Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
(415) 572.3947
leo@devmission.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23rd, 2019
On Thursday, May 23rd, 2019 inside the Robert B Pitts Public Housing Complex and in partnership with FRH Consulting our <dev/Mission> Community came together to celebrate the accomplishments of 6 young adults from the western addition as they completed an 8-week training pre-apprenticeship occupational skills program; the program has prepared them for
careers in the tech sector as well as post-secondary educational programs.
In partnership with FRH Consulting, Danielle Banks and Evie Barranco, we provided technology
instruction to 6 transitional-age youth, ages 16-24 since February 2019, in the following competencies:
A+ Training: 1st crucial step to advance IT Certifications.
Intro to Programming: Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as youth build their own website, web app or mobile app.
Critical Career Skills: Youth learn about Job Readiness, business communication, professionalism, and team building projects.
The program is unique in that instruction takes place exclusively onsite in affordable housing communities in San Francisco, and youth participants are required to provide much-needed free tech support and repair services to low-income families in their communities when they graduate
from their program.
The graduation was an opportunity to honored students for their hard work in the presence of their families and friends. Speakers included partners from the tech industry, Office of Economic and Workforce Development (TechSF) and members of the graduation class and their families.
To learn more about <dev/Mission> which aims to train untapped young adults ages 16-24 for careers in tech, contact Leo Sosa @leo@devmission.org
We would like to thank the below Program Sponsors: FRH Consulting,
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Google, The San Francisco Foundation and Uber.
Inside DevMission
Valencia Gardens Spring 2019 Cohort
Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
(415) 572.3947
leo@devmission.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2019
On Friday, May 3rd, at the Google Launchpad in SF our Dev/Mission Community came together to celebrate the accomplishments of 6 young adults from SF as the completed a 12-week training pre-apprenticeship occupational skills program; the program has prepared them for careers in the tech sector.
In partnership with Mission Housing Development Corporation, we provided technology instruction to 6 transitional-age youth, ages 16-24 since February 2019, in the following competencies:
A+ Training: 1st crucial step to advance IT Certifications.
IoT: Internet of Things where youth learn how to build hardware/coding projects with electronics, sensors, led lights and much more.
Intro to Programming: Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as youth build their own website, web app or mobile app. Critical Career Skills: Youth learn about Job Readiness, business communication, professionalism, and team building projects.
The program is unique in that instruction takes place exclusively onsite in affordable housing communities in San Francisco, and youth participants are required to provide much-needed free tech support and repair services to low-income families in their communities when they graduate from their program.
The graduation was an opportunity to honored students for their hard work in the presence of their families and friends. Speakers included partners from the tech industry and members of the graduation class, and internship placements were also be announced.
To learn more about <dev/Mission> which aims to train untapped young adults ages 16-24 for careers in tech, contact Leo Sosa @ leo@devmission.org
We would like to thank the below Program Sponsors: Mission Housing Development Corporation, The Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Google, The San Francisco Foundation and Uber.
Working in Tech and Giving Back
Name, Hometown:
Bryan Seybold, New Brighton, MN / San Francisco, CA
How long have you been a Dev/Mission volunteer?
About a year
What were you doing before joining Dev/Mission as a volunteer?
I was a biology student at UCSF and a software engineer at Google
Describe your typical volunteer routine at Dev/Mission and why it’s important in your life?
I was a biology student at UCSF and a software engineer at Google
My work with <dev/Mission> varies throughout the year. I’m the head instructor of the Internet of Things curriculum at DevMission. I teach about half of the IoT classes for each cohort. Between cohorts, I work to recruit volunteers, procure supplies, and write the Internet of Things curriculum at DevMission.
Volunteering is important for me because it’s an opportunity to give back to and improve my community. I’ve benefited from a great deal of support over the years and I hope to provide that to the students.
As every teacher learns, there is also so much to learn when teaching. The students’ ingenuity always impresses me. Hearing their own analogies that made the material click for them teaches me to communicate better. Developing a curriculum and organizing volunteers is letting me flex a new set of muscles. <dev/Mission> provides a place where I can grow continuously too.
Share any personal anecdotes involved with Dev/Mission?
That feeling when some new-fangled device just doesn’t seem to work with the WiFi? We get that with a class of 20 students simultaneously. In our pursuit of ever better signals, we’ve climbed on and rearranged furniture, mapped all corners of the room and then the building, and burned through a lot of personal data plans for hotspots. It’s all worth it to see what the students can build and watching them devour new content even if we need to fall back to analog teaching.
How has Dev/Mission staff supported you?
Dev/Mission’s staff has been the key to making this program possible. The encouragement, guidance, and structure they provide for students is outstanding and so critical for the students’ successes. I may be able to teach a class to an empty room without the staff’s support, but I would not be able to make a difference for these students without the staff’s help.
