Black History Month: East Palo Alto Nonprofit StreetCode Equipping Kids With Tools For Success
By Jocelyn Moran, KPIX
EAST PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- A city full of culture, history and people with ambitious goals – sits just across from wealthy, affluent Palo Alto. The physical divider -- Highway 101.
While you may live just blocks away from a tech company, access to the technology or the tools to be successful could be beyond your grasp.
StreetCode Academy, a nonprofit organization, has been aiming to change that.
"We offer free technology training to communities of color," said Olatunde Sobomehin, the founding CEO of StreetCode. "That means we offer classes in coding, entrepreneurship and design."
StreetCode just marked five years as a Bay Area organization. They provide classes for free to students as young as 4 years old.
Sobomehin is among those who started it. He moved to the Bay Area as a student to study at nearby Stanford in the late 90s and soon started to see that while tech was emerging, some communities were being left behind.
"When we talk about divides, it's an easy representation when it comes to divides and technology," said Sobomehin, who his students call Tunde. "We're in Silicon Valley. There is an abundance of resources. Not just financially, but in technology, in education. East Palo Alto -- embedded in the heart of that -- still doesn't have access to those technologies."
"And when I say access," he continued. "I don't mean just to the physical devices. I mean to the knowledge, to the opportunity. It's after school programs, it's in school programs."
StreetCode has been trying to be the gap between opportunity and communities of color.
"We serve students from all different backgrounds," said Jasmyne Sanders, the chief operating officer at StreetCode. "The majority of our students are African American, Latinx, Polynesian, but we serve everyone, everyone is welcome."
The way the team describes StreetCode is providing students with the mindset, skills and access to succeed.
"Mindset, it gets to the beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and confidence and agency," said Tamara Sobomehin, the chief education officer.
Skills refers to the technical abilities that students need in an innovation economy and access extends to the opportunities.
"It's helped me a lot in discovering my passion and what I want to do. When I grow up I plan to be a filmmaker and StreetCode has helped me introduce me to more aspects of tech," said Tatiola Sobomehin, a StreetCode student.
But it's not just about the classes. It's also about community.
"Having people to look up to that look like me and talk like me and live in the same place as me is really powerful because not everybody has access to that," Tatiola said.
Nyla Byers has been taking web design classes and now Nyla even teaches other students too.
"You need representation in anything. I wanted to show other kids that you can do it," Byers said.
Sanders said they were very intentional in making sure there was representation across all levels of StreetCode.
"We want to make sure that the people that come in and work with our students can see their value, will see their greatness and appreciate it," Sanders said. "So not all of our instructors, our mentors are people of color, but they are all allies, and they are all supportive of the mission in serving this community."
When COVID hit, StreetCode turned their classes virtual, but the pandemic also highlighted even more the lack of access. Since then, they've provided more than 1,000 laptops for families in the Bay Area.
The classes are still virtual, but that's also allowed them to reach more students.
"There are so many other communities that are very much like East Palo Alto that we want to reach," Sanders said. "Richmond, Oakland, Stockton."
This Black History Month, StreetCode has been highlighting Black leaders in tech, but the team says their work extends beyond February.
"We're saying how can we make sure that those who have been traditionally marginalized in certain economies, how can we make sure that they have access to tools that help support their desire to participate in purposeful production," Tamara said.
Tunde said the goal is for every field, particularly tech, to have voices that are represented at the table.
"When you see the numbers, the lack of diversity in these tech companies that are making products that all of us use, we absolutely have to tackle this," he said.
Tunde said when they started, there were 20 students in two classrooms. Last year alone, they were serving 3,000.
StreetCode is providing classes in three curriculums: hack, hustle and design – to help equip young people with the tools to become successful and the leaders of tomorrow.
"Let's make sure that everyone here knows that yes you can do this, yes you belong here, and we'll support you. Let's figure this out. Let's help bridge that digital divide. Lets help get you to your dream role, your dream job, whatever it is that's going to help you stay here," Sanders said.