Inner City Computer Stars Foundation

The Inner City Computer Stars Foundation is a technology workforce development organization that offers a solid foundation of technical skills and leadership training for inner-city young adults. They prepare technology professionals for high-paying careers and leadership in their communities. I.C. Stars increases diversity in the tech space to help end the cycle of generational poverty.

Building on their experiences in education and workforce development, the founders of i.c.stars developed a technology-based curriculum that combined project based training with a broader perspective on community impact and “bigger than you” sense of accountability.

Importantly, their outcomes were five times better than those reported by organizations in the field. Their students were not just more successful at getting and retaining jobs, they were also taking responsibility for lifting others in their communities, helping through various forms of civic engagement to attack the root causes of unemployment.

The end of industrialization and the decline of well-paid manufacturing jobs brought economic retraction to the inner-city, with chronic and concentrated joblessness. This was more pronounced in minority communities, exacerbated by a history of both informal and explicit racial restrictions. People of color were excluded from the elements of economic mobility such as quality education, high-paying jobs, homeownership, and taking an active social or political role in society. Economic stagnation and a cycle of poverty and hopelessness became entrenched and remain today.

I.C. Stars joins thought leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois who stated that achieving racial justice starts with stable jobs and a living wage, affordable housing, quality public education, and participation in the leadership of society.