Youth Digital Literacy Program

The Cause

Digital literacy is essential for communication, leisure, and work. However, there are important gaps between digital technology and digital literacy. Younger generations are in increased need to learn coding skills to adapt to the digital world. Our project will address this by offering:

A youth coding program that will expose students to basic coding platforms. We will offer courses for different skill levels. A special focus will be given to invite newcomers and immigrants and special resources will be allocated to provide language support.

Programs will run in the Spring 2022 and Fall 2022 taught by professional instructors. There will be 1 beginner session in the Spring followed by both a beginner and intermediate level program in Fall 2022. A project coordinator will oversee the program and provide administrative support. Volunteers will be recruited and trained to support the instructors. Open-Sourced resources will be produced to support the programs and the larger community.

Our project will improve digital literacy knowledge and coding skills in youth members of the Northern Hills community.

Who Will it Benefit?

There are many beneficiaries of the project

At least 60 youth will benefit directly from the 6 session workshops provided increasing their confidence, independence, and coding skills

2 new jobs for the duration of the project.

20+ volunteers will receive training in working with youth and digital literacy.

Newcomers will benefit from having an accessible program with the resource and support they need to earn alongside their peers.

These programs will have a focus on ensuring they are accessible to newcomers with supports provide while still interacting and learning alongside their peers

Other community members will benefit from the investment in technology purchased for this program as the laptop can continue to be used for additional future programming