26 days ago
And the winner is...
The judges have weighed in, and we're excited to publicly announce the winners of #SJHPHL2026:
🥇 1st Place — Served
Nonso Elelleh
Served reimagines the legal phrase "you've been served" as an act of care. Built as a digital community dinner table, the project invites visitors to place a hand-illustrated object at the table and attach a message of encouragement. Those messages are then delivered as unexpected text blasts to law students — small, designed moments of connection in an environment that too often rewards isolation.
🥈 2nd Place — BEACON
Vikranta Barsay
BEACON addresses a critical gap in emergency communication: the assumption that people in crisis can speak clearly, quickly, and in English. The tool enables silent, multilingual interaction with 911, transmitting structured information — including translated text, real-time GPS, and ambient audio — so that responders can act even when speaking is unsafe or impossible.
🥉 3rd Place — Philadelphia Property Tax Assessment Appeal Tool
Community Legal Services Team
This project targets a deeply local and deeply felt inequity: property tax overassessment in Philadelphia's Black and Brown neighborhoods, where inaccurate assessments are more common and appeals are less frequently filed. The tool guides homeowners through a simple process to generate and submit a high-quality appeal directly to the Office of Property Assessment and the Board of Revision of Taxes. Built on Docassemble — an open-source guided interview platform already in use at Community Legal Services — it translates a confusing administrative process into a clear, accessible pathway for residents to challenge assessments that threaten housing stability and intergenerational wealth.
🏅 Honorable Mention — WhyIsMyPowerBillSoHigh.com
Max Pod & Jonah Samuels
This tool turns a zip code into a personalized action plan — surfacing shut-off protections, bill relief options, and refunds that Pennsylvania residents may not know they're entitled to. By converting regulatory and energy data into actionable guidance, the project makes technically available information practically accessible to households navigating rising utility costs.
Congratulations to all of the teams that competed this weekend. In 36 hours, you took real problems faced by real people and built something tangible in response. That's not a small thing.
Please be sure to visit the Project Gallery to congratulate the winning teams. and check out all of the awesome submissions.
Even though the competition is over, you don't have to stop. Update your portfolio to update your followers on your project(s) and get feedback from peers.
If interested to continue to work on your project and/or find new team members, consider sharing the project on the Code for Philly Slack - members meet monthly to work on projects. Click here to learn more about Code for Philly.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the hackathon, please post on the discussion forum.