Hacknight #258
Lessons from Civic Tech projects
with Dilini Kurukulaarachchi, Avery Au, and David Cox
Recording
Are you curious to learn more established Civic Tech projects? Or interested in leading a project with Civic Tech Toronto, but don't know where to start? Join us to hear more about the highs and lows—what worked and what didn't—from Civic Tech project leaders.
Speakers
Dilini KurukulaarachchiDilini is a public servant who has been a passionate volunteer within the civic tech community, serving as a co-organizer and participating in a number of civic tech initiatives over the past two years. Since 2018, she has founded and led a civic tech project that is supporting young people in transitional housing through tech skills mentoring.
Avery Au David CoxDavid Cox is a long-time civic tech enthusiast who’s been fortunate enough to work in tech within the civil service. On weekdays, he’s on a mission to drink lots of tea and improve accessibility through the UK Government’s design system. On weekends, he’s a Canadian tourist, exploring London’s endless foods, sights, and rainy weather.
Topic:
Are you curious to learn more established Civic Tech projects? Or interested in leading a project with Civic Tech Toronto, but don’t know where to start? Join us to hear more about the highs and lows—what worked and what didn’t—from Civic Tech project leaders, including:
Toronto Tech Mentoring, formerly known as the Accelerator Project (Dilini Kurukula) https://acceleratorproject.xyz. We help individuals who are facing homelessness escape the cycle of poverty by helping them to use tech skills to advance their employment, entrepreneurship, and personal goals.
Law and Design CoLab (Avery Au) https://lawdesigncolab.ca/ We use design and digital media to make public legal education and advocacy more impactful.
Our Data Futures (David Cox) http://ourdatafutures.ca/ We want to move the conversation from “what governments and corporations want for data” to “what people want” and to move the decision-making influence into the hands of the people — people whose data is being collected, used, stored, handled for privacy, combined, shared, and kept accurate.
Mentioned In
Projects
- Law & Design CoLab (2025-04-25)
- Our Data Futures (2025-04-25)
- Toronto Tech Mentoring (2025-04-25)