Techfugees Sydney Hackathon 2017

Techfugees Australia is part of a global movement started in 2015.Techfugees is a social enterprise co-ordinating the international tech community’s response to the needs of Refugees. Techfugees organises conferences, workshops, hackathons and meetups in around the world in an effort to generate tech solutions that can help refugees.

Techfugees Australia

<H2 CLASS="MsoNormal">#HACK4REFUGEES: HACKERS, HUSTLERS, HIPSTERS AND HUMANITARIANS BUILDING SOLUTIONS WITH REFUGEES IN FAIRFIELD</H2>
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!
<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal">FAIRFIELD HACK</H3>
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 partners Settlement Services International (SSI) the largest not-for-profit humanitarian settlement organisation in Australia and STARTTS, a specialist service for the treatment and rehabiliatation of tortune and trauma survivors.
Our key focus will be on the newly arrived Iraqi/Syrian cohort and themes for the Hack are the challenges that impact settlement.
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.
Key Themes: 
SSI and STARTTS have jointly developed themes for this co-design hackathon.
Access to educational opportunities: Post-school transitions & recognition of prior learning 
Young Refugees often arrive with interrupted tertiary education due to outbreak of war might have studied for several years yet not gained a qualification. To find a reasonable course structure and a way of entering into a system midstream that is quite different is difficult. Whether for assessing studies completed in another country or for gaining recognition of overseas qualifications there are no effective mechanisms at present to match components of learning and overseas qualifications into an accepted Australian standard. Like anyone else refugees would like to continue studies rather than start all over again. How can we facilitate refugees’ entry to tertiary institutions?
How to cope with the Australian workplace, university/TAFE or school
Ways of working and studying in Australia are very different from the countries where refugees come from at present. Even little things can feel very odd, even just how to start the day, or what a team meeting is, how to relate to the boss, when to take a break and so on. Data shows that the dropout rate is quite high. How can we improve and support better settling into institutions of any form? How to be job ready?
Transport - Getting around 
Transport systems are complex, although young people may learn the system quickly using websites. But there are so many rules when doing so. We see many refugees getting fines. Also, parents may have fears to let young people take public transport. Safety provisions are not well known. How can we make it easier? 
Social integration and community connectedness 
Refugees like everyone else would like to make friends and meet new people. Yet they do not have the cultural know how of how to meet other young people across many cultures. How for example do you approach someone you would like to meet? What do you say? What are the best places to meet people from another culture or established Australians? How do you bridge the cultural divide? Meeting and interacting with people of diverse backgrounds would help with social connectedness and a feeling of belonging to a new community. It would also help with cultural adaptation. 
Negotiating life events and timely access to support
Refugees grapple with negotiating new situations because everything is new: the way of living, communication in social and formal settings, the way life events are resolved like interaction with police, health system and so on. It would help if there was timely support to talk to someone, to be able to ask someone what they would do. Sometimes answers need to be immediate. 
Access to regular community activities 
Engaging in community activities and local events is one critical aspect that supports integration of newly arrived communities. Newly arrived young people have presented interest in taking part in regular activities around their local areas but too often they don’t know when they are happening. How might we facilitate newly arrived young people’s participation in local activities and events? 
Intrusive thoughts – impacting concentration
Young refugees often suffer from intrusive thoughts associated with their experiences of trauma in their countries of origin which may include exposure to war, persecution, political violence, grief and loss. These intrusive thoughts can be triggered by a variety of different things from a song, video, smell or conversation such thoughts can often lead to a loss of focus and an inability to concentrate. This can impact all areas of life and create barriers to engagement especially at times when young people need to focus e.g. work, school, study. How can we assist young people to ground themselves and refocus on the moment at hand?
They are also thinking about: anger issues, low mood, emotional dysregulation, sleep and eating issues. 
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
<UL>
<LI>Settlement Services Australia</LI>
<LI>STARTTS</LI>
<LI>Grok Ventures</LI>
<LI>Devpost</LI>
<LI>Fishburners</LI>
<LI>Chief Disrupter</LI>
<LI>Spark Festival</LI>
<LI>Fairfield Youth and Community Centre</LI>
</UL>
<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal"> </H3>
HACKATHON PROGRAM
<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal"> </H3>
<H3 CLASS="MsoNormal">DATES</H3>
Saturday to Sunday 28-29 October, 9 to 5pm both days. Pitches Sunday Afternoon from around 3pm.
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.
VENUE
Fairfield Youth and Community Centre, <A TARGET="_blank" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">55 Vine St, Fairfield 2165</A>
CONNECT WITH US!
Twitter: <A HREF="https://twitter.com/techfugeesaust1" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@TechfugeesAust1</A> <A HREF="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23hack4refugees&src=tyah" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">#hack4refugees</A>
Facebook: <A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/techfugeesaustralia/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">facebook.com/techfugeesaustralia</A>
Web: <A HREF="http://techfugees.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Techfugees.com</A> (for the global movement)
For questions about the event including media enquiries please email Nicole Williamson at <A HREF="mailto:techfugeesaustralia@gmail.com" TARGET="_blank" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">techfugeesaustralia@gmail.com</A>.
We are also looking for sponsors to cover provide in-kind support for the event.
Annie, Anne-Marie and Nicole

Techfugees Sydney Hackathon 2017

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Techfugees Sydney Hackathon 2017

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