diff --git a/_posts/2025-12-17-main-contacts-who-to-go-to.md b/_posts/2025-12-17-main-contacts-who-to-go-to.md index 37aac84..dcdb7e7 100644 --- a/_posts/2025-12-17-main-contacts-who-to-go-to.md +++ b/_posts/2025-12-17-main-contacts-who-to-go-to.md @@ -15,15 +15,6 @@ Go to Charlene for anything related to the smooth running of your chapter, inclu - Ordering stationery and chapter supplies - Support for coaches (new and existing), including ensuring they have the training and support they need to coach confidently -## Arora Ashani (Community Manager) -Email: arora@codebar.io - -Go to Arora for anything related to community growth and events, including: - -- Running events and workshops -- Support with growing your chapter community -- Increasing and supporting student numbers - ## Kimberley Cook (codebar Director) Email: kimberley@codebar.io diff --git a/_posts/2026-05-29-corporate-giving b/_posts/2026-05-29-corporate-giving new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96af50d --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2026-05-29-corporate-giving @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Corporate Giving" +weight: 90 +--- + + +Codebar is a small charity run by a very small team, we rely on donations from companies to keep going. Whether you’re a coach, organiser or student. We’d appreciate it if you could reach out to your current employer to see if they can financially support us. + +**1\. Finding the Right Person to Ask** +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +Depending on what you are asking for, you will need to approach different decision-makers within your organisation: + +* **To host a workshop (Space & Food):** Speak to your Office Manager, Facilities Manager, or Workplace Experience Lead. + +* **To get your engineering team coaching:** Speak to your Engineering Manager, Tech Lead, or VP of Engineering. + +* **For financial sponsorship, Benevity match-funding, or corporate grants:** Speak to your HR department, People Team, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Lead, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) manager. + + +**2\. Unlocking Corporate Giving Portals (Benevity & Workplace Giving)** +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +If your company uses a CSR platform like **Benevity** or **YourCause**, you can easily unlock financial support for codebar just by logging your normal volunteer hours: + +* **Match Funding:** If you make a personal financial donation to codebar through your company's internal portal, many corporate employers will automatically match it pound-for-pound. + +* **Volunteer Grants ("Pounds for Doers"):** Did you know many tech companies will donate a set amount of money (e.g., £10–£25 per hour) to a charity for every hour an employee volunteers there? **Always log your codebar coaching hours in your company's Benevity portal!** Those 2 hours you spend mentoring on a Wednesday evening can translate into direct financial funding for us from your employer. + + +**3\. The Core Pitch: Why Your Company Should Care** +---------------------------------------------------- + +When pitching to management, frame codebar not just as a charity, but as a strategic benefit to your company's growth: + +* **Grassroots Recruiting:** Hosting a codebar workshop brings 10–40 highly motivated, diverse junior developers directly into your office space. It is an incredible, low-cost pipeline for spotting emerging local talent and filling junior roles. + +* **Developer Skill Growth:** Mentoring forces engineers to explain complex concepts simply. Encourage management to view coaching at codebar as a free, highly effective leadership and communication training exercise for your engineering team. + +* **Actionable DEI:** Supporting codebar is a tangible way for your company to act on its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals by directly supporting underrepresented groups in tech. + + +**4\. Copy-and-Paste Email Templates** +-------------------------------------- + +You are busy, so we have written the internal pitches for you. Copy, tweak, and send these to your teams. + +### **Template 1: Asking HR about Benevity / Matching Gifts** + +**To:** HR Department / CSR Lead / People Team **Subject:** Charitable Match Funding & Volunteer Logging for codebar + +Hi \[Name\], + +I currently volunteer as a technical mentor with codebar (Registered UK Charity No. 1187776), an organisation that helps underrepresented groups break into the tech industry by teaching them how to code. + +I know we use Benevity for our internal corporate giving programmes. Could you let me know if \[Company Name\] offers matching gifts for personal donations made to codebar, or if we offer volunteer grants where the company matches my volunteer coaching hours with a financial donation? + +I would love to ensure my volunteer time is being logged correctly so we can support their mission of diversifying the tech sector. + +Best, \[Your Name\] + +### **Template 2: Pitching Your Manager to Host a Workshop** + +**To:** Office Manager / Engineering Manager **Subject:** Hosting a codebar workshop at \[Company