You can change LA for the better!

Can you design, write, or code? Are you an activist with an idea? You can help Los Angeles live up to its potential at Hack for LA. Everyone is welcome!

Current Projects

Have an idea? Submit your pitch

    • 100 Automations logo depicted as a 1 and two intermeshed gears surrounded by a open left bracket, forward slash and closing right bracket to indicate the 100 automations are in code, followed by the word Automations.
      Active

      100 Automations

      Hack for LA seeks to reduce repetitive work in our open source projects and for the open source community. This project will be both a showcase for the automations and/or microservices that we develop, but also a convenient home for those automations, so that they can be found, forked, and contributed to easily. We will be using JAMstack and a static site generator for building this website.

      Links: Slack, GitHub, Readme
      Looking for:

      Content Writer

      ,

      Anyone who wants to write open source automations

      ,

      API writers

      ,

      API integrators

      ,

      Frontend Javascript Developers

      ,

      Static Site Architect

      Location:

      Remote

      Technologies:

      GitHub Pages

      ,

      Jekyll

    • Image of building with windows that look like they spell out 311.
      Active

      311 Data

      The 311 Data project seeks to empower local Neighborhood Councils to improve the ideation and analysis of their initiatives using the wealth of publicly available 311 data.

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Wiki, Join Us, Site
      Partner: EmpowerLA
      Looking for:

      Business Analyst

      ,

      Project Manager

      ,

      Frontend Developers

      ,

      Backend Developers

      ,

      Product Owner

      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Redux

      ,

      Flask

      ,

      Sanic

      ,

      Pandas

      ,

      Bulma

      ,

      PostgreSQL

    • Person holding phone with ballot nav website on it.
      Active

      BallotNav

      BallotNav will help voters quickly find the location, times of operation, and due date for dropping off mail-in ballots in person. Due to COVID-19 and cuts to the United States Postal Service, some voters may feel insecure not only about going out to the polls, but also about utilizing the mail to cast their vote. While it is possible to drop off your mail-in ballot in person, the rules for doing so are not clearly outlined in one single location. Information is scattered across state and county websites, each of which may individually fail to provide one or more elements of crucial information, such as available ballot drop-off times. The BallotNav project will collect this data through a network of brigade partnerships and update it accordingly leading up to November’s election.

      BallotNav’s overall goal is to provide information that helps voters cast their ballots safely and correctly, and avoid accidental disenfranchisement.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Slack, Readme
      Partner: Code for America, Other Brigades
      Looking for:

      Business Analyst

      ,

      UX Researcher

      ,

      UI Designer

      ,

      Marketing, PR & Partnerships

      ,

      Fundraising

      ,

      Software Developers

      ,

      Data Scientists

      ,

      Translators (Spanish especially)

      ,

      Community Data Monitors: We need an army of people to collect information about drop-off sites for 3,000 counties, and remain on-call to update it when changes occur.

      Location:

      Remote

    • Two pairs of hands pointing to a tablet and papers.
      Active

      Civic Opportunity Project

      The mission of the Civic Opportunity project is to develop and curate the journey of all volunteers that we interact with to reach their fullest potential. Relationship bridge-building and workforce readiness development of volunteers is at the core of the Hack for LA brand. We have found that this effort enables and supports the delivery of a consistent pipeline of knowledge worker resources. In turn, our volunteers are more prepared to create products that are impactful in local government and beyond.

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Readme, Overview
      Partner: Undisclosed
      Looking for:

      Special Projects Coordinators

      ,

      Project/Pilot Management

      ,

      UI Designer

      ,

      UX Researcher

      Location:

      Remote

    • Civic tech index logo layered on top of the world map. Paired with a globe icon and a magnifying glass.
      Active

      Civic Tech Index

      Our goal of the project is to create a comprehensive, searchable index of all civic tech open source software projects around the world. We have created the framework. Now our next step is to create a website and other marketing tools that will demonstrate the power of the index and will provide instructions for how to tag and share your github repository in 2 min or less.

