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4 min readCode for Community

Five Ways to Build With Your Community: Our First Austin Meetup

Five ways to build with your community through Code for Community Austin

Last night, Austin's technologists, creatives, and community organizers filled Antler for the inaugural Code for Community Austin meetup. We came together around a simple idea: local organizations already know what their communities need, and Austin has the talent to help them build it.

The presentations are over, but the work is just beginning. Below are the five projects shared on August 18, why each one matters, and the clearest way to raise your hand. You do not need to have every skill listed. Bring what you know, stay curious, and be ready to build alongside the people closest to the problem.

Stride and Rise Run Club mark
Project 01
South Congress · Austin

Stride and Rise Run Club

Stride and Rise is a free, all-abilities run club where members bring their interests—from music and fashion to food—and take shared ownership of the community they are building.

What we’re building

Build a relationship tracker shaped around how run clubs and neighborhood businesses actually work. Part directory and part CRM, it should keep organizer details, club culture, conversation history, promised follow-ups, and natural partnership opportunities visible—so good community connections do not disappear into spreadsheets or one person's memory.

Helpful experience
  • Product and UX
  • Full-stack development
  • Data modeling
  • CRM workflows
  • Project leadership
No Girl Walks Alone logo
Project 02
Austin

No Girl Walks Alone

No Girl Walks Alone creates consistent, welcoming walks where women can step outside, connect, and belong. The nonprofit has hosted more than 200 walks and welcomed more than 10,000 attendees.

What we’re building

Create an open-source grant discovery and management platform that helps nonprofits find promising funding, organize applications, track deadlines and requirements, and retain what they learn. Code for Community volunteers will build it so other small nonprofits facing the same problem can use it too.

Helpful experience
  • Product discovery
  • UX and service design
  • Full-stack development
  • Data and search
  • Grant operations
Austin Free-Net logo
Project 03
DeWitty Center · Austin

Austin Free-Net

For more than 30 years, Austin Free-Net has worked toward a world without digital barriers by providing devices, internet access, bilingual digital-skills training, and public computer labs across Austin.

What we’re building

Turn an early room-booking prototype into reliable infrastructure for three community rooms at the DeWitty Job Training & Employment Center. The application needs room-specific booking rules, staff approvals, Google Workspace and Calendar integration, organization and booking history, useful utilization reporting, and an operating model a small staff can sustain after handoff.

Helpful experience
  • Product and workflow design
  • Full-stack development
  • Google Calendar integration
  • Reporting and analytics
  • QA and accessibility
Progress Pride mark from the QWELL project presentation
Project 04
Austin · Built city by city

QWELL Community Foundation

QWELL works to maximize LGBTQIA+ well-being by helping people connect with affirming resources, intergenerational support, healthcare, housing, and community across Greater Austin.

What we’re building

Help complete QWELL's anonymous social-connection app for queer and ally people, beginning in Austin. Volunteers have already made progress; the next team will move the product toward a secure, trustworthy launch where anonymity is not just a feature—it is the promise.

Helpful experience
  • Project lead or CTO
  • React
  • Flutter
  • UI/UX and gamification
  • Cybersecurity and privacy review
Los Feliz Animal Rescue paw mark
Project 05
Los Feliz · Los Angeles

Los Feliz Animal Rescue

Approaching its fifth anniversary, this neighborhood-rooted rescue has helped nearly 400 animals across adoption, fostering, lost animals, community cats and TNR, wildlife resources, and other hyperlocal needs.

What we’re building

Replace an outdated Google Sites presence with a clear, mobile-friendly WordPress website for adoptable animals, adoption, fostering, volunteering, donations, local resources, rescue updates, and the organization's story. The project also removes recurring admin friction around forms, publishing, and moving contact information into Salesforce.

Helpful experience
  • WordPress development
  • UX and information architecture
  • Content design
  • Salesforce and form automation
  • Mobile and accessibility QA

Thank you for showing up

To every organization that trusted the room with a real need—and to every builder who listened, asked questions, and offered their time—thank you. The best version of Code for Community will be shaped by the people who step forward now.

Choose the project that stays on your mind. Open its volunteer form. Tell us how you would like to help. Let's build something useful together.