CoderDojo, Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Technology is changing the world we live in, according to recent research, digital skills are essential for ⅔ of occupations in the UK. Yet, many young people are growing up without the opportunities to learn how to create with technology.  This affects their job prospects, limits the economic potential of their communities, denies them the tools to solve problems that affect them, and consigns them to being consumers,not active creators.

Through participation in free, accessible, volunteer led CoderDojos, young people learn much more than programming skills: they learn computational thinking, logical reasoning, problem-solving, communication skills, patience, and resilience. These 21st century skills are essential for future employment and entrepreneurship. CoderDojo provides an inclusive and encouraging environment that makes people aware of the possibilities that digital skills can open up. It provides the space and resources to develop those skills and enhance the technical literacy of the young people that attend.

Research tells us that 71% of all new jobs in STEM are in computing, yet, only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science. Despite this computer science is unavailable in over 50% of US and UK high schools. This problem is exemplified in lower socioeconomic or rural areas where access to available resources and opportunities exacerbate the gap. 

CoderDojo is a global, open-source movement of free programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17. CoderDojo exists to create opportunities for young people to learn the skills required to be active participants in today's increasingly digital world. Through the CoderDojo model, young people are exposed to computing at regular intervals in a fun, friendly and social environment. They are encouraged to solve problems and work on projects that are meaningful to them. We know programming is everywhere and fundamental to the understanding of a hyper-connected world, yet, it is estimated that there will be  900,000 unfilled ICT jobs in the US by the end of 2020. The majority of jobs today require a familiarity with technology, yet, 45% of employers are experiencing a shortfall which has huge implications on the economy overall.  

CoderDojo reaches more than 50,000 young people globally on a monthly basis, with 2138 Dojos spanning112 counties and represents one of the largest sustained, global efforts to help  young people learn computing and digital making. Assessing impact is a huge part of our work and allows us to continue to nurture a resilient global community and ensure we provide the resources and support required in changing times. This is a combination of understanding how individuals participate and learn, how to support the volunteer community and maintaining an up to date awareness on the digital workforce changes and expectations. To measure this, we carry out extensive research and ensure close ties to our Dojos. Some statistics pulled from ur Annual review 2018 show; 

79 % of participants are better at solving problems with computers 

87% of participants are more interested in programming and computers 

90% of participants are more confident in computer skills

Without exposing young people repetitively to the power of computing, while it's fun and relevant to them, we will never solve the Global skills gap or work towards having a digitally educated and empowered workforce.

CoderDojo exists as a global  movement of free programming clubs for young people aged 7 to 17, centred on creating opportunities for young people to learn the skills required to be active participants in today's increasingly digital world. CoderDojo operates a highly scalable and agile open-source model, allowing anyone, anywhere in the world, including those most marginalized, to start a Dojo by adopting the core principles as laid out in the charter. 

CoderDojo as a movement grows through word of mouth and through specific growth interventions by our team. Growth interventions include recruiting local or national non-profit partners, training volunteers or matching volunteers with local venues. 

The central CoderDojo team supports all dojo applications remotely from the begining of a new club journey. Clubs are invited to join Zen the CoderDojo central platform which is  used to facilitate running, organizing and sharing clubs. 

From the beginning of a new club journey we provide support and guidance including online training, hundreds of free projects in over 28 languages, guides on various topic areas including diversity and inclusion or just the basics of starting a Dojo. Dojo volunteers are supported by an extensive online community and have access to multi-channel platforms through which they can  engage, share news, projects, events, resources and stories. 

Our primary digital platforms are custom built for our community. These include; 

• our online community platform which allows Dojos to initially get set up and where they can set up their Dojo events, get parents and kids to book in, and manage communication with their members.

• Our online projects site which hosts hundreds of learning resources across an array of topics both hardware software including Python, Javascript, Raspberry Pi and electronics.  Resources are created covering a range of ability levels from beginner right up to advanced.

