International Volunteer Day is an opportunity to recognise those around us who strive to make a difference. Celebrating the people in our local communities who volunteer their time to make our world a better place.
At DiUS, I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by these people on a daily basis – not only are they super smart, but they are passionate about giving back to the communities in which we live and work. Volunteering for an array of causes and organisations, they put their technical, and non-technical skills to good use at every opportunity they get.
Helping non-for-profit organisations innovate at hackathons, teaching primary school kids the basics of computer programming, encouraging kids in rural communities to study STEM, and sharing what they know at Meetups and community events – these are just some of the ways my colleagues give back to our community.
I also feel privileged to work for a company that gets it. So much so, DiUS has made Moving Humanity Forward one of its values. Leanne Downer, our General Manager, tells me that over 60 days (in the last 12 months) have been spent by the team volunteering – this doesn’t account for the hours and days (outside of work) that my colleagues spend helping, hacking and supporting their local communities.
In addition to giving us time to volunteer, DiUS also sponsors hackathons, meetups, code clubs and other events that we are passionate about. Some of our favourite causes to support as a company include; Random Hacks of Kindness, Flying Robot School, Code Club Australia and Code Like a Girl – just to name a few.
Another passion of ours is running design thinking kids hack days for Yr 5 and Yr 6 primary school students. We’ve just run the first of these in collaboration with Zeina Chalich of #aussieED to help students develop creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication; important skills in how to break a problem down into its component pieces to help solve it. And important skills that today’s young Australians are going to need for jobs for the future.
So with today being International Volunteer Day, let’s celebrate and thank those around us for giving back, making the world a better place, and for just in general, being great human beings!
Happy International Volunteer Day 2016 everyone.
#GlobalApplause