by | Sep 19, 2021

Uncommon.org Selected as Data For Good Fund Grantee

We are beyond grateful for the team at the Data for Good Fund and UpMetrics for reviewing and accepting our grant application!

Becoming a Data For Good grantee means access to the UpMetrics dashboard free of charge for an entire year, as well as ongoing support from the DFG team.

When we first applied for this opportunity, we were actually in the process of designing a data collection & analysis project internally, so this news couldn’t have been better timed.

As an organization, we get the privilege of seeing the impact of our work every day. We’ve long believed that coding helps students in myriad ways – both in and outside of the classroom, but does the data back it up? 

What about happiness or self-confidence?

It’s hard to describe how cool it is to watch 10 year old kids sprint to our after school class where they get to learn how to build (and play!) computer games, but is there actually a direct correlation between learning these skills and happiness? Over the course of their time with us, we see quiet, shy students become outspoken and vocal, future programmers, but is there a legitimate link between coding and confidence?

Similarly, how does coding impact a child’s overall academic performance? Does joining our after school coding program correlate to better attendance and grades in other subjects? These are some of the questions we can’t wait to explore! Another thing we’re very interested in measuring is the economic impact our program has on both individuals in our Bootcamps, and entire communities where the Hubs are located. 

Through our multi-tiered approach, we are training unemployed young adults for the tech workforce while simultaneously teaching computer coding to kids at every school in the community. Eventually, every child and young adult in the neighborhood will be getting intimate, hands-on and practical coding / technology experience. What type of long-term, economic impact will this have? 

As a Data For Good Grantee, we can’t wait to dig more into these questions and use the tools to better visualize and learn from the data we’ll be collecting. We’re excited to share what we find!