((PKG)) TECH JOBS FOR HOMELESS
(Banner: Tech Jobs for the Homeless))
((Reporter/Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: San Francisco, California))
((NATS))
((VICTORIA WESTBROOK, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS AND OPERATIONS, CODE TENDERLOIN))
The Tenderloin neighborhood is a really tight-knit community. Actually there’s a lot of people who live here, but there’s a lot of desperation and a lot of heartache here. There’s a lot of people that are homeless, addicted to drugs, people doing crime, but there’s also a lot of families that have lived here for many, many years but they’re getting pushed out the more gentrified the city’s becoming.
((NATS))
((DEL SEYMOUR, FOUNDER, CODE TENDERLOIN))
The Tenderloin is a very lack-of-resource neighborhood. We don’t have a lot of resources. We don’t have a lot of jobs. Unemployment is completely off the hook. Our poverty level is below most third world countries. We don’t have any adequate schools. We don’t really have any hospitals. It’s a very neglected neighborhood.
((NATS))
((VICTORIA WESTBROOK, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS AND OPERATIONS, CODE TENDERLOIN))
Code Tenderloin is a workforce development nonprofit. We work with people with barriers to employment. So that can mean anything from reentry, getting out of prison, homeless, at risk of becoming homeless, victims or survivors of domestic violence. It can be pretty much anybody that’s under or unemployed. It could be people that have never had a legal job in their lives.
((DEL SEYMOUR, FOUNDER, CODE TENDERLOIN))
Due to a drug addiction that I acquired immediately when I got here, I became homeless for 18 years and I wandered these streets like a zombie, day and night, for 18 years, using drugs, selling drugs, being arrested. I have 14 felony arrests in this neighborhood. So, I know the area well.
((NATS))
((DANIEL HENRY, STUDENT, CODE TENDERLOIN))
It's us against the tech guys, you know, how am I ever going to be able to work in that industry? My friends see how tech savvy I am and were like you should be working in tech, and I was like, you're right, I should.
((DEL SEYMOUR, FOUNDER, CODE TENDERLOIN))
First week out, we go to the basic programmer’s job readiness. And that’s where we take a person who’s never had a job before, just got out of prison, just got out of a drug program, just got out of high school, just got out of the service, and we take them from A to Z to be a competitive candidate in the HR departments of major companies.
We do intensive one-on-one development, re-development, re-re-development until we get it right.
((ALPHONZO WILLIAMS, STUDENT, CODE TENDERLOIN))
Each visit to a new tech company is amazing. I learn something new, hopefully I can learn something else. Coding, I'm really getting into coding.
((NATS))
((DEL SEYMOUR, FOUNDER, CODE TENDERLOIN))
Well, the coding class is where we get you the basics to find out whether you’re able to do coding, whether you want to do coding, whether you really like a computer, and if the computer likes you. So after five weeks, maybe decide, no, this is not for me. I can’t sit in front of this stupid little machine for eight hours a day. Or you might say, I love it, give me more. And then we’ll give you more.
((STEPHANIE BOOHER, STUDENT, CODE TENDERLOIN))
They should have a slogan, like, “from the streets to six figures in six weeks.”
((NATS))
