Get Your Hours Web Platform Development

Abstract: Every high school student in Ontario must complete a minimum of 40 hours of community involvement activities as a requirement of graduating. With paper tracking systems and limited resources available, students are often left scrambling last minute to find volunteer opportunities. In order to find an innovative solution to this problem, Christiane Mackenzie partnered with Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning to develop Get Your Hours—a web platform designed to help high school students get the volunteer hours that they need. The site matches students with volunteer opportunities based on their interests, allows students to track their hours online, and allows students’ guidance counselors to verify volunteer hours. Where previously students had to track years of volunteer work on a piece of scrap paper, Get Your Hours makes the process of youth engagement and volunteering more exciting, intuitive, and accessible for the internet savvy high school generation. In order to accomplish this, Get Your Hours worked with Humber to develop the back-end of the web platform, create content, and connect with guidance counselors, charities, and other organizations hiring volunteers. As a result of this partnership, Get Your Hours is now the primary website used by students in the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board to complete their community involvement hours.