Resilient Coders: Tech Careers for BIPOC

In Boston, the median net wealth for a white household is $247,500, $8 for Black households and $0 for Dominican ones. This disparity is partly driven by the gap in access to employment and higher education, and Boston's high cost of living. Furthermore, communities of color have an uncertain economic future, e.g., African Americans tend to be over-represented in jobs that are less lucrative and most likely to be automated. Families and whole communities depend on these jobs.
We propose radical equity as an approach to workforce development and reducing the racial wealth gap. pioneer alternative pathways to prosperity that put communities of color first. Given Boston’s booming tech economy, we believe that by training and placing young adults of color in software engineering, we are making these communities more resilient to changes in the economy.

For many the future is already here: one the most common job for black men is driver, for black women, it's retail associate, and those jobs are disappearing. CVS and McDonald's keep rolling out automatic points of sales, companies in this very city are testing driverless cars that perform better  than humans and robots that will replace scores of warehouse workers. This will exacerbate the racial wealth gap in Boston which is driven by inequitable access to good jobs and higher education, and a high cost of living.

Boston benefits from a thriving tech economy. Software developers have median wages of about $100,000. Those jobs are projected to grow by 26.4% between 2016 and 2026, with 2,048 annual openings. And they are becoming increasingly accessible. Today, a college graduate can pay for a coding boot-camp and work as a developer. But for young adults with a high school diploma and little financial security, the door is too often closed. Somehow simply graduating from college is considered a good proxy for how good a developer one might be; but when only 25% of Black people and 18% of Latinx people have college degrees in Massachusetts, college becomes a proxy for whiteness.

Our highly competitive coding bootcamp trains young adults of color from Greater Boston’s low-income communities as full-stack software developers. Our graduates are proficient in some of the most in-demand technologies: responsive CSS, vanilla javascript, jQuery, React, Node, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL. These are the technologies that power applications like Gmail, Netflix, and Facebook.

In 2020, we added five weeks of employer-informed training to our 15 week program. After training our students in the fundamentals of software engineering, we focus on the specific skills (technical and/or professional) which will enable them to perform even better on the job. During that time, students’ days mirror those of software engineers: they work on larger projects, learn about typical development workflows, work in sprints using agile methods, etc.

Furthermore, we engage employers early so that by week 14 they are ready to start interviewing our graduates-to-be for job openings. Once they have made a successful hire they pay Resilient Coders a placement fee of $15,000 per hire. Through our model, employers are training for hire rather than relying on exclusionary proxies for technical and professional skills. Our impact is momentous: in 5 months our graduates go from being low-income to commanding 6 figure salaries.

We serve young adults of color from Greater Boston's low-income communities who are unemployed or underemployed. The vast majority of them don't have a college degree and all come from low-income households.

In 2019, we placed 85% of our graduates into full time jobs as software engineers with an average starting salary of $98,000. This is a transformational change for our coders. We are also grooming the new crop of tech leaders. Indeed, the engineers of today will become the managers, influencers, and leaders of tomorrow, and they in turn can open networks, provide resources for their peers, and influence hiring and inclusion practices.

Meet Nnenna Ndukwe who went from working at a tanning salon to becoming a software developer at a major media company. Meet Pariss Chandler, a Cambridge native who has become, in the space of a few months, a leading voice for equity and inclusion in tech. She created #BlackTechTwitter, bringing together thousands of tech professionals of color from around the world. She recently launched BlackTechPipeline, a platform that connects Black technologists to employers.  Meet Rizel Bobb-Semple, one of Boston Inno’s 25 under 25 and Hacker Noon’s 200 Black Women in Tech to follow.

With 52+ universities and colleges, Boston has a robust employment pipeline from colleges to the tech industry. Young adults of color have limited access to the existing college pipeline, which means limited access to high-growth tech careers.

Software engineering is one of the fastest growing high-wage occupations. For relatively little training we can provide a career in one of the most dynamic occupations of our economy. 

By making these high-income opportunities available to low-income people of color, we are building a more equitable system of pathways to high-growth careers and taking a first step towards reducing the racial wealth gap. 

Full-time staff: 8

Centering community

We are intentional about race. We only serve people of color from low-income communities. This helps us ensure that all of decision about program, operations, or funding are made with the unadulterated goal of furthering racial justice.