Name\]! + +Hi \[Name\], + +I’ve been volunteering as a coding coach with a charity called codebar, which runs free programming workshops for minority and underrepresented groups in tech. It’s an incredible community, and I think \[Company Name\] would be a perfect fit to host an upcoming event. + +Hosting just requires an accessible space for about \[30-40\] people on a weekday evening, plus a small budget for food (like pizza and dietary alternatives) and soft drinks. + +It’s a fantastic way for us to showcase our office culture, give back to the grassroots tech community, and give our internal engineering team an easy, rewarding way to try out technical mentoring. + +Would you be open to a quick 5-minute chat this week to see if this is something we could host? + +Best, \[Your Name\] \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2026-05-29-growing-a-chapter b/_posts/2026-05-29-growing-a-chapter new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7cec75 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2026-05-29-growing-a-chapter @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Growing your chapter" +weight: 90 +--- + +Getting more students +===================== + +Proactively build relationships with these local ecosystems: + +* Local Coding Bootcamps: Partner with intensive short-term courses. Offer codebar as a complementary evening study space for their current students or recent grads navigating the job hunt. + +* Diversity in Tech Networks: Connect with local chapters of organizations focusing on gender diversity, LGBTQ+ tech professionals, or minority ethnic tech groups for cross-promotional pushes. + +* Non-Traditional Pathways: Reach out to local libraries, community colleges, and adult education centers to capture individuals trying to transition careers without formal institutional support. + +* Ask existing students to bring a friend to the next workshop + +* Run events regularly, advertise them regularly on social media + + * Eg, running workshops on the last wednesday of the month + + * Posting on social media the week before, will nudge people to sign up, posting after an event will keep codebar on peoples radar.  + +* Run one off workshops + + * Running a beginner friendly workshop means people with no experience feel welcome coming along, once they are in the room they will have a better understanding that they’re welcome and will be likely to come back + + * [We have a workshop ready to go for this for webdev](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TNXBE4EE9nyNrn35Y6svUaiUdgtBlSqDYhE6OQ2xUWE/edit?usp=sharing) + + +Getting more coaches +==================== + +Finding skilled software engineers who want to mentor requires targeting the right spaces with the right message: + +* Leverage Corporate Hosts: When a company hosts your workshop, ask their engineering managers to promote the volunteering opportunity internally. This is the easiest way to secure mid-to-senior developers in one go. + +* Tech Meetup Cross-Pollination: Attend local language-specific meetups (e.g., local JS, Python, or DevOps groups). Ask the organizers for a quick 60-second lightning slot to pitch codebar volunteering to their audience. + +* The Professional Value Proposition: Remind potential coaches that mentoring at codebar helps them sharpen their communication, leadership, and code-review skills—all of which are vital for engineering career progression. + + +### **Coach Retention & Support** + +Coaches keep coming back when they feel valued, organized, and effective. + +The 5-Minute Huddle: Always run a brief briefing for coaches _before_ students arrive. Remind them of our core coaching philosophy: never grab the student’s keyboard. Guide them verbally instead. + +Public Recognition: Always thank coaches publicly during the workshop introductions and tag them/their companies in post-event wrap-ups on social media. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2026-05-29-social-media-guide b/_posts/2026-05-29-social-media-guide new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61f2690 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2026-05-29-social-media-guide @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Social Media Guide" +weight: 90 +--- + +**Main Channels** +----------------- + +The global codebar team operates the official primary accounts under the handle **@codebarhq**. Global channels are used for high-level announcements, organization-wide fundraising, scaling initiatives, and major impact storytelling.  + +Local chapters are strongly encouraged to launch and manage accounts tailored specifically to their regional tech ecosystems, ensuring a personalized connection to local student pools, coach networks, and corporate sponsors. + +**Selecting the Right Platform** +-------------------------------- + +To prevent volunteer burnout and ensure long-term consistency, we strictly advise chapters to focus on a single platform initially rather than overcommitting to multiple platforms simultaneously. Our chapters have seen the highest historical engagement and conversion rates using the following networks: + +* **LinkedIn:** Exceptional for reaching professional software engineers looking to volunteer as coaches, discovering corporate sponsors for venues/catering, and helping graduating students share their landing stories. + +* **Instagram:** Ideal for visual storytelling, documenting the highly welcoming, friendly vibe of workshops, and providing behind-the-scenes looks that ease the anxiety of new students attending for the first time. + + +Choose the platform that matches your team's existing comfort levels and where your local tech ecosystem is most active. It is far better to have one highly active account than three abandoned ones. + +**Account Setup & Mandatory Administration** +-------------------------------------------- + +When your local chapter decides to set up a new social media profile, please adhere strictly to the following administrative rules: + +1. **Pre-Setup Consultation:** Before registering a handle, reach out to the core HQ team. We can provide you with pre-approved branding materials, custom chapter logos, and verify handle availability. + +2. **Naming Conventions:** Use a standard and consistent naming format so users immediately recognize your account as an official codebar wing (e.g., @codebar\[CityName\] or codebar \[CityName\]). + +3. **Administrative Safety (HQ Admin):** During the account registration process, you must add an official global HQ member as a full administrator or co-owner. This ensures codebar retains operational continuity, prevents account loss due to organiser churn, and enables global amplification of your local content. + + +**Visual Branding & Canva Best Practices** +------------------------------------------ + +Consistency builds trust. All visual collateral used across local channels must adhere strictly to codebar's official brand guidelines. To make this seamless for busy local organisers, the global design team maintains a rich library of pre-formatted, highly customizable graphic templates on Canva. + +When utilizing these Canva brand assets, always practice the following workflow: + +* **Always Duplicate:** Never edit the master layout or existing template directly. Instead, open the template file, duplicate the specific page you want to use, and perform your local edits (such as dates, locations, or sponsor logos) on that duplicated copy. + +* **Maintain Brand Collateral:** Do not modify the core typography, official brand color palettes, rotation or aspect ratios of the logo elements without prior clearance from HQ. + + +**Digital Accessibility & Alt Text** +------------------------------------ + +As an organization fundamentally rooted in breaking down barriers and advancing diversity, digital accessibility is a non-negotiable standard for all codebar communications. When publishing visual media, always implement the following accessibility criteria: + +* **Alternative Text (Alt Text):** When uploading any image, infographic, or photo, you must fill out the platform's native Alt Text field. Describe what is happening in the picture clearly and concisely (e.g., "A smiling coach guiding two students through a Python programming exercise on a laptop at a codebar workshop"). This allows visually impaired community members using screen readers to experience your content fully. + +* **CamelCase Hashtags:** Capitalize the first letter of each distinct word in your hashtags (e.g., use #CodebarLondon or #LearnToCode instead of #codebarlondon or #learntocode). Screen readers read CamelCase text as separate words, whereas lowercase blocks are often read as a single unpronounceable string. + + +**Tone of Voice Guidelines** +---------------------------- + +The tone of voice for all codebar extensions should always be friendly, encouraging, professional, inclusive, and fundamentally accessible. We steer clear of overly complex gatekeeping jargon and focus on cultivating a highly psychologically safe space for absolute beginners. + +|**Core Trait**| **What it Means** | **Example Post Pattern**| +| ------------- | ------------- | ------------ | +| **Welcoming & Inclusive** | Lowering barriers to entry for underrepresented groups. Explicitly highlighting that no prior tech experience is required.| "Curious about software development but don't know where to start? Join us at our next local workshop! Absolutely zero coding experience required. 💻✨"| +| **Encouraging & Supportive** | Celebrating progress, individual learning journeys, small breakthroughs, and overcoming software bugs.| "Huge congratulations to our student Alex for pushing their very first repository to GitHub tonight! Overcoming that git merge conflict is a true milestone! 🎉"| +|**Professional yet Personable**| Maintaining organizational integrity and absolute respect for our hosts and partners, combined with a warm community vibe. | "A massive shoutout to the wonderful team at \[Sponsor Company\] for hosting our community tonight and keeping our minds sharp with excellent mentoring spaces and pizza! 🍕" | + + +We also recommend reading the speaker guide and applying it to social media posts: [https://manual.codebar.io/speaker-guide.html](https://manual.codebar.io/speaker-guide.html) \ No newline at end of file