Hagar Services Coalition, Inc. 2016 Candidate School - Certificates of Achievement

On February 25, 2016, Hagar Services Coalition, Inc. awarded Certificates of Achievement to 11 participants in the 2016 Candidate School.  President/CEO, Rose Jacobs Gibson, stated: “The 2016 Candidate School provided a remarkable opportunity to individuals who are giving serious thought about seeking elected office now or in the future.”

Participants represented the communities of East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, East Belle Haven, Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks areas. Attendees learned about the characteristics of strong leadership, decision making skills, questions to ask yourself before seeking elected office, meeting facilitation, ethics required of public officials, the Brown Act, and much more. “The Candidate School gave me an excellent overview of the process of becoming a candidate for elected office. The speakers were world class,” stated one graduate.

One East Palo Alto, The City of East Palo Alto, Nuestra Casa, the Multicultural Counseling and Educational Services of the Bay Area (MCESBA) and the City of Menlo Park offered their support as co-hosts of the Candidate School.

“We cannot begin to express our gratitude to the prestigious group of presenters who took time out of their busy schedules to lend their insights and credibility to this program,” stated Ms. Jacobs Gibson.” Among the guest speakers were Henry L. Gardner, Board Chair for the Institute for Local Government; Rich Gordon, Assembly Member, District 24; Warren Slocum, San Mateo County Supervisor, District 4; Jerry Hill, California State Senator; Don Cecil, CEO of MC2 Bay Area; Councilwoman Lisa Gauthier; Councilman Ray Mueller; Sequoia High School District Trustee Georgia Jack; and staff from the San Mateo County Registrar and Elections Division.

About Hagar Services Coalition, Inc.

Hagar Services Coalition, Inc. was founded in 1994 by Rose Jacobs Gibson as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to plan and implement programs designed to restore, rebuild and renew families and community. Hagar focuses on educating and training new leaders to provide fresh perspectives and bold new strategies that address the challenges we face locally, nationally and internationally in today’s world where leadership, community succession planning and change are needed.

This year, Hagar Services Coalition, Inc. will launch its Initiative for Leadership Engagement and Development, also known as ILEAD. This innovative program is a “call to action” in response to the need for increased voter turnout, better qualified candidates for elected office, greater resident civic participation and the community’s knowledge of how local government works. ILEAD is a professional community development initiative designed to stimulate greater civic participation locally and across the nation.

Contact Information:

Rose Jacobs Gibson

President/CEO

Hagar Services Coalition, Inc.

P.O. Box 51178

Palo Alto, California 94303

(650) 644-4228

Hagarservicescoalition@gmail.com

www.hagarservicescoalition.org

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Tech Round-Up: Pinterest | Tech 808 | 43North | Intel

Pinterest has a new Diversity Initiative.  On Tuesday, July 28th Pinterest hosted the Bay Area Blacks in Tech Meet-up group in their continued effort to be true to their commitment to Diversity in Tech.  The speakers were Aston Motes, Developer of Dropbox.com website and Entrepreneur; Nancy Douyon, UX Researcher, Google Speaker, Global Innovator, Storyteller; Grant Oladipo, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Mobile Leader and Medium.  More than 100 millenials and tech enthusiasts gathered for thought provoking conversation and not just chatter or noise. 

So many are burnt out on the conversation of the lack of diversity in tech and it's time to talk solutions and Pinterest wants to lead that charter.  Not just by hosting an event, but launching an innovative diversity project.  Pinterest is putting a huge stake in the ground by setting specific, measurable goals, targets and a 2016 timetable to achieve its diversity and inclusion goals.  This is a very aggressive date, but more palatable for those who have been anxious and waiting for change.  Additionally, Pinterest is opening an experimental lab inside the walls of the company to apply the human ingenuity to test new strategies for building more diverse, inclusive companies. Read more about Pinterest's diversity project.

Two African American women are now a significant part of 43North.  43North's $5M Challenge is the largest prize money in the country as a carrot to attract entrepreneurs from around the world to build their fledgling tech businesses in Buffalo.  Two African American women, Angel Davis and Lauren Washington, are among the 2014 winners of the 43North business-idea competition.  Davis and Washington have been friends for more than 10 years and have won a $250,000 prize for the app they developed, KeepUp.  This application is currently available on the iTunes App Store, is a productivity tool that helps users filter out non-essential posts from six major social media feeds, like Twitter and Facebook, and limit incoming messages to as many as a dozen milestone-type events.  The prize comes along with office space in 43North’s incubator, access to area business resources, like University at Buffalo’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and mentors to develop and nurture their venture.  Read more about Angel Davis, Lauren Washington and 43North.

Tech808 comes to Oakland, CA.  Tech808 takes place on Saturday, August 15th at ImpactHUB Oakland with a line-up of 14 speakers.  Tech 808 was created for minority and millennial entrepreneurs and appeals to those interested in the intersection of hip hop culture, tech and entrepreneurship. The first conference kicked off in 2014, but this year multiple stops will extend the experience for attendees across the country. The three stops include D.C. (which happened in June), Oakland and a finale in NYC, where the original conference began.  The next Tech 808 conference will happen on August 15 in Oakland  in collaboration with Impact HUB Oakland and sponsored by Kapor Center for Social Impact and MailChimp.  The Phat Startup’s conference will once again link entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, students and more together in order to elevate and motivate those looking to succeed in the tech industry.  Read more about Tech808 and get tickets.....

