • As event supports Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re looking for charities to submit briefs which relate to this year’s campaign theme: body image.
  • Fixers, a nationwide youth empowerment charity, are the first to sign up and provide us with a brief to tackle on the day.
  • Studio Republic is offering four more charities of any size the opportunity to submit briefs.
  • These must be related to body image and the relationship with the body.
  • If the issue can be resolved by a digital solution, it will be considered by a hack day team.

As it is a charity focused hack day, all the technology created will be released as Open Source projects, so any charity or similar organisation can benefit. Charities may also submit their issues to Studio Republic with no fee.

Chris Todhunter, Founder and Director at Studio Republic said; “The greatest thing about Hack for Good is that it brings agencies together who would usually compete against each other. That’s something you don’t see very often in our industry, and it’s all for the greater good!”

Over the next few weeks Studio Republic will be announcing more charities and sponsors that will be involved in the day.

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