Brave Initiatives hosts coding camp for Chicago's young women

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An organization for young women, created by young women, is empowering high school girls to take on the technology world and they are making us Chicago Proud.

"You have nothing to lose by doing it, and there is so much to gain," said Carlin Henikoff.

Henikoff is one of many young women who have conquered coding camp through the non-profit Brave Initiatives.

"As someone who has never written HTML or CSS, we were still able to 72 hours later have a website that worked, that was live and on the internet that we could show people, and it is such an amazing feeling that we could do that," she said.

Brave Initiatives coding camps are a week-long opportunity for high schoolgirls to learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They are also given the opportunity to focus in on how to better the world around them and look for solutions to social issues.

"We wanted to create a space for young girls where they could create projects, where they could have an impact on their community with technology," said Anna Bethune, co-founder.

"SO we start off with an issue and then we build in the coding part around it. So they can know coding isn't just something you just sit in front of a computer and do all day, it's a more holistic process. You think about design, you think about users, you think about community needs so then you have to develop something or code something that addresses that," said Robin Brewer, head of partnerships and coding coach.

The free camp allows young women to take away skills that will last them a lifetime.

"Coding is a good school to have under your belt, public speaking is a good skill to have under your belt, brainstorming is good skill to have under your belt. All of those things are such important parts of whatever you may do in life," Henikoff said.

Brave Initiatives also holds day long workshops one Saturday of every month. All programs are free. Click here for more information.