CoderDojo is unique: it enables and empowers young people to truly become creators, innovators, and changemakers using technology. Through the movement, tens of thousands of young people are learning the skills they need to succeed in today's increasingly digital and connected world. Dojos are inclusive environments where all young people are given an equal opportunity to learn and develop skills. There is a strong focus on encouraging girls to join Dojos in order to positively address the STEM gender imbalance CoderDojo is on a remarkable journey: within just 8 years, the movement has grown from 1 to active clubs in Ireland to an international movement with more than 200 clubs located in more than 110 countries. The founding model of CoderDojo is unique, choosing to model itself on an open source system has allowed this rapid scale. By creating a small but global Foundation to support the movement through resources and support strategies, we have been able to achieve scale without compromising quality.

We make people aware of the possibilities that digital skills can open up, and of where and how to develop those skills. We show people that computing and digital making are topics that anyone can learn, even if it is hard sometimes. To support this, we provide examples that computing and digital making are relevant and fun, so that people are encouraged to learn more, and feel empowered to do so. 

We provide opportunities to help people develop the knowledge and skills they need to participate in computing and digital making. From the start, it is important for people to take an active approach to learning, solve problems, and create something tangible, so that they understand the nature of computing and digital making and the sense of achievement they can give.

More people gaining introductory skills leads to a greater understanding of the power of computing and digital making and the problems they can solve. These skills can be gained through informal learning, through learning in communities, or through formal education. Our activities provide structured opportunities for informal learning, they support communities to grow and help others learn, and they help teachers to provide formal education in computing and digital making in engaging and effective ways

https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/Raspberry-Pi-Foundation-Theory-of-Change.pdf

While growth continues to be a key aim for CoderDojo, nurturing a resilient global community that sustains clubs over many years is also a primary focus of our work. In 2020 we will do this by:

• Increasing the number of verified CoderDojos by 20% in 2020, with a focus on non-school venues, and improving retention to 85%. 

• We ended 2019 with 2,121 clubs globally,  serving 55,804 young people and we aim for a target of 67,072 young people  by 2021 and 115,901 young people by 2025

Our ultimate goal is for more people to have better lives and a positive impact on society because they have learned how to make things with technology.  We want every young person to have the opportunity to be able to learn coding and digital making so that they can create solutions to problems in their communities and shape their world, wherever they live.

Our three year strategy (2020-2023) determines our long term ambitions. In this we set the long term goal to engage millions of young people in learning computing and digital making skills through a thriving network of clubs and events, and partnerships with youth organisations.

Specifically, over the next twelve months we aim too; 

• Increase the number of verified CoderDojos by 20%, with a focus on non-school venues and improving retention to 85%. 

• Develop a clear strategy for measuring and increasing the proportion of traditionally underrepresented groups in our networks of computing clubs.

• Better support  CoderDojo volunteers to deliver learning outcomes for young people through high-quality training, club platforms, learning resources, online communities, and recognition of achievement.

• Improve the projects and learning content for non-formal learning, specifically: 

Review existing content and update to embed effective pedagogy.

Create new content on AI, machine learning and data science. 

Create new content on real world problem solving, particularly linked to environmental and sustainability issues.

Introduce an informal accreditation system

Our top challenges are; Regional sustainability of clubs, Volunteer retention and Impact measurement. 

1. Volunteer Retention: Globally CoderDojo is reliant on volunteers. Individual circumstances can change resulting in volunteers no longer being able to commit to running clubs. 

2. Impact Measurement: Ensuring we have the maximum impact through all our programmes is a fundamental value of ours. We regularly monitor and evaluate our programmes to ensure that the things we do are the right things and are delivered in the most effective ways. 

3. Financial sustainability: Ensuring a diverse and broad range of income streams to sustain the Foundation and achieve our goals. 

4. Regional Sustainability: We know that regional clusters of clubs are more sustainable as they can tap into local support networks. We’ve seen this in core markets where we have higher density of clubs and higher levels of retention

Volunteer Retention. We are addressing this through developing a deeper volunteer engagement strategy. This includes focusing on developing support for clubs to be aware of succession planning, developing reward and recognition methods for volunteers. 

