Help One Kid: Let's Close the Opportunity Gap

The Black Lives Matter movement has been around since 2013. In 2020 it officially took hold in our consciousness.

In response to this movement, many companies came forward and made statements. Statements about supporting groups of Black professionals. Statements about hiring to parity. Statements about putting money forward to support worthy causes.

The challenge of course is at a professional level, many black people are already starting from behind. They are starting from behind for a myriad of systemic racist reasons we have come to truly be aware of in 2020.

So back in May, I was stuck with the question; how do we level the playing field? How do we change the script from an earlier point? How do we right the story?

There no one answer but my thought is, we have to start at the begging. We need to start with kids in school. Ensuring kids in school have the same learning opportunities will at least help everyone start in the race. of course, this is not currently the case.

COVID has obviously exacerbated this gap. But not in the way you might think. It's not so obvious. It's in a million tiny paper cut kinda ways. The mom who can't work full time so is doing her best to keep the boat afloat, the dad who has had to take a step back and thus might not be considered for the future promotion. The parents who are so tired they can't work on homework at night. The kids who don't have devices at home to do e-learnings.

That last one is why we launched Tech4Transformation this week.

It's a drive that allows you to donate your old devices (or money) to students who need them. The devices when donated are wiped to factory settings and upgraded. They are then distributed to kids and families who need them.

If we can start at the beginning, giving every kid a fair shot to learn the same things, then hopefully in a few years we can see the opportunity gap close. If we can help even a few kids have a fair shot at the path you or I had isn't it worth it? If we can affect only one person, maybe we can make a real difference.

I ask you this holiday season to look around your house, find a tablet or laptop that isn't working and donate it. If you're a corporation, consider making a monetary tax deductible donation or donate your bulk old IT as your transition devices.

Help us close this opportunity gap.