Hood Code offers computer skills to kids in public housing
NEW YORK -- A nonprofit organization teaching computer coding to children living in NYCHA complexes received a major boost to its budget this week.
Hood Code founder Jason Gibson received the David Prize, which donates $200,000 each year to five individuals working to create a better and brighter New York City.
On Wednesday, Gibson hosted a class at the Riverside School across the street from the Amsterdam Houses on West End Avenue. A dozen students worked on coding projects through the Scratch program.
Gibson created Hood Code five years ago. Now he serves 70 students each week across three NYCHA-connected locations.
"All kids love games," Gibson said, "so we talk about the games that they play. We try to help them envision themselves actually creating something that they play."
The funds from the David Prize will help Hood Code serve kids in more complexes and hire more instructors, like 16-year-old Christopher Glaspy, whose older sister took classes with the program.
"One day she was coding and I see it on her computer screen, like what is that?" Glaspy remembered. "And she taught me it."
Glaspy plans to study computer science as a minor in college.
"It feels great to help the middle schoolers to code, teach them how to do something on computers," said the teen.
Gibson's goal to give guidance goes back to his days sitting in a cell. In 2013, he received a five-year sentence for drug charges.
"Prison is pretty therapeutic and gives you some time to self-reflect," Gibson acknowledged. "So during that time, I was trying to figure out like, what am I going to come home and do?"
He decided the tech industry would afford him the same lifestyle selling drugs supported.
"Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and these folks, you know, they had exposure to technology at a really young age," said Gibson. "Then that just had me thinking about younger generations that are coming from my same neighborhood."
Gibson used his skills of salesmanship to recruit sponsors and the support of the city to start his program in East Harlem. As Hood Code grows, he hopes to show every kid in public housing they, too, can choose smarts over streets.
The funds from the David Prize will support Hood Code's programming for the next two years. To learn more about classes, click here.
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