How to have edgy creds in five minutes, no money required

The Festival of Code is happening for the 6th year running on the beautiful, sunny UK coast this Summer. We are pretty much all ready and this year (in addition to over 1000 young coders creating insanely excellent digital stuff out of open data) we have bubble football, photobooth, skate park, graffiti wall, robotics, chiptune artists, 3d printing, wearable tech, George the Poet, Avid Larizadeh and Yoni Bloch.

So how does this give you edgy creds? I hear you cry. Well, we need help, so you can get to be a part of it too, and trust me – it’s amazing.

If you are not familiar with the Festival, the way it works is that we have 60 centres and centre leads across the UK who volunteer their time and space for the week to host their local coding kids. Kids sign up from the UK and overseas and we assign them to these centres. Mentors then also volunteer spots of time during the week to help shape, craft and prepare for the weekend of show and tell.

Inevitably, there is imbalance in a few of our centres and we have devised a poster campaign to fill those spots. (These young people tend to be super-hard to find, it depends on someone realising that this is going on and letting them, their mates or their parents know about it).

So! Here goes, this is how you get your edgy creds, and become an active member of the Festival of Code…

1. Check the list below for spaces available for kids and where we need mentors (mentors in public speaking, products, marketing, open data)

2. Identify the areas where you know you can put posters up in local shops, libraries, offices, schools

3. Use your social media profile to raise awareness of the Festival, using the hashtag #YRSFoC and link http://festivalofco.de

The following centres have spaces for kids and need mentors:

Comic Relief London can take 6 more kids (Comic Relief is based in Vauxhall)

Red, Yellow, Green Dorking needs 2 more mentors

Firstsite Colchester still has space for 15 kids and 1 more mentor

AIR Falmouth Uni Cornwall has room for 8 more kids and needs 3 more mentors

A Fund, West Midlands has room for 9 more kids and needs 1 more mentor

Social Breakfast Birmingham has room for 9 more kids and needs 2 more mentors

Instil Belfast has room for 6 more kids

Metaswitch, Enfield  has room for 8 more kids and needs 1 more mentor

Queen Mary Uni London has room for 5 more kids

Raspberry Pi Cambridge has room for 12 more kids and needs 3 more mentors

Think Big Hub London has room for 10 more kids and needs 2 more mentors

Aberystwyth Wales centre has room for 5 more kids and needs 1 more mentor

Solent Cathedral Southampton has room for 10 more kids and needs 3 more mentors

Met Office Exeter has room for 10 more kids

Superthinkers Romford needs 1 more mentor

STFC Daresbury Warrington has room for 10 more kids and needs 2 more mentors

Dundee Uni has room for 10 kids and needs 2 more mentors

Birmingham City Uni needs 2 more mentors

KWMC Bristol needs 2 more mentors

Freerange Carlisle has room for 5 more kids

Information for kids and for mentors can be found here for kids and here for mentors.

Here is the poster for you to download, print and put up, put in your car, put anywhere – these young people are insanely hard to find, and the mentors are also. We know from previous years that the poster campaign works. Stephen Fry will also be tweeting out about us when he feels the timing is right. So./.. all hands on deck! If you can help out with any of the above, email kait@rewiredstate.org and let her know, and point every child and mentor at the registration points on the Festival website. All of you can officially name check yourself as a volunteer for the Festival of Code, so long as Kait has logged you as helping out! And we will verify your assistance, and thank you whilst lying prostrate on the ground, usually. Also, it is just cool…