Together, we can multiply the impact.

So much good is being done in Atlanta and I’d like to help shine a spotlight on it so we can multiply it. In the coming months, I’ll share my conversations with some Atlanta leaders and organizations who are driving positive local change.

First up is Andre Dickens, chief development officer of TechBridge. TechBridge focuses on reducing generational poverty in Atlanta and beyond. One way they do this is to help unemployed and under-employed individuals of all ages train for and land entry-level technology jobs. These jobs not only help them build sustainable careers, they also help our community by filling the type of high-demand opportunity jobs that help our economy thrive.

I’m proud that Accenture is helping TechBridge in this effort, providing financial support, volunteer support and as an employer for graduates of the Technology Career Program (TCP). I’m sharing a conversation Andre and I had recently about what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. Let me know your thoughts.

Chloe: Andre, you're a fifth-generation Atlantan and a proud graduate of the Atlanta public school system. Atlanta is truly your home. Can you tell me about TechBridge’s Technology Career Program and how your hometown experience inspired you to start it?

Andre: Yes, I am a proud Atlantan, born and raised here. I attended Atlanta public schools. I was the first in my family to go to college at Georgia Tech and then at Georgia State. That education helped me create the quality of life that I want. I saw my whole family’s economic situation change for the better when I got those degrees.

That’s one of the reasons I was inspired to start TCP. We started it, initially, because of an all-too-common scenario. I knew far too many young adults who either didn’t go to college or couldn't finish college. I hated seeing them miss a pathway to career opportunities because something had happened in life that took them off track.  

I knew if we could provide those pathways in the form of free training for them, we could help them become part of the technology ecosystem that provides sustainable careers. Then they could not only lift themselves out of poverty but also lift their whole family, just like my education did for my family.

If you lift enough families, you change entire communities. We have concentrations of poverty in Atlanta, like every other city. Let’s look at an example.

In a community of 1,000 people, where more than half are in poverty, it’s not unforeseeable to train 200 people—to give them skills that will help them land that $50,000 job. You do that enough times and you can change a community from being low-income and struggling to a community that’s a functioning, contributing part of society.

That's why we started the program and I'm so grateful to Accenture for being the first company who said yes when we asked for help in the beginning. You hire people every single time we present a new class. And it’s not just Accenture now—the program is growing like wildfire. With the leadership of our CEO, Nicole Armstrong, and the TCP team and all of our great partners, the program has just exploded.

Chloe: How long ago was it started?

Andre: We thought it up in 2017, and the first class started in June 2018. We started out focused on 18-24-year-olds.  We looked for graduates from Atlanta high schools who weren’t going to college and let them know they could come to us for job-skill training. The first class was Salesforce training—I still remember that Accenture gave $100,000 to help us train this class. We train in four-month increments so four months later, we had another class of candidates train in Microsoft Azure. By the third cohort, we had 18-year-olds in class with 50-year-olds as we realized our remit should be broader. I remember one class we had a mother and son in class together. It’s become multi-generational.

Chloe: How many lives do you think have been impacted?

Andre: We’ve graduated 300 people, but roughly 40% of the participants have dependents, so we’ve impacted more lives that. And it’s more than just technical skills. We also teach professional development, financial literacy, teamwork, goal setting and time management. You can’t work for organizations like Accenture and not know how to do some of these things. So, they’re woven in our curriculum.

Chloe: Those wrap-around services you provide are critical. I agree that when we get our candidates from TechBridge, they're ready to work at Accenture and they're ready to be impactful. They have the support they need to be successful. What would your message be to companies as they consider TechBridge as a potential source of technology talent?

Andre: I think they should look at these people as non-traditional talent that is untapped, yet available right here, locally.

I’d say to business leaders around Atlanta: Many of our students live in communities where your company logo is on a building that they pass by. They hear of you in the news but a lot of these people don’t feel like you consider them as possibilities for your future workforce.

We have the chance to break the cycle of families where generation after generation, the highest income earned is $12 or $15 per hour. Give these qualified people a chance at earning a sustainable living and they will become loyal employees.

Right now we have a 94% retention rate and we're in year three. So, the person who got hired from our program by one of our partners in 2018, they're still working there because that company presented them something nobody else has—something so totally different from what their hourly restaurant, retail or warehouse job did.  

True story. Recently I was on a photo shoot and stepped outside on Peachtree Street. I started walking towards my car and ran into a TCP grad. And he’s hugging me and he’s telling me, “I’m the project lead now for my project.” And when I asked him where he landed, he told me Accenture. And he said, “Dude, in just a year and a half, you wouldn’t believe what I'm working on.” I can't even tell you what else he said, because I was welling up, watching his emotions and how proud he was to be leading this project.

Chloe: I’m welling up too, Andre. TechBridge is really creating sustainable, impactful change for so many. And I am just so excited that we are part of that too.

Andre: I want to double click on the story I just told. I really want local business leaders to hear this:  

Create the right environment and training and people will meet the moment. They will rise up to it, meet the challenge and become a loyal employee—a real leader on their teams.

Chloe: What a powerful message—and opportunity for our business community. The Technology Career Program has done so much already for so many people. As you dream big, what's your vision for the future?

Andre: My vision is for as many people as possible to have the quality of life that they deserve. And I think that as we speak about technology careers in workforce, we need to be aware that in Atlanta we have the highest income immobility in the country. Even though we have all this great prosperity being generated by big and small businesses, we still have the highest income immobility in the country. There’s only a 4% chance of making it out of poverty and into the upper middle class in Atlanta. That's a sad, sad state. It's on par with only one or two other places in the country.

Income immobility means that too many people begin life with a generational poverty they didn’t create—they are just born into it. Too many people are staying in that poverty, here in Atlanta, even if they’re working. We have to create pathways out of it—that’s what TechBridge is doing.

And those pathways for individuals literally can change a community. We give people high-demand technology skills. We give them valuable knowledge, equipping them with both access and opportunity when we partner with businesses like Accenture.  

When you ask me what I see as the vision for our future, it is a balanced economic growth model that doesn't leave people behind. A lot of challenges that we see, from crime to homelessness to some of the ugliness in our country, are because people feel despair and hopelessness. My future looks like one where everybody at least can see some semblance of hope. I know that requires a whole lot of people to move in the direction of selflessness. But I think that when you present them with the sense of achievement that you get when you change someone's life—and it only cost you some time and willingness and effort--they’ll say, ‘I'll do that again. I benefited from it too. That felt good and it did good.’

Chloe: I love that! Sign me up. You described it so well and it gives me a reason to get excited every day when I see the impact we are making together. Thank you so much Andre for all you and TechBridge are doing for our community.