National Volunteers Hackathon 2021 is an annual-national social hackathon organised on International Volunteers Day along with Social Volunteers Awards 2021.

The Social Hackathon is a platform for youth (13 to 25 years) to ideate, design, execute and lead social initiatives that address injustice in their community through compassion, courage and collaborative leadership. Through this 24 hour hackathon, youth will be guided through a 5-stage journey and provided with resources and community support; including training, 3 month mentorship and initial startup funding of $250 to launch a social change project in their community; along with stories that celebrate their social change journey and impact.

National Social Hackathon 2021 is the sixth edition of The Social Hackathon, an initiative of CAPTAINS Social Solution in collaboration with Peace First, Global Incubator of Youth-led Social Change and Good Deeds Day, Global Movement of Doing Good. It is organised by National Service Scheme, Unit 174 & 262 at TKM College of Engineering with the support of The Gulmohar Foundation and Institute of Social Volunteering.

Date: December 4-5, 2021
Venue: [online & offline] Kollam, Kerala

Eligibility & Criteria:
​​- Participants should be a young citizen of India
- Participants should be of age group 13 to 25 years
- Participant can apply individually or as a team of 4
- Participants should be representing their own or team's ideas
- Participant's idea should be addressing a social injustice in the community

>>>  What We Offer:
​​- Access to grant of $250 to put your ideas into action.
- Three month mentorship to develop the social initiative.
- A guided, self-paced learning journey that supports young people to create and launch a social change project, built on 20+ years of successful school-based work and developed in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- Tools and resources developed over Peace First’s 30 years of supporting young people, to build a just and peaceful world, to deepen your learning and support your project planning
- Personalized feedback and mentorship to help your project succeed, including multiple rounds of written feedback and a coaching video call
- Opportunities to gain exposure for your work, including being featured publicly through a public project page, participation in storytelling  campaign  and  networking opportunities with partners and grant communities at Peace First.
- A community of other youth leaders to connect with. Become part of changemakers in your region and around the world.
- Mentorship, skills training, community-building, and leadership development opportunities.
- Access to further funding opportunities and network with our partner organisations.

>>> Know Our Goals:
​​- Incubate ideas, evaluate solutions & act as a support system to enhance the growth and impact of youth-led social initiatives.
- Enhance the capacity, potential and creativity of youth to address social issues and to create sustainable impact in the society.
- Invest in youth by providing tools, resources and skills; and connecting them with like-minded volunteers & organisations and sharing their stories and impact to the world.
- Creating an inclusive sustainable ecosystem for social volunteers and organisations, through practising and promoting initiatives addressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- To develop a Social Incubation Center - a creative space for youth to meet, learn and work together to create and promote social projects that drive sustainable changes in the community.

>>> How We Support
- Identify injustices in the communities.
- Understand systems of power and root causes of injustice.
- Develop compassionate solutions to address injustice.
- Turn the ideas and thoughts into actions through a specific and measurable action plan.
- Access to continuous support and personalized mentorship.

We provide guidelines for the criteria a project must meet, but we trust young people to tell us what the problems in their community are that need urgent solutions, and to work with the community to figure out what these solutions can look like.

​You can join National Volunteers Hackathon 2021 with a project you’ve already created, or use this to create a new project. Either way, you’ll have access to the same tools and support to help make your project a success, and you’ll be required to submit the same information about your project to receive a mini-grant. Whatever stage you’re at in your journey as a social change leader, we’re ready to meet you where you are.

The Social Hackathon is an initiative of Social Solutions India by CAPTAINS Social Solution in collaboration with Peace First, Global Incubator of Youth-led Social Change. Log on to https://www.socialsolutionsindia.in/national-volunteers-hackathon-2021