Guest post by Darya Berezhnova It’s hard not to notice the changes occurring in Downtown Kitchener. Whether you’ve lived here long enough to see Kaufman turn from a footwear factory into condominiums, or whether you moved here just in time to witness the LRT construction, there have been dramatic changes taking place in the downtown core for many years. Recently, numerous tech companies have popped up in Downtown Kitchener, some sharing collaborative working spaces, and larger companies getting spaces of their own. At the same time, more people have been moving to the area, trendy coffee shops have appeared, and the streets are no longer empty in the evenings, particularly during public events and festivals. Downtown Kitchener, it seems, is being revitalized. Yet as long as these urban changes have been happening, there have also been ongoing conversations about the social and economic impacts of such changes. Some members of […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: HiveWR news
Announcement: Hive Waterloo Region is taking a break over the summer
Dear friends, We’re writing today to provide some information about Hive Waterloo Region’s plans for the coming summer months. Over the past year we have experienced a great deal of support from the community, for which we thank you! However, at the same time, we have found ourselves unable to fully meet numerous and varied requests for support, due to lack of resources. As a result, we will (mostly) be taking the summer off to explore how we can best make impact in our community. What does this mean? In tangible terms, here is what you can expect over the summer months: We will continue running our kids’ learn-to-code workshops at Kitchener Public Library locations We will host our planned members’ meetups on July 26 and October 25. (We’d love to have your help with this; please email us at hello@hivewr.ca!) Communications will be reduced – we will be checking messages […]
Continue reading
Hive WR Members Working for Equal Access
The April member meetup brought out a passionate group of members and guests who got to learn about the challenges of kids with disabilities using technology, how a program for youth with developmental disabilities is making a difference, the future of digital education and a very personal story about overcoming bias from a white, male programmer. You can view the presentations below, they are all short! Following the Lightning Talks we had a passionate discussion about bias in the tech sector and what we might be able to do about it. There were some amazing ideas, lots of frustrations and yet, hope. We’ll share those ideas soon here on our blog. Meantime, get inspired by these amazing stories! Lyndia Stacey, University of Waterloo The future of education and the tension between digital and analog Dorothy McCabe, KidsAbility The challenges faced by kids with disabilities and an ask for new eye […]
Continue reading
Change The Ratio Waterloo Region 2017 Recap
The second annual Change The Ratio Waterloo Region event was inspiring, sometimes maddening, hilarious, and completely energizing. This recap shares some of the highlights. If you missed it, the video is posted at the bottom of this post, and slides can be viewed on Slideshare. Don’t miss the tweet summary, too. The speaker names link to their bios at the end of the post. The Kitchener Public Library was our co-host again this year in the lovely theatre at the Central branch. CEO Mary Chevreau provided greetings and offered us all FREE library cards! She and Bob Egan, Manager, Community Development, emphasized the library’s commitment outlined in the Strategic Plan to inclusion, access and digital literacy. They also referenced membership in Hive Waterloo Region and partnerships to deliver digital literacy, especially in Studio Central plans. Hive Waterloo Region Executive Director Stephanie Rozek set the stage for the speakers: “I believe we […]
Continue reading
Why Build a Hive? The Case For Digital Literacy Today
Over the last four years, Hive Waterloo Region has been evolving into what it is today, and what we envision for our future: a thriving network of individuals and organizations committed to increasing digital literacy in our community, and supporting diversity and equity in our tech sector. We’ve been able to get this far thanks to the support of hundreds of people, not only here but around the world. I’m so grateful for what we’ve been able to achieve thus far, and our team is looking forward to building on those successes. Why is our work so important? I’d like to share with you some comments from Hani, a student in Cambridge Ontario, about why it matters to her: “[It] teaches girls about coding so maybe, they can become programmers when they get older. They teach you things like how to make a website and if you’re making a website, how […]
Continue reading
Welcome to Hive Waterloo Region
After a successful year as Year of Code Waterloo Region, we are excited to be continuing our mission to increase digital literacy among all our citizens, while promoting inclusivity in our tech sector and equal access to the web and tools for digital transformation. Now that we are recognized by the Mozilla Foundation as a Hive Learning Community, what next? One of the new initiatives we’ll be working on is bringing our diverse community together on digital literacy and equal access issues through Hive membership. Members include other non-profit organizations, municipal partners, and companies with a mission to give back to our community. By creating a bridge between all we aim to magnify the impact and good we can all do together. Watch for more information coming soon. If you’re looking for fun learning activities for you or your kids, you’ll find a new roster of events to join us […]
Continue reading