TXT's Hustle N' Code Hackathon is an event aimed at inspiring youth who live in public housing developments (i.e. “The Projects”) to address pressing issues in their communities using technology. TXT is the only organization in the nation that is hosting hackathons directly in public housing developments, and the need is high: our data has shown that less than 1% of youth in public housing developments in South Central have access to the internet, and less than 5% have access to a computer at home. Thanks to Hustle N' Code, hundreds of teens from South Central Los Angeles will be exposed to computer science for the first time.

During the Hustle N'Code Hackathon, boys and girls ages 11-18 form groups of four and are joined by professional developers to solve a community issues with code. The program doesn't stop there, though: all of our hackathon participants have the opportunity to continue coding and learning, for free, at our Hackerspace, year-round. Our Hustle N'Code hackathons typically reach over 200 families in South Central Los Angeles. At the end of the day, we hope to inspire under-served tweens and teens to dream about being techies and programmers.