In recognition of World yOung Rheumatic Disease (WORD) Day, we’re bringing together 16 youth, parents, and healthcare professionals to “hack” their way to innovative solutions to the question: How can we best transform the lives of youth affected by rheumatic diseases through Cassie + Friends? 
What is a Hackathon?
Rooted in the concept of design-thinking, a Hackathon is a human-centered approach to creative problem-solving. When you tackle a problem from a design thinking perspective, you’re constantly working on developing an understanding of the community you’re designing for. A Hackathon is not about coding and you do not need to understand Java or have a degree in computer science to get in on the action.
In short, the hacking process looks something like this:
Generate Idea > Rapid Prototyping > Pitch > Reflect > Repeat
What is this “design-thinking” thing you speak of?
Design Thinking is an innovative approach to problem-solving and focuses on defining the problem, understanding the human needs involved, and generating solutions through brainstorming. We’ll be applying design-thinking to the Juvenile Arthritis community projects by following these five steps:
- Empathizing with our community
- Defining our needs
- Ideating solutions
- Prototyping solutions
- Testing your solutions
At the end of the session, our hackers will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges who will then be left with the impossible task of picking a winner!
Why is it important? What does it mean for Cassie and Friends?
At Cassie + Friends, supporting youth throughout their journey with rheumatic disease is at the heart of everything we do. And we know that the best way to identify what that support looks like is by asking our community what they need.
Our Hackathon will create a space for fresh ideas and out-of-the-box thinking for those with first-hand, lived experience with rheumatic disease – and its impact – to get hacking and tell us how we can better support them. With the help of a facilitator, their ideas will then be crafted into project plans and pitched to a panel of judges. What this means for us is that we can anchor our work in deliberated, voted upon, and validated community feedback. Simply put, the Hackathon will empower us to work in a smarter, more focused manner for the entire pediatric rheumatic disease community.
Who is joining us?
Healthcare: Dr. Herman Tam (BCCH)
Parents: Elizabeth Tucker, Marissa Sangers, Mark Roxborough
Youth: Manahil Shariff, Natasha Trehan, Trish Peters, Kayla Mozzill, Anastasia Roemer, Jessi-Lynn Hough, Alejandra Van Dusen, Lauren McClinton, Kayla Caddy, Maryse Hendi, Graeme Zinck
Mentors: Kelsey Chomistek (National TAG Leader & C+F Board Member), Brittany Barnes (Cassie + Friends)
Judges: Arif Jetha (Institute for Work & Health), Dr. Lori Tucker (Pediatric Rheumatologist & Board Member), David Porte (Board Chair)
The Cassie + Friends Hackathon is happening this weekend on March 20, 2021 in partnership with Now of Work. Stay tuned for a full recap and our winning ideas!
[…] March, in recognition of juvenile arthritis awareness month and #WORDDay, we hosted the very first Cassie + Friends Hackathon to get creative and collaborative around community-driven solutions that answer the question “How […]