This month, Hopeworks Web Associate Hien Nguyen began giving back to the community with her new skills by volunteering with Girl Develop It’s Up Program to teach web development to incarcerated women! Hien is a teaching assistant in the program while their Hopeworks supervisor and Web Director, Billimarie Lubiano Robinson, is teaching coding in the UP Program.
UP - Unlocking Potential of Underserved Women - began as a pilot program in December 2017 with funding from Capital One and Barclays. For the past year, GDI’s UP Program team has been going into Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution (BWCI) in New Castle, DE to teach beginner web development classes.
With limited access to relevant professional development, incarcerated women have the most to gain from learning 21st-century skills, especially web development, in order to provide them with more opportunities when they reenter society and the workforce. This innovative program was established to assist incarcerated women to: increase knowledge and awareness of technology, acquire coding and web development skills, enhance self-efficacy; and build confidence, hope, and an openness to try new things.
GDI believes that “teaching incarcerated women is fully aligned with our mission to provide accessible and judgment-free opportunities for diverse women from all backgrounds interested in learning web and software development...Among women prisoners, research shows that the rates of recidivism are high. Our goal is to support the students who return to society by welcoming them into our nearby communities to help them continue their learning and to get involved in a network they wouldn’t otherwise be aware of.”
Hopeworks is so proud the Web team and their desire to help others take control of their futures.
Learn more about this program on this GDI blog post from their first cohort in 2017.
The recent Buy Camden 1st event at The Campbell’s Company Headquarters brought together procurement professionals to promote local purchasing and drive economic empowerment in Camden. A strong collaboration between The City of Camden, Mayor Vic Carstarphen, The Campbell’s Company, LAEDA, and DiLorenzo Davis Consulting, LLC was on display to advance this important mission. Our web team is proud to have played […]
As a former GIS intern at Hopeworks, Angel Santana stood out for his professionalism, persistence, and eagerness to grow. These qualities, combined with the technical and interpersonal skills he gained through Hopeworks, paved the way for his success in the tech industry. Today, Angel is thriving in his role as a Small Business Account Representative at CDW, where he […]
March has been another month of remarkable accomplishments for Hopeworks young professionals and alumni! We’re excited to celebrate the successes of: Ana Rong, who has been hired by the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the Tech Systems Department. Donnell Bridges, who successfully completed the RodriguezU Infrastructure Program and has been hired as a Stevedore at DRS. […]