Representative staff

100% of our staff is composed of people of color. We are also building internal recruiting pipelines. For example, we train our own alumni become experts-in-residence and instructors for our program.

Re-calibration of power

• As we grow our board of directors, we want to make sure to that we are governed by the community that we serve. As of today 3 out of 5 of our board members are tech workers of color, including one alumna from our boot-camp.
• We recently launched our Alumni Council with real power over our program. Among other things, the alumni council vets mentors, oversees curriculum, and evaluates program staff.

We pioneer alternative pathways to prosperity that put communities of color first. In 2019, we trained and placed 34 young adults as software engineers with an average annual salary above $98,000. With our recent successes, the question we are now trying to answer is: can we increase the number of people we serve while keeping a radical equity mindset? Indeed, we are hesitant to increase the number of people we serve until we are confident we can scale in an equitable manner, which means:

1. providing high-growth full-time jobs. We don't work with employers for internships or jobs paid under-market rate;

2. staying radically free. Our program does not rely on students going into debt, that means being tuition-free and providing a stipend ($250/week), without asking our graduates to pay us back through income-share agreements;

3. promoting inclusive pedagogy. We don't use standardized testing. Instead we focus on discussion, co-learning, and project-based learning. We conceive of education as a tool for liberation and center our communities of color in all aspects of our work.

We believe that our 20-week bootcamp is a potential answer to this problem as it allows us to strengthen our relationships with employers, provide quality and inclusive training to a large number of people, and deepen our commitment to our community.

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The racial wealth gap continues to widen and Black and Latinx workers are overrepresented in occupations facing automation while being excluded from high-growth careers. In order to make communities of color more resilient to changes in the economy, Resilient Coders provides an alternative pathway to college for young adults of color to access software engineering roles.

We believe that (1) training and placing individuals of color from low-income backgrounds in software engineering jobs, we increase their income in a sustainable manner which will enable them to (2) build wealth for their families and spend in communities of color. Furthermore, these technologists of color can then (3) build a community of tech workers of color and organize to influence hiring, advancement, and inclusion policies at tech companies, especially as they advance in leadership roles, thus leading to a more equitable employment in the industry.

We operate in a very niche market. By focusing on software engineering, rather than IT help desk type roles for example, we are pushing the consensus on what is accessible to low-income people of color without a college degree. Through our program, we show that talent is really distributed equally and that our population’s socioeconomic background and lack of access to higher education doesn’t have to prevent them from getting high paying full time permanent jobs in technology. On the one hand, we have higher expectations for the community we serve. We believe that a person of color who works a part time job in retail with no college experience can, in a few months, work as a software engineer at one of the fastest growing tech companies in the state. Instead of working to incrementally improve a pipeline that is structurally racist, we have decided to create our own. On the other hand, we are demanding more from employers. We don’t place our students into internships and demand that employers compensate our talent at the same level they would any other new hire.

We are scaling a movement for an equitable workforce that increases access to automation-resilient careers. We wish to propagate our value-system by building a network of equity-led organizations and leaders who (1) provide high-growth jobs, (2) are radically free, that is they don't further indebt a population that is already trailing behind in wealth building, and (3) understand education as a tool for liberation, which is reflected in an inclusive pedagogy. 

In 2020, we learned that our students can thrive with remote instruction as long as we keep true to our equity and racial justice values. In 2021, we are launching a remote pilot program in Philadelphia, adding 10 additional students to our 30 people January boot-camp, and possibly an additional 30 coders in the second half of the year. This would bring us to 100 students served in 2021, double our 2020 enrollment numbers.

Remote instruction gives us a unique opportunity to grow the number of students served without being constrained by space. However, our program remains rooted in local communities: we partner with community-based organizations and develop local talent as we grow instead of opening our remote program to a national audience. 

By 2025, our goals are to: 

(1) Refine our fee for service model, thus increasing our revenues from employers and reducing the share of student cost covered by philanthropy.

(2) Validate our replication model in Philadelphia and launch programs in two additional cities. 

(3) Invest in systemic solutions by building capacity in advocacy and lobbying. 

As we plan for expansion, we seek to answer the following:

• How can we rapidly scale our program, through remote instruction for example, while staying firmly rooted in the communities we serve?
• Which markets should we invest in? 
• What does investing in systemic change look like at Resilient Coders beyond our bootcamp?