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Wiki
      Partner: Code for America, Yale OpenLab and many more.
      Looking for:

      Fullstack Developer with Node/React knowledge

      ,

      Experienced Data Scientist

      ,

      Database Architect

      ,

      Front end react developers

      ,

      UX specialist for testing and conducting interviews with stakeholders

      ,

      UI Designer

      ,

      Video content script writer

      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Django

      ,

      PostgreSQL

    • A network of lines within lines, with nodes, and a large dot in the center.
      Active

      Civic Tech Structure

      Each of the 80+ Code for America Brigades is an experiment which generates valuable learnings and new effective processes and practices. However, Brigades and other civic tech volunteer organizations need not start from scratch. This project aims to improve existing structures and create new ones that make it easier to share replicable processes and practices so that organizers and members can iterate on each others work, improving outcomes for the whole network.

      The Civic Tech Structure's first project seeks to improve the existing Code for America Brigade Organizer’s Playbook (BOP) into a communal, high-value resource for sharing. We will be performing an intensive UX Research phase with the BOP end users to understand their priorities, infrastructure, and potential contributions.

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Overview, BOP Github, BOP CfA Slack
      Partner: Code for America & its Brigades
      Looking for:

      UI Designer (brand building)

      ,

      UX Team manager / Lead

      ,

      UX Researchers (40)

      ,

      UX Designer

      ,

      UX Team Manager / Lead

      Location:

      Remote

      Technologies:

      Google Docs (Doc, Sheet, Slide, Forms)

      ,

      HackforLA.org guides

    • City council closed in session.
      Active

      Engage

      Engage is a civic participation platform. Currently in beta, Engage makes it easier for residents of Santa Monica, CA to offer their feedback on policy issues that City Council is considering. Engage aims to increase access for community stakeholders who are unable to attend public meetings or may otherwise feel unheard by their local government.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Wiki, Slack
      Partner: City of Santa Monica
      Looking for:

      UX designers

      ,

      NLP engineers

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Django

      ,

      PostgreSQL

    • Vegatables beats stacked
      Active

      Food Oasis

      The website is focused on individuals seeking food in Los Angeles who need an up-to-date resource about food pantries and meals. Our mission is to update the existing website, foodoasis.la with a simplified UI and verified data. Future development goals include creating functionality for referral services that will allow the end user to annotate and update listings through a peer verification system.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Readme, Slack, Test Site
      Partner: seeking
      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Express

      ,

      Node.js

      ,

      PostgreSQL

      ,

      PostGIS

      ,

      AWS

      ,

      Docker

      ,

      Mapbox

      ,

      Material-UI

      ,

      SCSS

    • Wireframe sample from new website.
      Active

      Hackforla.org Website

      The hackforla.org website is our organization's way of communicating with volunteers, stakeholders, and donors. This project is a good place to start for new volunteers looking to polish their git protocol skills (branches, separation of concerns, etc.). We currently have two development paths: growth (building out new pages and guides) and optimization (taking inventory of our code and design systems) to ensure we are consistently delivering value to our users while being scalable in our approach to building the site.

      Links: Wiki, Slack, GitHub, Site
      Looking for:

      UI (wireframes)

      ,

      Junior JavaScript developers

      ,

      Javascript Mentor / PR reviewer

      ,

      anyone wanting to learn how to do Git commits in a collaborative work environment

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      GitHub Pages

      ,

      Jekyll

      ,

      Docker

    • Cartoon picture of person
      Active

      Home Unite Us

      We're working with community non-profits who have a Host Home initiative to develop a workflow management tool to make the process scaleable (across all providers), reduce institutional bias, and effectively capture data.

      Host Home programs are centered around housing young people, 18 - 25 years old. Their approach focuses on low-cost, community-driven intervention by matching a willing host with a guest or group of guests, providing a stable housing environment for youths who are experiencing homelessness and seeking stable housing.

