S.O.U.L. Foundation Enables Sustainable Livelihoods
S.O.U.L. Foundation partners with local Ugandan communities in breaking the cycle of poverty with programs that provide education and employment opportunities. Students develop marketable skills through digital literacy training, tailoring programs, and mentorship. S.O.U.L. also provides access to maternal health resources and workshops for women and families. Team4Tech’s first strategic project with S.O.U.L. focused on building a scalable, digital curriculum.
Virtual Project with Cadence Design Systems
Team4Tech selected a diverse group of 16 Cadence employees based in India, Brazil, and the U.S. for their first strategic engagement with S.O.U.L. foundation. The project included 10 weeks of leadership development curriculum that prepared the volunteers to use the human-centered design process in their work with S.O.U.L. Foundation. Team4Tech volunteers were divided into four sub-teams that focused primarily on content digitization and online accessibility. S.O.U.L. Foundation will thus be able to reach more learners with a digital curriculum.
Project Outcomes from Each Sub-Team
• Conversion of more than 50 pages of curricula on maternal health and tailoring to user-friendly slides. The digital curriculum now contains interactive elements such as puzzles and quizzes with each chapter. The team also created informational pamphlets and flyers for male family members. Future projects will build off of this work. The Cadence volunteers recommended, for example, translation of content into more local languages as next steps.
• Development of a learning management system (LMS) to support a digital curriculum for multiple programs. After thorough market research and customer interviews, the team worked closely with S.O.U.L. staff to select Kolibri. Kolibri offers several specific LMS benefits, including mobile functionality, access in local Ugandan languages, and support for audio, video, and written content formats. The LMS implementation will allow S.O.U.L. to scale their programming to more beneficiaries.
• E-commerce solution for S.O.U.L.’s tailoring program to diversify income opportunities and increase website visibility. Cadence volunteers designed a website where adult tailoring students can sell their products to a wider audience, including U.S.-based customers. The site allows for the unique feature of ordering in custom sizes. The team also created flyers to market the products on social media.
Over 350 students will now benefit from S.O.U.L.’s newly digitized curricula. 150 women enter the tailoring program every 7 months and have a new platform to advertise their products..
Cadence Volunteers Gain Valuable Design-Thinking Skills
Amy Harris, a CFD Senior Sales Coordinator at Cadence and who volunteered on the LMS-integration subteam, describes her experience collaborating with teammates of diverse skill sets and backgrounds:
“I walked into this opportunity with the idea that I would be working on a team to help the S.O.U.L. Foundation identify and begin putting together an LMS for their users. What I am walking away with is a newfound understanding of working within a dynamic team, new friends, and a clearer view on how to assist others.”
Read more of Amy’s reflection on this project on her LinkedIn profile. Several volunteers were previous Team4Tech fellows on the virtual mentorship opportunity with Kidspire Vietnam. Returning and new volunteers alike gained personal and professional leadership skills that they are now able to use in their daily work as a Cadence employee.
Get Involved with Team4Tech and Our Partners
Are you employed in the tech industry and looking for corporate volunteer opportunities in the Bay Area? Are you a corporation interested in increasing your corporate social impact programs? Team4Tech is continually launching new projects impacting global education and building relationships with new corporate partners who are able to lend technical expertise to the global nonprofit sector.
Interested in learning more about Team4Tech’s partnerships with Ugandan NPOs and more projects with Cadence Design Systems? You can learn about past tech industry volunteer experiences and how they developed leadership skills and created social impact on LinkedIn.
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