- What are we doing? Essteem organizes Equalithons - hacks for Equality.
Through these hacks, underrepresented tech talent give back to their cause and support others in the workplace through Equalithons. We create solutions for underrepresented talent, made by underrepresented talent and their allies.
Participants experience a new, longer hack-a-thon focused on making a positive impact. They meet other hackers and innovators (even remotely), experience allyship and teamwork as they develop their projects for nonprofits. They also build their skills, which Essteem showcases to potential employers who want to create a culture of belonging.
Companies can be proud to do more than talking and actually do something for important diversity, belonging, inclusion, equity, and CSR causes. Companies invite their employees to mentor and judge Equalithons, which can serve as a potential recruiting event. These opportunities offer an innovative way to embed diversity, belonging, inclusion, equity, and CSR causes in their organizations. - Why are we doing it? We believe that we can participate in changing the world together.
Essteem believes that we can change the world together. We come from the Black, Brown, Asian and LGTBQ communities, so we know what it feels like to be ignored or have our voices silenced.
Which is why we have created Equalithons, or Hackathons for Equality. We partner with front and backend software developers, UX designers, data scientists, marketing and public relations professionals from underrepresented communities to find solutions for the people who need them the most and are often overlooked by mainstream society.
Past Equalithons produced the following websites and/or applications:- Protest Away, a website that allows users who cannot attend protests in-person to aggregate public Twitter posts about bias incidents and/or report bias incidents to organizations.
- COVID-19 Fake News, a mobile app with a chatbot that shares accurate COVID-19 information with 4,000 volunteers and about 500,000 users in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through The Elongo Project, a program that non-governmental organization Premiere Urgence Internationale created to fight the Ebola virus.
- Community Childcare, a website where people can schedule childcare and babysitting dates with people who connect with them through the site and they trust.
- Butterfly, a website that celebrates doctors and nurses working with COVID-19 patients.
- Managing team.
Marie Roker-Jones is Essteem CMO and Co-founder. She brings 10 years of experience working in the diversity and equity space, building programs, and creating D&I strategies for startups. She has created several Non-profits and Startups. She is strategic in connecting people and organizations to resources and her skills at creating innovative programs in resource-deprived areas got us started on the right track.
Hugues ("Hugo") Seureau launched Essteem after he got frustrated with the lack of women, BIPOC, and other talented people from underrepresented communities in the technology industry.
As a European who lived in various continents around the world and in the United States for the past 10 years, Hugo witnessed how diverse people from all over the world shared the same core values and complemented the workplace. His observations of (in)equality and (lack of) diversity forged his belief that equal opportunity is a critical component of a sustainable society. He sees diversity, equity, belonging, justice, and inclusion in the workplace as powerful levers to achieve equal opportunity at scale, and thus a better society.
Chaitanya Setti is Essteem’s Chief Developer. He has about 10 years of experience as a Full-Stack, Lead developer, with a Bachelors's and Master's degree in Computer Science along with an Executive MBA with managerial skills.
Tara N. Amaral is Essteem’s Hiring ambassador. She is a Global Talent Acquisition & Diversity Leader, Consultant and Strategist with a proven record of people, process, technology and organizational optimization. She brings her passion for helping business leverage talent as a competitive advantage.
- How you can help.
If you cannot participate in the (free) Equalithon from March 13 to 27, 2021, donate to our crowdfunding campaign by selecting a reward from the list on the right. We are so grateful for your support.
