• For years, NPower has worked to build opportunities for minority youth from underserved areas and veterans—who might be unemployed or stuck in low-paying jobs—to move to middle-class wages through careers in tech.
• Together, NPower and Citi Foundation have set the foundation for a national movement that is helping to break-through the institutional barriers and entrenched biases, among other challenges, that make it difficult for underrepresented populations (particularly women of color) to access, thrive and advance in the tech industry.
  • NPower and Citi Foundation published a research report, Breaking Through, Rising Up, where they deep dive into the systemic barriers preventing young women of color from succeeding.

Citi’s recent research, Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps, illuminates the following: If four key racial gaps for Blacks—wages, education, housing, and investment—were closed 20 years ago, $16 trillion could have been added to the U.S. economy. And if the gaps are closed today, $5 trillion can be added to the US GDP over the next five years.

Differentiators

• For more than ten years, NPower has worked “in the field” by providing  results-driven, free tech training classes in tech fundamentals, cybersecurity and cloud computing enabling students, from disenfranchised communities, to graduate with the competencies of an IT professional with one to two years of experience. 
  • NPower students also receive mentoring and a curated 360-degree ecosystem of support services to help with issues such as child care, health, transportation, food and housing insecurity and other challenges.
• NPower believes that a non-traditional pathway that doesn’t include a four-year or two-year college degree is often an effective approach for low-income young people of color who might choose not to attend college and/or don’t have the resources to do so.

Impact

• Over the past 10 years NPower has served 5,400 young adults, women and military veterans—placing them in quality jobs in 7 regions across the United States – NY, NJ, MD, MI, MO, TX, and CA.
  • Graduates who move on to tech jobs experience a 361% salary increase post completion of the program.
• 100% of students entering NPower programs are unemployed or underemployed, and after completion of the NPower program, 80% find employment in a related field or continue their education.
• 76% of students are Latinx or Black, and 30% of students are female.

• To trigger a seismic shift—with founding partners such as Citi, AWS, Guardian Life Insurance, World Wide Technology and Comcast, among others—that increases representation of women of color in the tech sector and in tech-enabled industries.
• To harness the energy of today’s social and racial justice movements to focus on elevating low-income women of color in an industry that needs their talent:
  • For too long, women of color have been woefully underrepresented in the tech industry—currently, Black women hold 3%, Latinas hold 2% and Native American women hold just .03% of tech jobs in the U.S.
• To overhaul the tech industry’s traditional hiring approach that prioritizes young people of color with four- and two-year college degrees to a new mindset: prioritizing tech-skilled young women of color from underrepresented areas who have not (yet) attended college. 
• To expand opportunities for women of color to upskill, access, and thrive in middle- and high-income tech positions—jobs that pay well above the minimum wage—giving them an opportunity to better their lives and the lives of their families
• By focusing on elevating women of color in tech, NPower is opening the doors for other underrepresented segments of society, including Native Americans, LGBTQ, immigrants, and others. 

• By bringing together an action-oriented, dedicated alliance of business leaders, corporations, nonprofits, and community organizations to expand and sustain a national network of companies committed to hiring young women of color
• By advising its corporate partners on tactics to strengthen their hiring and retention practices, supported by a practical toolkit with resources, data, and solutions for companies to advance the tech careers of underrepresented women.
• By investing in original research specifically identifying the percentage of women of color from non-traditional backgrounds that are in need of employment, and the amount of opportunity that exists in the tech sector and in tech-enabled industries
• By continuing to motivate committed partners to help women of color in tech achieve pay equity and thrive in their careers by sparking action and dialogue through national convenings

• The time is right: recent racial and social justice movements are bringing issues of racial and gender disparities to the forefront
• As one of our nation’s most innovative industries that has already begun a fast recovery from the pandemic, tech cannot afford to forget that women and women of color stimulate business growth and prosperity:
  • Companies with the highest representation of women on their senior teams reap 34% more profits than companies with the lowest female representation (Catalyst)
  • Diverse teams, including those with greater gender diversity are on average more creative, innovative, and more profitable.
• Lack of formal research on the state of women of color in tech jobs provides new opportunities to create a current landscape analysis of this issue and identify the full spectrum of barriers—data that will inform new effective strategies to accelerate the Coalition’s mission

• Inaugural  corporate partners are Citi Foundation, AWS, Comcast NBCUniversal, Guardian and World Wide Technologies, Netscout, Vodafone Americas Foundation, and Tata Consultancy Services
• Founding Members:
  • Timicka Anderson, Co-Chair, Managing Director, Citi Commercial Banking
  • LaDavia Drane, Esq., Co-Chair, Head of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, Amazon Web Services
  • Lisa Asari, Senior Product Manager, Global Education to Workforce Solutions Lead, Amazone Web Services
  • Nicole Campbell CEO, Build Up Advisory Group
  • Wendy Dowd, Chief Talent and Experience Officer, Guardian Life Insurance
  • PaShon Mann, Vice President, Talent Acquisition, Comcast NBCUniversal
  • Ann Marr, Vice President, Global Human Resources, World Wide Technology
  • Viola Maxwell Thompson, CEO, IT Senior Management Forum (ITSMF)
• Inaugural nonprofits and other organizations include: National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and IT Senior Management Forum (ITSMF)

• Command Shift will be unveiling a Resource Hub in Q4 of 2021, which will contain a guidebook written and approved by leading HR specialists that will outline step-by-step how to begin rewiring a corporation’s hiring model and information on how to create and foster a more inclusive work culture. 
• Additionally, Command Shift later this year will also unveil original research specifically identifying the percentage of women of color from non-traditional backgrounds that are in need of employment, and the amount of opportunity that exists in tech-enabled industries, so that companies have the data-driven insights they need to command change within their organizations.

Funding for Command Shift will:

• Expand outreach to expose more women of color to careers in tech, and as an alternative post-secondary education. This will help increase enrollment of women of color  into career track tech training like NPower’s Tech Fundamentals  program.
• Equip women with professional development, industry certifications, paid internships, apprenticeships and tech job placements.
• Support development and creation of  an Employer Tool Kit of best practices to improve recruitment, retention and promote upward mobility.
• Support convenings that will focus on recruitment, compensation parity, career mobility,  and retention for women of color in or pursuing tech careers.
• Support continued investment in research that helps to better understand the opportunities and barriers encountered when women of color pursue careers  in tech.
• Support a national information campaign to raise awareness of both the challenges and solutions to engage more women of color in tech. 

The Coalition is in partnership with Burning Glass Technologies to regularly track tech job opportunities that appear to be the best targets for women of color without college degrees. Using Burning Glass’s proprietary job posting data, the Coalition will also formulate a data-informed and aggressive numeric target as it’s long-term goal. And we will continue to monitor, evaluate and report out on impact.