      Links: Demo, GitHub, Wiki, Slack
      Partner: Safe Place for Youth (SPY)
      Looking for:

      UI (including wireframes, familiar with Figma)

      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      NoSQL

    • LA TDM Calculator Landing Page (Mock Up)
      Active

      LA TDM Calculator

      We’re building a TDM web calculator for LADOT. It scores proposed real estate developments in real-time and aims to discourage exceeding parking requirements to reduce the occurrence of single-occupancy trips to new developments.

      Links: GitHub, Wiki, Slack
      Partner: LA Department of Transportation LADOT (https://ladot.lacity.org/)
      Looking for:

      UI Designer

      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Express

      ,

      Node.js

      ,

      Microsoft SQL Server

      ,

      Docker

      ,

      Azure App Service

      ,

      SCSS

    • Lucky Parking Logo
      Active

      Lucky Parking

      A platform looking for nearby street parking with least possibility of getting citation

      Links: GitHub, Readme, Slack
      Partner: Seeking
      Looking for:

      Frontend Software Engineer

      ,

      Backend Software Engineer

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      PostgreSQL

    • Team working a during meeting.
      Active

      New Schools Today

      We’re building a platform for students across LA County to create more accessible school-related apps and web apps. Our desired impact is to make students feel more welcomed and included in their community through an online academic environment created by peers, for peers

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Readme, Wiki
      Partner: Seeking
      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

      ,

      Flutter

    • public tree map grid
      Active

      Public Tree Map

      Public Tree Map helps connect people to Santa Monica's urban forest. The map includes information about each of the 35,000 trees (and vacant tree sites) in Santa Monica's publicly-owned urban forest (compiled from open datasets, digitized city records, and federal ecosystem services values), as well as tools for users to share favorite trees. To reflect tree plantings and removals, the map updates every day.

      Links: GitHub, Test Site, Slack, Readme
      Partner: City of Santa Monica
      Looking for:

      Front-end web development (JavaScript, Leaflet)

      ,

      Data processing (GeoPandas, Python)

      ,

      QA and UX testing

      ,

      Appreciation for trees (anyone interested is welcome!)

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      GeoPandas

      ,

      jQuery

      ,

      Leaflet

      ,

      Node.js

    • Record clearance hero
      Active

      Record Clearance Project

      The Record Clearance Project aims to help people in California with non-violent criminal records accomplish record clearance, expungement or reduction as a result of Prop 47 & Prop 64.

      We are creating an ecosystem map of the Los Angeles record clearance landscape in order to identify organizations that we can help grow their impact through partnership. With tools to be created based on verifiable non-profit or government partner needs/value.

      Links: GitHub, Readme, Slack, Overview
      Partner: NDICA
      Looking for:

      Research

      ,

      UX-UI

      ,

      Content Writing

      ,

      React Developer

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      ReactJS

    • Undebate with moderator and 7 participants.
      Active

      Undebate

      Not debates, but recorded online video Q&A with candidates so voters can quickly can get to know them, for every candidate, for every election, across the US.

      Links: GitHub, Demo
      Partner: EnCiv.org, Ballotpedia.org
      Looking for:

      Node Developer

      ,

      React Developer

      ,

      UI/UX

      ,

      Marketing/Branding/Social Media

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      MongoDB

      ,

      Express

      ,

      ReactJS

      ,

      Node.js

    • VRMS homepage showing the check-in buttons.
      Active

      VRMS

      VRMS is a tool used for the engagement, support, and retention of a network of volunteers.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Readme, Slack, Wiki
      Partner: TBD
      Looking for:

      Front End Devs (from mid level)

      ,

      Back End Devs (from mid level)

      ,

      UI/UX Designer

      Location:

      Remote

      Technologies:

