Techtonica is a nonprofit based in San Francisco with a mission to empower local women and non-binary adults with low incomes while making every tech team as diverse as its local community. We secure corporate sponsorships in the form of pre-paid recruitment fees so that we can provide free tech training, living and childcare stipends so participants can focus on learning full-time, and job placement. Global economies are negatively impacted by tech’s diversity problem, as more products are being built by homogeneous groups, which reduces innovation, financial success, and applicability of products. These problems can be addressed by providing accessible learning opportunities to underrepresented groups. Unfortunately, for many, the path into tech is barred by costs associated with tuition, rent, household bills, family, accessibility, equipment, and time. Techtonica addresses these barriers for entry with free training followed by guaranteed job placement with tech companies looking to make a positive social impact.
In many cases, people who have immigrated to the United States do so in pursuit of learning the exact technical education that Techtonica provides. Several Techtonica apprentices in this year’s program have expressed a desire to help their country of origin in some way relating to computers, internet, accessibility, and education. Our goal is to help as many people as possible to bridge the tech opportunity gap. In seeking to close the digital divide, increased accessibility provides an actionable solution.
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