Supporting and growing the Raspberry Jam community

For almost five years, Raspberry Jams have created opportunities to welcome new people to the Raspberry Pi community, as well as providing a support network for people of all ages in digital making. All around the world, like-minded people meet up to discuss and share their latest projects, give workshops, and chat about all things Pi. Today, we are making it easier than ever to set up your own Raspberry Jam, thanks to a new Jam Guidebook, branding pack, and starter kit.

Raspberry Jam logo over world map

We think Jams provide lots of great learning opportunities and we’d like to see one in every community. We’re aware of Jams in 43 countries: most recently, we’ve seen new Jams start in Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Honduras! The community team has been working on a plan to support and grow the amazing community of Jam makers around the world. Now it’s time to share the fantastic resources we have produced with you.

The Raspberry Jam Guidebook

One of the things we’ve been working on is a comprehensive Raspberry Jam Guidebook to help people set up their Jam. It’s packed full of advice gathered from the Raspberry Pi community, showing the many different types of Jam and how you can organise your own. It covers everything from promoting and structuring your Jam to managing finances: we’re sure you’ll find it useful. Download it now!

Image of Raspberry Jam Guidebook

Branding pack

One of the things many Jam organisers told us they needed was a set of assets to help with advertising. With that in mind, we’ve created a new branding pack for Jam organisers to use in their promotional materials. There’s a new Raspberry Jam logo, a set of poster templates, a set of graphical assets, and more. Download it now!

Starter kits

Finally, we’ve put together a Raspberry Jam starter kit containing stickers, flyers, printed worksheets, and lots more goodies to help people run their first Jam. Once you’ve submitted your first event to our Jam map, you can apply for your starter kit. Existing Jams won’t miss out either: they can apply for a kit when they submit their next event.

Image of Raspberry Jam starter kit contents

Find a Jam near you!

Take a look at the Jam map and see if there’s an event coming up near you. If you have kids, Jams can be a brilliant way to get them started with coding and making.

Can’t find a local Jam? Start one!

If you can’t find a Jam near you, you can start your own. You don’t have to organise it by yourself. Try to find some other people who would also like a Jam to go to, and get together with them. Work out where you could host your Jam and what form you’d like it to take. It’s OK to start small: just get some people together and see what happens. It’s worth looking at the Jam map to see if any Jams have happened nearby: just check the ‘Past Events’ box.

We have a Raspberry Jam Slack team where you can get help from other Jam organisers. Feel free to get in touch if you would like to join: just email jam@raspberrypi.org and we’ll get back to you. You can also contact us if you need further support in general, or if you have feedback on the resources.

Thanks

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the guidebook and provided insights in the Jam survey. Thanks, too, to all Jam makers and volunteers around the world who do great work providing opportunities for people everywhere!

7 comments

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On Sunday I took my friends grandson along too the Jam at Blackgang chine. Like myself he’s dyslexic so I am hoping that he’ll go into IT as I did. A long time ago when I was his age when my dad (too the dismay of my mum) brought a ZX80 into the house in 1981. I was failing at school and this little white computer changed my life, for the first time there was something I was good at.

I am hoping that me showing the world of the raspberry pi will have the same affect on him. He loves his minecraft and was excited to see you can use the RPi version and code your own blocks. He’s also into robots and this is where the Jam at Blackgang chine worked really well. What 11 year old can’t resist robot dinosaurs? :-)

Dr Lucy Roberts was there, he got a big frill from meeting her. She went above and beyond the call of duty and spent a long time showing him her IoT projects with the tweetable shoes. She also gave us a tour of the park and the robots showing him what had been done and discussing what can be done.

After she left us he look and me, we the biggest smile on his face and said “wow, they have the coolest job ever!”

I would like to thank the gang at Blackgang chine.

It was a wonderful day.
many thanks. :)

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That’s an excellent story.

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We’ve a really great community of people who come to our Raspberry Jams in Southend.

We’ve been going for just over 3 years and have talks, workshops and projects.
We’ve started to run some smaller Raspberry Jams around Essex; Astro Pi and Pioneers competition workshops and helped setup local Code Clubs.

Our next Jam is on Saturday 20th May and members of the local Code Clubs (and other youngsters) are running a beginners Scratch workshop.
Pioneers will be showing and talking about their projects from the previous competition round and meeting to plan this terms activities.

https://www.southendtech.co.uk/southend-raspberry-jam-11

Hope you can come.
Thanks
Andy
@SouthendTech

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Great information! Many thanks!

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is the raspberry pi jam coming to africa?

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There have been Jams in Africa – we know of Jams that have taken place in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon, South Africa, and also Reunion Island. Where are you based?

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Hi, I can download branding pack. Can you check the link.

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