BlackGirlsCODE wants to increase the number of girls of color in the digital space through exposure to computer science and technology programs. Workshops have been held in Detroit, New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles; future workshop locations include Atlanta, again, and Memphis. On Neighborland, twelve neighbors have signed on saying they want BlackGirlsCODE to hold workshops in New Orleans.
BlackGirlsCODE considers themselves an organization “devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, BlackGirlsCODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.”
Only 3% of the computing workforce is made up of black women. Kimberly Bryant the organization because she saw the need to introduce these girls to computer programming and technology. She said, “we are feeding the mind of the next generation.”
Carol Fife, a mother and volunteer for the organization, said, “[the girls] are learning how to code web pages and code programs for robots, so it’s that, in a literal sense. Figuratively, I think it’s a way that we move forward into the future with how we do things, how we innovate…”
The program not only literally teaches these 7 to 17 year olds to code, but also builds an outreach community.
Show your support and bring Black Girl Code to New Orleans via Neighborland.
Black Girls Code | Shanice Johnson from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.