Ladies Learning Code (LLC), one of the city's leading organizations devoted to helping women and youth learn how to code, is attempting to crowdfund its latest effort to spread digital literacy.
The group has started an Indiegogo campaign to launch
code:mobile, "Canada's first coding truck". Since launching last week, the crowdfunding campaign has already raised over $20,000. With more than a month to go, Ladies Learning Code is attempting to raise $50,000 to make the initiative a reality.
Should the project get funded, code:mobile will travel across Canada, visiting all 22 cities Ladies Learning Code has expanded to since getting started in Toronto, as well as other communities both large and small. The plan is to stop at local parks, community centres, street festivals, hospitals — basically anywhere the truck can park — and, in the words of Ladies Learning Code, inspire kids to be passionate builders, not just consumers, of technology.
“The code:mobile is our big bold move to inspire the next generation of technologists,” said Laura Plant, the organization's co-executive director. “Since its inception in 2011, Ladies Learning Code has held over 600 workshops and events and reached over 24,000 learners across the country and we keep wanting to push that impact. In May, we announced a goal to teach 200,000 Canadian women and youth to code by 2020 and the code:mobile will help us make a big dent in our goal.”