Social Justice Hackathon
October 23 to October 25, 2026
The Western Social Justice Hackathon 2026 will offer students from all colleges and disciplines within Western the opportunity to come together and join multidisciplinary teams to compete over a weekend in the development of an Access to Justice tool. Students, and recent alumni will be able to apply their unique skills, to respond to a set of social justice challenges pre-selected from local needs and local non-profits. Teams will pick one of the challenges and work through the weekend to create a prototype and do a presentation on Sunday to showcase their tool. The challenges selected partly because they allow for the development of tools and approaches that can be prototyped with the limited time allotted, but also because they closely fit the UN’s definition of Access to Justice (2012). The event is free to attend. All majors invited to join. No coding experience or background is required to participate.
Who is organizing this hackathon?
This is a joint collaboration between Fairhaven College and the CS Department with participation from the Competitive Programming Club officer team on campus and volunteer students, faculty, and recently graduated alumni. The hackathon is volunteer run. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and joining one of the teams, fill out this form.
Prizes
The Hackathon is fundraising to be able to provide cash prices to 3 teams, 1st Prize, 2nd Prize, and 3rd Prize. More information will be provided on award rewards in early Fall
Challenges
We will post here up to 6 preselected challenges that teams can choose on Friday night to form a team and develop a tool during the competition. More information will be posted in the Fall of 2026. We expect the challenges will include food security challenges, environmental concerns, and copyright education for student creators. The topics will vary and there will be topics submitted by non profit communities, students, and professors. If you are with an organization and want to submit a challenge for consideration please fill out this form [insert] no later than August 31, 2026.
Access to Justice
For the purposes of this competition, we are using this definition of Access to Justice, adopted by the UN in 2012.
Access to justice is more than just access to lawyers or courts. It is a component of the rule of law, comprised of a number of elements that at its core means that individuals and communities with legal needs know where to go for help, obtain the help they need, and move through a system that offers procedural, substantive, and expeditious justice.
In December 2012, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the UN Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems
Sponsors and Donors
We are soliciting donations to help us fund the cash prize(s) and cover the costs of materials and food for this event. If you or your company have the capacity to donate here are the donation links.
Donors should choose the donation option : Fairhaven Faculty Support Fund and in their comments include the word Hackathon.
