Birmingham, AL, June 23, 2014—TechBirmingham is pleased to announce the following organizations have been selected to participate in the Birmingham Women in Technology (BWIT) first annual “Connect With Tech” service project: Greater Birmingham Humane Society, the YWCA and Childcare Resources.
The BWIT Connect with Tech project pairs volunteers with specific participating non-profits based on their skill sets and abilities to help the organizations solve their specific technical challenge. Each team includes professional technical women and one high school-age girl participating in her school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program.
Teams consult with their assigned non-profits throughout June and July, then meet for a final work date (August 16th), to finish the work and debrief the organization. Each team and their non-profit will present the results of the project at the Birmingham Women in Technology meeting September 18th.
According to TechBirmingham President Jennifer Skjellum, the BWIT group wanted do a meaningful, hands-on project that would give back to the community. “Working together to scope the project, develop solutions and work collaboratively with the non-profit to solve their technical challenges, participants get the satisfaction of helping their community as well as the opportunity to foster new relationships and mentor others.”
“We have a lot of passionate, community-driven professional women who want to give back in meaningful ways,” says Andrea Walker, Connect with Tech’s project lead. “The teams are putting their skills together to provide a valuable service to our city’s non-profits.”
About Birmingham Women in Technology
Birmingham Women in Technology was founded in 2012 by a group of professional women, business owners and executives. The goal of the group is to bring together women working in technology and IT fields for mentoring, and to create a support network to expand their resources and career advancement opportunities.
About TechBirmingham
TechBirmingham is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership tech association focused on growing the technology ecosystem and the innovation economy in our region. TechBirmingham was originally formed by key leaders in Birmingham in 2002—with the goal to lead, support and coordinate the start-up, attraction, growth, retention and expansion of technology-based businesses, investments and jobs. Today, TechBirmingham is focused on increasing national exposure and recognition of the growing number of local software and technology companies; increasing technical education and training opportunities in our region; and connecting technologists to form a community to improve our region’s competitive advantage—while increasing the number of early-stage start-ups and overall innovation.
