REPS Office of the U.S. Embassy Grant: Empowering Women in Making and Coding Skills

Program Description: The REPS Office of the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section seeks proposals for a program entitled “Hands on the Future: A Making and Computer Coding Skill-building Program for Women.”  This program will consist of a needs assessment of the making and computer coding ecosystems of New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai and a series of no-cost training classes in those cities.  Please note that we anticipate the completion of the needs assessments in those four cities as the grantee’s first step, with the information gleaned from the needs assessment helping to shape the design of the 4 classes in each city.  For example, a documented need for coding courses in Chennai may not be as high a priority in Mumbai, where perhaps other organizations are offering free or low-cost coding courses to the same audience that “Hands on the Future” targets.

 The grantee will:

1.      Produce a needs assessment report of the making/computer coding ecosystems in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai, determining where there are gap areas for free/low-cost making/computer coding skills development training for the target audience.

2.      Select approximately 30 participants in each city, as well as a minimum of one course facilitator per city, develop, and execute a series of 4 intensive classes at American Centers in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai.

Informed by the needs assessment, create a written making/coding curriculum for each city that addresses the highest priority needs. 
We see these 4 initial courses in each city as a means of further honing in on the needs and behaviors our target audience of young women.   We welcome existing curricula that to which applicants may have access, and we also can assist in connecting the grantee with existing course curricula that may be suitable for the classes.