Impact Measurement.  We will conduct original research into how young people learn about computing and digital making, including running trials and experiments. Pilot an intervention to measure and increase the proportion of underrepresented groups in the USA participating in our coding clubs, working with new partner organisation/s. The purpose of piloting an intervention is both to establish a baseline measure for the USA and to gauge how we increase reach into underrepresented groups with appropriate interventions.

Financial Sustainability.  As part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation we have a diverse set of income including as a social enterprise through the profits derived from sales of our computer.. However with additional investment we can continue to add growth interventions which diversify's the background of the young people attending CoderDojo. With sustained financial support we can also build deeper and more impact engagement with our community to ensure more Dojos stay running for longer.

Regional sustainability. To address this our growth strategy and partner strategy anchored toward building more clusters in areas where we already have strong community leaders, ultimately creating more resilience. We are identifying and on-boarding local partners in areas where we have a growing presence of clubs to amplify and accelerate building clusters. 

In North America, the number of active CoderDojos is currently 260 an increase of 78% in the last 12 months. 

We now have a North America based office in Oakland, California. 

n/a

11

The CoderDojo team of program managers and program coordinators are located throughout Ireland and the UK. In addition to working face-to-face with volunteers and young people, the team has extensive experience in supporting volunteers and partners remotely through webinars, online learning, and social media. 

The work of each of these teams is overseen by Rosa Langhammer, as Head of CoderDojo, Rosa leads her team to scale and support the global network Dojo clubs. As part of her work at CoderDojo, she has established the Coolest Projects events as world-leading youth tech showcases of digital making, taking place annually in Ireland, North America, and the United Kingdom. Prior to joining CoderDojo, Rosa was Head of Operations in a software start-up and volunteered with numerous social enterprises. She holds a BA in Business and Economics, a Postgraduate Certificate in 21st Century teaching and learning, and qualifications in accounting and finance. 

Rosa and the team are supported by the Senior Leadership team of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and more more widely by our central teams who provide technology platforms, online learning content, and head office functions.

For a list of our current supporters and sponsors, please take a look at the following: https://coderdojo.com/supporters/

We work closely with each of our partners to agree KPIs and metrics for the funding term. This agreement will also include cadence and detail of the reporting to ensure we are on track. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation believes it is important that we share our research and get feedback on our findings. We believes that its important that we share our research and get feedback on our findings. We publish all of our research on the RPF website.

We share the outcomes of our research with our community of volunteers to help them in their practice, and disseminate our findings more broadly in the academic field of computing education, with the aim of establishing the Raspberry Pi Foundation as a leading center of research into how people learn computing.

We publish the impact of our work in our quarterly reports and annual reviews along with our accounts on the CoderDojo and Raspberry Pi websites. We also publish best practice guides such as our Girls Initiative report.

We support Dojos around the world; sustain and support CoderDojo’s growth; and source new champions, mentors, and partners. We also facilitate communication and collaboration across the movement and ensure that all community members have the tools & content needed to start and run Dojos. Finally, we help to develop a consistent, rich, fun and cool learning environment at Dojos.

We operate a mixed funding model with a donation received from the profits generated by our wholly owned trading subsidiary, Raspberry Pi Trading Limited (RPTL).

We plan to raise any further funds necessary  from global corporations in technology-related fields, in particular those with an interest in the regions we will be able to reach as a result of growth with this project. 

Our funding history has demonstrated that we have a strong track record in raising funds from a variety of sources including corporations, foundations, and individuals. Many of our funding partners choose to renew their support and sustain their partnership for several years. In addition, our partnerships and fundraising team will work to identify new funding sources to enable our clubs program to sustain and grow its reach. As stated above, the Raspberry Pi Foundation contributes if needed from our unrestricted funds and donations including Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd. 

Being a part of MIT Solve’s community is the most important reason for us to apply. We have achieved success because we choose to learn from other people and to share the challenges we face; we are open to different approaches to this problem. We are keen to match with potential donors and partners who share our values and our ambitions - to equip young people for the jobs of the future, and to enable them to understand and shape their digital world and solve the problems that matter to them, both as makers and entrepreneurs.

n/a

Our goal is to increase income from donations and grants to equal 50% of our expenditure by 2020 and to have three times our expenditure in reserves from our commercial activities.