      Node

      ,

      Express

      ,

      MongoDB

      ,

      Docker

      ,

      React

      ,

      Redux

      ,

      Sass

      ,

      Jest

      ,

      React Testing Library

    • A rainbow document searcher icon, the words "Write for All TM", and a rainbow-like border.
      Active

      Write for All™

      We want to improve the language used in websites to be more inclusive (of all communities) while also educating the public about exclusionary language. @writeforallorg™

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Readme, Demo link
      Partner: Seeking
      Looking for:

      Gender researcher

      ,

      Communications writer

      ,

      Videographer

      ,

      UX developer

      ,

      JavaScript programmer

      ,

      QA coder

      ,

      DevOps engineer

      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

    • Programming code icon that reads helping the homeless with code.
      Completed

      Heart

      Heart is a project working directly with the LA City Attorney’s Homeless Engagement and Response Team. The HEART program helps individuals experiencing homelessness resolve eligible traffic and pedestrian infractions and related warrants and fines by engaging with relevant services. Hack for LA is helping them build a database and case management system to streamline their workflow and enable them to scale their program.

      Links: GitHub, Slack, Wiki
      Partner: LA City Attorney’s Homeless Engagement and Response Team
    • Smartphones using hellogo app
      Completed

      HelloGOV

      HelloGOV is helping grassroots organizations connect supporters to their state assembly and state senate representatives for call campaigns to advocate on the legislation that matters most to their work. The HelloGOV webapp generates a campaign shortlink that can be used in texts, social posts, and more.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Readme, Slack
      Partner: Digital Defense Fund
      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

    • metro ontime
      Completed

      Railstats LA

      Trailstats LA tracks LA Metro trains and generates punctuality reports. Our website enables both Metro officials and the public to easily review up-to-date statistics for LA's 6 train lines.

      Links: GitHub, Site, Readme, Slack, LA metro, Observable
      Partner: LA Metro (https://www.metro.net/)
      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

    • Los Angeles City Hall building
      Completed

      Work for LA

      Applying for work should be simple—but the application process for the City of LA is confusing and cumbersome. We’re going to make it easier to find the job of your dreams.

      Links: GitHub, Site
      Partner: Department of Personnel
      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

    • LA county homelessness initiative logo.
      On Hold

      Jobs for Hope

      We compiled job listings from 60+ different non-profit organization websites for the LA County Homeless Initiative and consolidated them into a single database so that it is easier for job-seekers to search and filter for jobs.

      Links: GitHub, Site
      Partner: LA County Homeless Initiative; http://homeless.lacounty.gov
      Location:

      Downtown LA

      ,

      Remote

    • person being supported by another. Art by c.w. moss
      On Hold

      Not Today - Self-Defense Against Suicidal Thoughts

      Not Today is an app intended to help people wait out periods of suicidal thinking without acting on their thoughts.

      Links: GitHub
      Partner: Seeking
      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

      Technologies:

      React Native

    • A logo that reads what can you spare
      On Hold

      Spare

      A fun new project project that connects people in need of clothing and other essentials with people in the community who have things to spare. It's kind of like one on one Goodwill. The main objective is to foster interactions between the housed and unhoused. The donation is the mechanism for building these connections throughout our community.

      Links: GitHub, Site
      Partner: Hope of the Valley and hopefully others in the near future.
      Looking for:

      Front-end development

      ,

      Back-end development

      ,

      Product Management

      ,

      Marketing

      Location:

      Santa Monica

      ,

      Remote

    Hack for LA is a great example of how we can harness technology and our city's creativity to solve everyday problems. As Mayor, I will closely partner with our tech industry to create jobs and bring innovation to City Hall so government works faster and more efficiently.

    Mayor Eric Garcetti Mayor Eric Garcetti

    Press

    Want to know more about Hack for LA?

    We bring together civic-minded volunteers to build digital products, programs and services with community partners and local government to address issues in our LA region. Hack for LA is a project of Code for America and is it's official Los Angeles chapter.

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