Techtonica: How to Diversify Tech AND Empower Neighbors in Need

What if tech companies invested more in underrepresented locals in need, and improved diversity in the process?

I’m launching a nonprofit called Techtonica that offers low-income women and non-binary adults free tech training, along with living and childcare stipends, then places them in positions at sponsoring companies that are ready to support more diverse teams. (Spread the word and support us here.)

Four years ago, my full-time, Jane-of-all-trades job at a startup in San Francisco barely covered rent. Through my job, I became curious about how to build websites. When I found out about and was accepted to a new coding program, I did something a bit extreme to scrape together enough money for tuition—I decided to get married in a simple, inexpensive wedding in a month and I asked guests to give money instead of gifts.

Two weeks after graduating from the program, I received an offer of a job(!)with benefits(!) and a salary(!) that was three times(!!!) my previous annual income—benefits that seem normal to your average tech worker, but which had previously seemed so far out of reach to me. Within a whirlwind six months, I became engaged and married, learned a whole new technical vocabulary, and secured an entirely new job as a software engineer.

Because learning tech skills was so empowering to me, I’ve spent countless hours since then helping other underrepresented people join, feel comfortable in, and stay in the tech industry in whichever role works best for them. I’ve curated a learning-to-code resources spreadsheet, connected people, spread the word about jobs, offered support and advice, tweeted about diversity and inclusion issues, and organized meetups and workshops in San Francisco, Shanghai, and London. Last year, I spearheaded the #ILookLikeAnEngineer ad campaign that resulted in billboards of underrepresented engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area and appeared in Google’s Year in Search video.

But not too long ago, I was the one struggling to make ends meet, and I feel like my stumbling into the tech world was rather random and lucky. I recognize that there are many barriers to entry—even knowing about meetups and tech career options or bringing a laptop to a free workshop requires privilege that not everyone has.

As housing, cost of living, and tech training programs have become more expensive over the last four years, I’ve been wondering, How can underrepresented people who are struggling financially possibly join tech? Sure, there are “free” tech workshops, but they aren’t rigorous enough to develop the skills to attain a job, and they require the person to bring a laptop.

Tuition for coding bootcamps has tripled since 2012, averaging more than $15,000 in tuition alone for San Francisco programs. Scholarships are limited and don’t completely cover cost of living or necessary tools, like laptops, maintaining a significant financial barrier. I also see problems with limited transitions into jobs, unsafe learning environments for underrepresented folks, and a focus only on engineering when many other skills would be beneficial.

Many for-profit training programs lack transparency, long-term dedication to students, and adequate support for parents and people with disabilities. These barriers are especially worrisome in San Francisco, where so many are struggling and often ignored or despised in their struggle, and it’s especially clear among the contrasting privileges of highly-valued tech workers.

Did you know that the income disparity in San Francisco is worse than Rwanda’s?

In zip code 94102 (the Tenderloin and Western Addition areas of San Francisco), 59.6% of people make less than $35,000 a year—less than rent for an entire year in the average San Francisco one-bedroom [U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey].

The area that 94102 covers is literally across the street from well-known tech companies and high-rise luxury housing. These and other tech companies are aware of the nearby poverty and have put together many philanthropic initiatives, but these initiatives fall short of empowering people to conquer poverty and thrive.

Unfortunately, poverty is more likely to affect underrepresented groups. Transgender residents of California were found to be twice as likely to be living below the poverty line of $10,400, and the proportion of Black and Hispanic or Latino households that have lower incomes is bigger than the proportion they represent in the population. With such low income levels, residents in need (who are more likely to be from underrepresented groups), are likely unable to afford the time and training it requires to make a transition into tech careers that would support them and their families.

One resident of the Tenderloin lamented to me that the only role available to her and her neighbors is that of security guard (which pays around $35,000 a year—not nearly enough, and the same goes with other blue-collar jobs at tech companies).

Last year, to provide people without their own computers the opportunity to learn some programming skills, I started organizing intro-to-coding workshops for low-income women and genderqueer adults at computer labs in the Tenderloin.

Companies would be fortunate and wise to employ the exceptional students I’ve met and taught.

Contrary to stereotypes, the people who have attended are smart, eager to learn, resilient, and hard-working. While some attendees weren’t sure what “coding” referred to, others have wished for years that they could afford to quit their jobs and earn computer science degrees. Every single attendee has indicated that they wanted to attend another workshop, and many have said some version of, “Coding is so much easier and so much more interesting than I thought it would be.”

Companies would be fortunate and wise to employ the exceptional students I’ve met and taught at workshops. But while they say they want to do the right thing and build diverse teams (which lead to more innovation and productivity, reaching a wider customer base, and gaining greater financial returns), they rarely talk about building teams with differing socioeconomic backgrounds. They may dedicate very large budgets to diversity initiatives, but without realizing it, they often expect underrepresented people to pay their own way. While realizing there are problems with displacement, tech companies don’t seem to connect the idea of “supporting locals” with “training and gainfully employing locals,” so they continue to hire and pay relocation premiums to bring new people into the city, which arguably worsens the inequity and leads to more displacement.

What if tech companies stopped investing so much time and money in hiring from afar, and instead invested in training and hiring locals in danger of displacement? Would housing prices stop skyrocketing? Would there be fewer unhoused neighbors and cleaner San Francisco streets? What if doing well and doing good could happen together? What if we only need one solution to simultaneously innovate and empower, to both drive business success and bring meaningful, equalizing change to the world?

Tech companies in need of diverse teams and local, underemployed people in need of employable technical skills can help each other.

Tech companies in need of diverse teams and local, underemployed people in need of employable technical skills can help each other. I’m launching a nonprofit called Techtonica that provides women and non-binary adults in need free tech training along with living and childcare stipends. At the end of the program, students are welcomed into employment in the tech industry by the companies that sponsored the training.

Techtonica is the solution we all need—underrepresented neighbors barely scraping by will gain much-needed skills and employment, and companies will benefit from having more diverse teams.

When I told Tenderloin Resident Rocio (above, left) about Techtonica's sponsored training, she said, "This program would be perfect and a blessing for me." She has an industrial engineering degree but has wished for years that she could afford to become a software engineer.

Techtonica first provides introductory workshops with local organizations such as St. Anthony’s Tenderloin Technology Lab and then invites vetted students to apply to the full-time program. Training for accepted students is sponsored by companies involved in student mentorship and curriculum development.

The curriculum includes useful technical and business skills such as the growth mindset, software engineering, project management, data analysis, inclusive leadership, and UI/UX design. Students receive a living stipend and if needed, a childcare stipend, so they can afford to quit their jobs and pay rent and other bills while they learn. At the end of training, they become employees of the sponsoring companies.

For sponsoring a Techtonica student, companies receive:

• Inclusion training
• The chance to help form the curriculum
• A resilient, dedicated new employee
• A tax deduction
• The chance to support the local community and build diverse technical teams

Techtonica aims to make every technical team as diverse as its local community while empowering low-income women and non-binary adults through technical training and careers. If you support that goal, please join us! Here are the best ways you can help:

• Make a tax-deductible donation so we can make a difference for our first five students.
• Spread the word about Techtonica to help us #BridgeTheTechGap: on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, with your friends, etc.
• Encourage your company to sponsor and hire students.
• Let us know about space (like a meeting room) we could use for the first class.
• Volunteer whatever skills you have.
• Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

To find out more about Techtonica, please visit our website, and watch out for more information about sponsoring students.

This post was originally published here.