In terms of low-level details, the staff helps me connect better with the students, orders and organizes supplies, and motivates the students to achieve more.
What three words would you use to describe Dev/Mission if you were trying to convince a friend/peer to get involved as a volunteer?
1-Motivated
2-Comprehensive
3-Supportive
Has Dev/Mission positively impacted you? If so, how? Yes, it has impacted, how?
The easy wins are in my ability to create a curriculum, organize a group, connect with students, and teach. More profound is the satisfaction of teaching a good class and seeing the concepts click for the students.
What do you think makes Dev/Mission different from other organizations you have volunteered for before?
One focus of Dev/Mission that always stands out to me is that training encompasses so much more than just learning to code. Learning to code has been pivotal in my life, but so much more of life has been dominated by soft skills. <dev/Mission> incorporates soft skills training into their curriculum and helps the students understand why these skills open up doors.
Dev/Mission Spring 2019 Launches this week
Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
(415) 572.3947
leo@devmission.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2019
Our Spring 2019 IT Pre-Apprenticeship Occupational Skills Training Program launched this week in partnership with Mission Housing Development Corporation inside Valencia Gardens in San Francisco, CA. This program is funded by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to create an apprenticeship pipeline for the tech industry.
The 12 weeks intensive technology program started this Monday, February 11th and currently has 10 young adults ages 16-24 enrolled in the program. Most of the young adults come from low income communities in San Francisco, Bayview, Visitacion Valley and the Mission district and about 80% of the students are Hispanic descendants. The average income level for their families is between $30,000 and $40,000.
This FREE program offers IT essential training in hardware/tech support/CompTIA, Intro to Programming (HTML, CSS and Javascript); Internet of Things (IoT) and Critical Career Skills to underserved young adults. Our schedule is four days a week for 3 hours a day and on Fridays we dedicate that day for corporate site visits. Most of the program participants did not know what to expect in the program; but they were mostly interested in technology skills.
The Dev/Mission program often invites guest speakers from different technology corporations to speak to the students about their experiences and share some advice with them. Many students have found the speaker’s experiences interesting and motivating; another great way to teach them how to network with peers and colleagues.
The next 12 weeks are going to be exciting as these untapped young adults are beginning to identify which career pathway they would like to follow: post secondary education or employment pathways. dev/Mission will be there to support their career pathway for months/years to come!
Uber Grant Announcement
Leonardo Sosa, Executive Director
415-572-3947
leo@devmission.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25th, 2019
Uber Forges Major Partnerships with Local Organizations to Help Expand Access to High Quality Job Opportunities Commits $300,000, office space and volunteers for 2019 among local nonprofits DevMission, Code Tenderloin and Opportunities for All.
San Francisco – January 23, 2019 – Today, Uber announced that it is committing more than $300,000 in 2019 to help organizations across San Francisco increase access to high quality job opportunities. Beyond the financial commitment, Uber is donating office space and providing volunteers to help train the next generation of technology leaders, and is offering ride credits to help additional organizations provide crucial services to residents in need.
As part of the commitment, Uber is donating $100,000 each to three different local organizations including DevMission, Code Tenderloin and Opportunities for All. Uber released the grants in January 2019. The donations build on long-standing relationships Uber has established with each of these organizations that date back to their founding days.
Launched in 2017, DevMission helps prepare young adults ages 16-24 for careers in technology by creating apprenticeship programs with local tech companies. Since it launched, Uber has worked with it to host weekly “Open Labs”, where Uber engineers mentor young adults for two hours every Tuesday, answering questions about coding and software development. The labs started at Uber’s offices before moving to DevMission’s headquarters in Summer 2017. Uber has also hosted three corporate visits from DevMission students, where its engineers and lawyers have answered questions about working in tech and provide guidance on how to break into the field. Dev/Mission will use the grant from Uber to add an additional 30 students to the program as well as an additional 10 new internships, and purchase equipment for its students to use.
These partnerships build on work that Uber has engaged in across the Bay Area to improve access to food and healthcare for residents in need. For example, Uber has given ride credits to a variety of organizations across the Bay Area, including Family House, San Francisco AIDS Foundation and more. Family House, a recipient of Uber’s 2017 Community Credits program, used the credits to book rides for the 80 families that stay with them, many of whom can’t take public transportation to go between appointments; while San Francisco AIDS Foundation enrolled in Uber Health and continue to use their credits as a way to get their clients to and from medical and housing appointments.
“We are grateful to UBER for providing this grant which will allows to expand our program to connect more young adults to the world of tech” – Leo Sosa, Founder and Executive Director, DevMission