Affinity Groups

Overview

Being able to connect peer groups through shared life experiences can be instrumental to professional confidence, growth and mentorship. Examples of potential affinity groups are: Veterans in Tech, Women in Tech, Parents in Tech, LGBTQ in Tech, Latinos in Tech, Black in Tech, etc. See Project Board for list of issues related to this initiative.

How?

Provide channels for volunteers to connect with like-minded peers with similar shared experiences/lifestyles.

1. Create a clear intent/purpose around what Affinity Groups in Hack for LA should represent and seek to accomplish.
2. Identify potential groups of interest (focusing on underrepresented populations):

• Black in Tech
• Latinos in Tech
• Veterans in Tech
• Women in Tech
• Parents in Tech
• LGBTQ in Tech

3. Create a Draft for Google Form Questions for feedback before finalizing outreach. This will seek to gauge overall organization interest.
4. Create necessary Slack Groups and publicize (We probably don't need to create Communities of Practice for these, but rather just them exist as Slack support channels?)

Purpose

To empower all volunteers with value by promoting an environment for inclusiveness.

Use/Application

Volunteers will be presented with the option to join various Slack groups in order to talk through certain issues, experiences, barriers, etc with others with similar backgrounds. Sometimes the best advice can come from someone who has walked in your shoes.

Lift

Survey the HfLA network to gauge interest in Affinity Groups and gather feedback on the ones that might have the most success/use. Create forums for the selected groups to spark interaction and support. Progress for this effort will be tracked in this Milestone (Reference Issue #73).

Pending Tasks

• Add/assign team champion or PM