The Social Hackademy project fosters digital skills and competencies of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds by implementing collaborative educational activities based on the Social Hackademy co-creation methodology. The methodology positions young people in the centre of the co-creation process aimed at developing digital solutions for societal challenges. The methodology is implemented through Social Hackademy Labs. They are grass root laboratories that feature two types of activities: (1) Training courses on digital skills for young people and (2) Social Hackathons. After young people acquire new or upgrade existing digital skills, they are teamed up with experts from civil society organisations to develop digital solutions for identified social problems at the hackathons.

The Social Hackademy Award celebrates young peoples’ contributions to solving social challenges around Europe with digital solutions. Four national Social Hackathon winners from Croatia, France, Greece and Italy competed in the 2021 edition of the competition. They presented their solutions at the Social Hackademy International Conference that took place on 15 October 2021 during ALL DIGITAL Summit 2021.

Each of  the winners solutions showcased how digital technology, through participant collaboration, can be harnessed to address a plethora of social challenges that are often rooted in the local environment –  ranging from mental health, to social exclusion, and environmental degradation. A full overview of each of the winners solutions can be found here.