How this Philly hackathon plans to help people after prison

Power-Up Reentry: A Digital Solutions Day will bring together coders, journalists and returning citizens together.

Dawn McDougall is looking forward to the upcoming reentry hackathon. Not only is It an important topic but an opportunity, she said, for Philadelphians to look into the issue broadly and develop potential solutions for people returning from prison.

McDougall is the executive director of Code for Philly, the organization that will be producing the event for the Reentry Project, a collaborative of 15 Philadelphia newsrooms focused on issues of and programs for the formerly incarcerated. Billy Penn is one of them.

The hackathon-style event, named Power-Up Reentry: A Digital Solutions Day, will take place next month. Kickoff will be held Oct. 20 at Industrious Philadelphia coworking space at Broad and Locust, while the hackathon itself will take place at WHYY in Old City the following day.

Though this is a little different from previous hackathons that McDougall has been a part of, she said she’s hopeful this reentry event will lay the groundwork for further collaboration and discussion.

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Dominique “Peak” Johnson is a North Philadelphia journalist. He is one of the founding editors and writers of the North Philly Metropolis. Currently he freelances for WHYY, Billy Penn and Citywide Stories. Click here to learn more about Peak.