Uncertainty of the Labor Market

With hiring freezes, layoffs, and remote work, competition for software engineering roles is increasing. Conversely, we are garnering interest from companies outside of Eastern Massachusetts for remote positions. We have to understand this shifting job market and evaluate the opportunities and pitfalls it may contain for our community.

Capacity Building 

1. We refuse to grow the number of students we enroll unless we feel confident we can place them into jobs. Therefore, we need to grow a sales team that will procure and maintain employer relationships. 
2. Our model relies on individualized learning and small group discussions. As we grow, we will need to hire more Experts-in-Residence (about 1 for every 12 students).
3. We understand that the problem we are tackling is systemic, therefore we need to be intentional about building capacity for staff to innovate and re-imagine our current workforce development model.
4. Even though we're able to offer our program remotely, we have deep community ties and plan on keeping a physical presence for our programs, so we will need to invest in space. 
5. We need to expand our fundraising capacity to be in line with our growth trajectory and make the above-mentioned investments.

Uncertainty of the Labor Market

In order to sustain employers' commitment to hire equitably, our bootcamp program is designed to be an integral part of companies' recruiting processes akin to campus recruitment. This requires deep collaboration between Resilient Coders and local employers through, for example: 

• a staff attuned to the local tech industry trends;
• a dedicated community of volunteers of local software engineers;
• a Technical Advisory Council convening tech leaders from local employers e.g., Audible, the Broad Institute, Humana, Hubspot, AthenaHealth among others.

Furthermore, advocacy for more sustainable solutions has become an imperative. This is why a portion of our staff's time is allocated to transformational strategic work with projects such as an Equitable Employment Council led by workers of color in tech and advocating for a Workforce Equity Trust Fund proposed by the Center for American Progress.

Capacity Building

1. In 2020 we hired a Sales Development Representative to join our sales team and are hiring a Development Associate on the fundraising side.
2. We anticipate a ratio of 1 Expert-in-Residence for every 12 students. We embrace the fact that this role might be a revolving door for young engineers by positioning it as 1 year of service for Resilient Coders Alumni who have worked for at least a year in tech. It is a fellowship during which the EiR invests heavily in their continued learning (20% of time dedicated to professional development, PD budget, mentorship etc.) while providing instructional support.

Longitudinal data about our alumni. For the moment, we are able to keep up with our alumni community thanks to our events and continued support. However, we anticipate having a hard time keeping track of there continued learning habits, advancement, and wealth building journey as our community continues to grow.

Better labor market data. This is especially important as we expand into new markets, we'd like to have a better view on the labor market. Unfortunately, organizations of our size are too small to make an investment in big research platforms.

1. We are governed by the communities we serve

We believe that the leaders of a movement must emerge from the movement itself. Our staff is 100% composed of people of color who grew up in circumstances similar to our students' (race, culture, economic and immigration background). We appointed Dunia Goncalves, a developer and Resilient Coders alumna, and Ester Peña, a tech leader from the Latinx community in Lawrence, MA to our Board of Directors. Furthermore, we have an Alumni Council with authority: they vet mentors, oversee curriculum, and have the power to remove instructional staff.

2. We are active in the local tech community

Leon Noel, our Managing Director of Engineering, is an internationally recognized entrepreneur. Before joining Resilient Coders, he co-founded SocialSci, a scientific surveying company relied on by over 4000 academic institutions. He is supported by Experts-in-Residence, Vonds Auguste (Resilient Coders alumnus), and Alex Soto (tech educator and grassroots organizer), who provide technical coaching. 

Stephanie Castaños, our Director of Community Engagement, was a program manager at Startup Institute. David Delmar Sentíes, Founder and Executive Director, is a prominent and visible member of the tech community who has worked with award-winning startups as well as established brands.

3. We are impact driven 

We see ourselves as workforce equity activists who are primarily concerned with the economic prosperity of Boston's communities of color. Rouguiatou Diallo, Chief of Staff, has experience in impact assessment and performance management, through her work in management consulting.

We work closely with employers on building pipelines to recruit entry level engineering talent. We extended our bootcamp program from 15 to 20 weeks to formalize how employer partners engage and recruit s. 

• Weeks 1-14: intensive training in software engineering. Employers volunteer at Resilient Coders by sending their employees to mentor our students during Community Hours or mock interview nights. 
• Week 15-20: By the end of week 15, employer partners are matched with talent. Students are divided in teams and work in sprints, modeling the workflow of the engineering teams they will join. By the time our students graduate, they're ready to work as full-time software engineers at partner companies.

