SkillArea Hackathon: Empowering Youth, Building Community

We are proposing a hackathon that will bring together 20 students, recent graduates, and early-career developers from Calgary to collaboratively build a free, AI-enabled, digital freelance platform (SkillArea) that helps Alberta’s immigrant, newcomer, and racialized youth access fair work opportunities. This grant will fully fund a 5-day hackathon hosted with support from Platform Calgary. It will cover event space, development costs, student prizes and mentor honorariums: 

• Recruitment (Jan–Feb 2026): Partner with Platform Calgary and YYC Dev Meetup Group to attract 20 student and recent graduate developers.
  
  

• Event Delivery (Mar 2026, March Break): 5-day hackathon at Home Tuition Canada event space, with food, materials, and professional mentorship provided.
  
  

• Follow-Up (Mar–Apr 2026): SkillArea integrates the developed features and promotes participant contributions to the platform.

The hackathon addresses two key challenges in our community:

1. Youth employment barriers: many students and graduates struggle to gain experience that employers recognize, leaving them unable to enter the competitive job market.

2. Underemployment of marginalized groups: At the same time, many newcomers and racialized professionals often face systemic barriers to entering the workforce.

SkillArea tackles both problems: participants will be professionally coached by SoftMindSol, an IT development company, providing them with valuable hands-on learning and portfolio experience as they help build a tool that serves their own communities. They will contribute to building a real-world solution that:

• Expands access to freelance gig work and long-term remote work opportunities posted by businesses.

• Creates portfolio-building experience for young developers in Alberta.

• Improves digital inclusion for underrepresented communities.

This community hackathon creates a pay-it-forward impact: young Alberta developers grow their skills and networks, while their work directly empowers freelancers, particularly, immigrant, newcomer, and racialized youth across Alberta with access to fair work opportunities. 

The SkillArea Hackathon event has two main beneficiaries:

1) Students, recent graduates, and early-career developers in Calgary:

Students, recent graduates, and early-career developers in Calgary will benefit first. Many of them lack real-world opportunities to apply their skills, build portfolios, and gain experience that employers value. The SkillArea Hackathon will give them direct access to mentorship from SoftMindSol IT experts and hands-on work on a live platform. They will write code and test the platform's features. By the end of the event, participants will walk away with a concrete project in their portfolio, stronger networks, and  hands-on experience that will help them compete in Alberta’s digital workforce. Their contribution will be highlighted on the SkillArea website. 

2) Immigrant, newcomer, and racialized youth across Alberta:

Immigrant, newcomer, and racialized youth will benefit next. These communities face systemic barriers when looking for work, accessing networks, and gaining fair entry into Alberta’s workforce. The SkillArea platform is a free digital freelance tool that will allow marginalized workers to showcase their skills, education and work experience, and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to match them to suitable job opportunities. 

Together, both groups create a "Pay it Forward" impact. Developers gain work experience while building tools that break down barriers for their peers. Immigrant, newcomer, and racialized youth gain an inclusive platform that helps them access work opportunities. 

3) Broader community impact:

We will actively engage local news media to cover the hackathon and highlight student talent, showcase SkillArea’s social impact, and bring more visibility to both the event and the Field Law Community Fund’s role in enabling it.

Once SkillArea launches, employers and Alberta’s innovation ecosystem will also benefit from a diverse pipeline of skilled talent, ready to contribute to the province’s economic future.