The Mozilla Learning Network is excited to welcome Cascadia, Manchester, Vizag and Waterloo as the newest Hive Learning Communities in our global network. Each city brings a unique opportunity to support local leaders at organizations working to empower youth to read, write and participate on the Web. The teams spearheading Hive efforts in these cities have been working over the past few 6-12 months to build their communities, identify challenges and opportunities to address, and host launch events to drive local interest and participation.
They join a constellation of Hive communities–currently in 15 cities–that serve as innovation hubs working to build web literacy leadership and to disrupt and evolve learning possibilities for youth, educators and organizations within a city. Hive cities work locally and connect globally to test, spread and sustain best practices that mobilize practitioners, create exemplary resources, and catalyze city ecosystems.
Here are more details about our four newest Hive Learning Communities:
Hive Cascadia:
In December 2014, representatives from the Portland Art Museum, PDX Education and the Portland Public Library came together to discuss how to best to engage their community in a collaborative format. They discovered the Hive model and began the work of launching an 8-month community program that combined an art exhibit and gaming education with youth development opportunities. On July 23, they officially launched Hive Cascadia, which covers Portland, Salem and Eugene, Oregon. This youth-focused event was an effort to formally introduce the Hive and spark outreach to potential organizations to join their first cohort of community members.

Hive Manchester: 
The Hive Manchester team has been engaged with Mozilla since 2011, beginning with participation at MozFest, later bringing the first-ever Young Rewired State event to the US in 2013 in partnership with Hive NYC, then re-activating conversations last year at MozFest during our first-ever Global Hive Meet-Up. Since then, this team has helped prototype and develop curriculum for Mozilla Clubs, built a committed team of volunteers, and hosted community meet-ups to officially launch their Hive efforts. Hive Manchester will focus on events outside of the traditional classroom and inside creative spaces across the city, that generate exciting learning opportunities for the diverse youth population of Manchester!

Hive Vizag:
Led by a team of long-time Mozillians, Hive Vizag has been over a year in the making. They brought Hive to their city through a series of pop-up and Maker Party events focused on exposing more people to digital and web literacy activities. After several years of successful Maker Party and pop-up events under the Hive India monkier, the team in Vizag have moved their focus to a more city-specific, local approach to have a more meaningful impact across Vizag.  Hive Vizag is currently working on developing an application process that allows them to recruit their first cohort of collaborative community members.

Hive Waterloo:
The team in Canada’s “Sillicon Valley” has been planning for the official launch of Hive Waterloo through the summer, and in conjunction with their involvement in the Year of Code Waterloo program. Specifically, Hive Waterloo will  work to support their goal of educating 250,000 people in coding and digital literacy throughout the Waterloo-Kitchener region. Since it’s launch on July 4th, 2015 Hive Waterloo has run coding workshops for youth and adults, held information sessions with community partners and supported local community festivals in their region.

We’re thrilled about the newest Hive Learning Communities and some of their early examples of bridging local efforts to a global initiative for broader impact. Follow #hivebuzz on Twitter for updates from across Hive cities, or visit hivelearningnetworks.org for more information about how to bring the Hive model to your city.