We are active in the local workforce development community, most notably through Project Catapult, an initiative of Skillworks and the Boston Foundation to take advantage of the tight-labor market and bring about the next-generation of workforce development organizations. In fact, we contributed to the Catapult Papers in 2019.

We also are active with other tech organizers (Boston Tech Workers for Justice and Tech Workers Coalition) and local grassroots organizations (Action 4 Equity) on advocacy efforts for racial equity in the local job market.

Finally, we collaborate with the Boston Private Industry Council on employer outreach and to provide case management for the younger adults we serve (18 to 24 years old). The Boston PIC convenes a group of tech talent providers under the TechHire initiative.

This is the type of coalition we are planning to replicate in Philadelphia. 

We provide a path towards economic mobility: in 5 months our graduates go from being low-income to commanding 6 figure salaries. Though our program is modeled after for-profits coding bootcamps, we are committed to racial equity: 

We are radically affordable. Our bootcamp is free and we provide a stipend of $250 per week to our students because our population can’t afford to leave the workforce for 5 months. We also don't ask them to pay us back. Instead, our graduates use their income to repay loans or debts and support their families. We refuse to depend on our alumni for our financial sustainability, we see them as agents of change within their communities. 

We are demand-driven. We train our students in the skills that they will use on the job. That means that employers are directly involved in the program. Being demand-driven also means that employers are the ones who pay for our services through a placement fee.

We center community. Alumni are crucial to the student experience as they serve as the primary mentors for new students and are our main source of referral for new talent. They also rely on Resilient Coders for their continued learning especially for the first year on the job. Not only do alumni take advantage of Community Hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays to check in with the Resilient Coders pedagogy team, they also continue learning and growing as young professionals through workshops (wealth building, open-source project, etc.) and clubs (Math, Bookclub, Hacktivism, etc.)

Earned income carries the most potential in helping us reach financial stability. There’s an opportunity to align employers’ commercial and
social impact priorities by innovating on their recruitment processes.
We are implementing placement fees on a sliding scale based on the size
of the company (between $8,000 and $15,000 per hire). This allows us to
raise the stakes for employers, fortify our partnerships and remain
accountable by tying financial results to program success.

Back in April 2020, prospects for our fee for service model seemed dire but employers have come back to the table in the second part of the year. As of today, we have 21 commitments to hire from our current cohort (16 graduates in December). Already 9 of our graduates-to-be have received official offers with an average salary above $90,000 two weeks away from graduation. Employers have also agreed to pay a placement fee, which validates our fee-for-service model and encourages us to expect the majority of our placements to be paid in 2021.

2019 revenues per income source:

• Foundations and corporations: $779,368
• Unrestricted donations - Individuals: $161,453
• Earned income: $51,960
• In-kind: $164,967
• Dividend & Interest: $10,315
• Gains and Losses: $297
• TOTAL: $1,168,360

In 2020, we've seen an increase in earned income, thanks to our push for fee for service and in individual donations. We're hoping to continue growing these revenue streams in the years to come.

In 2021, we hope to raise about $1.3M in contributed income from grants and individual donations. 

Total expenses: $ 1,437,947

Cost categories: 

• Personnel (51%)

• Rent, mostly in-kind (22%)

• Student stipends and emergency fund (21%)
  

Winning this challenge would allow us to: 

1. secure funding to invest in building capacity for our solution. That includes investing in our staff (sales, pedagogical, and fundraising), but also investing in advocacy and innovation in the workforce development space.

2. have a platform and a network to promote our radical equity approach to workforce development as we enter new markets. Notably through partnerships with workforce boards. 

Funding and revenue model: 

• Though the placement fee model works for us in the Greater Boston Area, we wonder how scalable it is to different markets. Are there other funding models we can test? For example, an employer subscription model or social impact bonds for employers.
• We'd like to convene more stakeholders around the Equitable Employment council and Workforce Investment Trust projects mentioned earlier. 

Talent recruitment:

As we expand into new markets, we would need assistance in identifying local leaders for our program.

Board members and advisors:

We have a small board of 5 currently. We are actively expanding and looking for fundraisers, job raisers, and community leaders to join our organization.