Press & Media Kit

Company overview, news, and media resources

Overview

The C.O.D.E. Initiative is a female-founded non-profit organization that stands for Creating Opportunities and Defining Education.

Our mission is to provide quality educational opportunities in STEAM that are inclusive and accessible to all youth.

Amplifying the voices of the neurodiverse community is our utmost priority.

Founded In: 2017
Location: Vancouver, BC
Team Size: 20
Media Contact: engagement@thecodeinitiative.ca

In The Media

University of British Columbia
De’coding ‘ Autism Stereotypes on Medium and Facebook

University of British Columbia - Computer Science
Computer Science Student Bahar Moussavi Co-founded a Non-Profit for ASD Students

AutismBC Awards
Nominated for AutismBC’s Community Impact Award 2019

UBC Sauder School of Business
Awarded the David Lam Innovation Award 2020

Background

About Us

1500+ Students, 22 Courses & 1300+ Volunteers

Since our founding in 2017, we have empowered more than 1500 students with a team of over 1300 passionate university volunteers interested in teaching kids how to code.

What we do:

Delivering personalized one-on-one online coding workshops across Canada
Working with schools to implement coding curriculum for elementary and high school students
Collaborating with other organizations to amplify the voices of the neurodiverse community

Our STEM programs:

Beginner Scratch
Advanced Scratch
Beginner Python
Intermediate Python
Web Development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Java
Robotics
Intro to AI & Machine Learning
Music x Coding

Our founders:

Our founders are UBC Science graduates who embarked on this mission back in their second year of undergrad after sparking a conversation about inclusivity in tech.

“We are only at the beginning of our journey and there is still so much more work that needs to be done to make the tech industry more inclusive. Our journey so far has thought us one very important lesson. No matter how complex and large the problem may be, it just takes one conversation to create a change.”

The C.O.D.E. Initiative continues to spark conversations and advocate for diversity and inclusivity as they work towards their goals this year.

In photo: Mikhaela Torio, Bahar Moussavi & Felicia Chan

Audience

Families:

Our programs cater to families with children ages 7-19 who come from a range of computer programming backgrounds from beginners to more advanced! With our online workshops, we are able to reach families all across Canada, even rural parts of Canada that have limited access to inclusive learning opportunities.

University & College Students:

Our organization also attracts passionate student volunteers from top Canadian universities who are interested in learning more about tech, inclusivity and advocacy.
Students from a variety of different degrees have been interested in our organization and volunteered with us. This diversity strengthens our team as we work and learn together to build better communities.