Project Overview — HelpingHands

HelpingHands is a SaaS platform designed to close this gap by intelligently matching students with volunteer opportunities that build real, employable skills. The platform streamlines the entire community service ecosystem by serving all stakeholders:

• For educators, HelpingHands reduces administrative overhead by centralizing placement management, tracking hours, and enabling data-driven matching between students and organizations.
• For students, it simplifies discovering volunteer opportunities, tracking progress toward graduation requirements, and developing practical, career-relevant skills through meaningful placements.
• For non-profits and charities, it provides a reliable pipeline of motivated volunteers while significantly lowering recruitment and retention costs.

By transforming mandatory community service into a structured, skill-building experience, HelpingHands helps students graduate on time, enter the workforce better prepared, and supports non-profits with sustainable volunteer engagement—creating measurable social and economic impact across Ontario.

Background

Ontario faced one of the highest provincial youth unemployment rates in Canada, with students increasingly concerned that they lack the skills needed to enter the workforce—not the opportunities themselves. At the same time, Ontario high school students were required to complete 40 hours of community service to graduate, creating a systemic challenge that affects students, educators, and non-profit organizations alike.

Many students struggled to find suitable volunteer placements, felt disengaged once placed, and failed to develop meaningful or transferable skills through their service hours. Educators were limited to tracking completion for graduation purposes, with little ability to guide, match, or support students throughout the process. Meanwhile, non-profits and charities faced ongoing difficulties recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers, resulting in high acquisition costs and inconsistent support.

Supported & in-collaboration with

• Ontario Trillium Foundation
• York University’s entrepreneurship program, LaunchYU
• Ontario Volunteer Center Network
• Community BUILD Foundation
• IBM

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Some of this work is protected, so please contact me for further details on this project