Intel ups referral bonus to achieve more diversity in its workforce.  Intel will pay up to $4,000 in bonuses to employees who refer a woman, minority, or veteran to its workforce, the company confirmed in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The fee is double Intel's current referral bonus and viewed by the company as a way to increase chances of having women and minorities receive more representation in a job applicant pool that has disproportionately consisted of white men. At the end of 2014, Intel had nearly 54,000 employees and over three-quarters of its workforce was male and 56 percent of employees were white. Just 8 percent of the company's employees were Latino and 3.5 percent were African American. Intel did not share data on veterans. Read more about Intel's new initiative here...

Who moved the dial on diversity at Rev. Jesse Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 Conference?

Rev. Jesse Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 Conference took place on May 6th in San Francisco, and during his remarks throughout the day you would often hear him say, 'here in Silicon Valley'.  Clearly an implication that SF can be considered Silicon Valley and the movement of closing the gap of diversity and inclusion among the tech giants needed to happen in both the Bay Area and SV.  Rev. Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 initiative of Diversity + Inclusion = Innovation has drawn national attention and just about every tech and corporate giant who has diversity and inclusion initiatives,  were in the house at the conference.  Well of course they were because when Rev. Jesse Jackson talks, people listen.

While there is certainly a reason to continue the conversation about the diversity gap in technology,  Lisa Jackson, Apple's VP Environmental Initiatives, said in her keynote address to not discredit the non-tech jobs (which are 60% of the jobs in SV), that are held by a diverse population at Apple because these jobs do feed families.  In Apple's effort to show their movement to divide their resources among diverse communities, Ms. Jackson further stated that Apple has donated $10M to NCWIIT (National Center for Women in Information Technology) and extended more than $3B to diverse suppliers.  Those are indeed impressive numbers, however Mr. Butch Graves, President & CEO of Black Enterprise called it 'window dressing' because Apple, along with several other tech industry companies represented at the conference, do not have 'one' person of color on their Board of Directors.  Particularly, during the Leading from the Top: Minority Board of Directors on Advancing the Diversity & Inclusion Agenda panel, Mr. Graves stated that Apple's idea of a 'diverse supplier' is women and many of those women-owned companies who receive contracts from Apple are not from a diverse populations.  Desiree Johnson, CEO, Johnson Publishing, who was also on this panel, stated that attention must be paid to ad buys in Black media.  That while many of the tech firms represented at this conference buy millions of dollars in advertisement, those ads are not seen in Black media.

Lastly, Lisa Jackson wanted attendees to know that Williams Capital Group, manages Apple's bond investments, where Christopher J. Williams, Chairman and CEO is an African American.

Who put money on the table and moved the dial at the conference?  Who took a first step in showing a monetary investment right here in Oakland?  Intel!  Brian Krzanich, Intel's CEO announced  they will invest $5 million over the next five years in a new pilot program to teach computer science to high school students in the Oakland Unified School District.  The goal of the program will be to send 600 high school graduates to college to study computer science engineering in preparation for jobs with Intel or other companies.

Several comments during Rev. Jesse Jackson's keynote address reigned true and received applauds.  Rev. Jackson stated, "Let’s turn pain to power by hiring youth and not shooting them down", "Diversity & Inclusion is not the cost of doing business, it’s doing good business",  and "Let's move the conversation from diversity to equality".

By: Y'Anad Burrell - Glass House Communications

For more BUZZ visit theREGISTRYBayArea

 

Ken Coleman's Perspective on Diversity in Technology - 4 Myths

Ken Coleman, Board Chairman for Saama Technology, is one of the most celebrated African Americans in technology here in the Bay Area and when he speaks many ears are listening.  Mr. Coleman points out four myths about the state of Blacks in technology in Silicon Valley, two of which are: (1) media has treated the SV area like the 'left coast' and given far more attention and coverage to diversity in technology happening on the East Coast; and (2) given the success and contributions that West Indians and Asians have made to technology, little to no attention has been given to women, Hispanics or Blacks.  While I agree with these myths, moving towards solutions and/or strategies to dealing with these issues is at the top of my list.

See Ken Coleman's interview and read more here: Silicon Valley Insider Pinpoints Common Myths Around Diversity In Tech

Tech Talk: 91 Year Old Tech Designer | CODE 2040 | Toddler Tech | Pandora's Diversity Program

Toddler Tech: YouTube. Can you image your 3 year child being memorized for hours and hours by a bright screen with vibrant colors and lots of movement dancing across the screen?  Have we considered what this does from an educational learning perspective or even more importantly from a physical one?  When it comes to marketing, dollars and corporate brand, these questions, I would imagine, are nowhere close to the top of the list.  Google jumped into the world of toddler tech when it introduced YouTube Kids late last month, marking Silicon Valley's first big step in appealing to a lucrative and largely untapped demographic of mobile device users: kids under 5. Amazon launched a kid-safe tablet in the fall, and other companies are likely to follow.  YouTube Kids offers a solution to the problem of uncontrolled viewing with a timer parents can set. And by giving parents more control over what children watch, Google and other tech companies are trying to earn the keys to a well-protected kingdom.  Educators and healthcare professionals are chiming in on this conversation and I am sure we will be hearing more from these industries.  What in the world will happen to programs such as First 5 or Head Start?  Details at 11.

Founded in 2012, CODE2040 has a simple mission that dovetails with the growing and resounding message pressing Silicon Valley to use its significant brainpower to make tech less of an ivory tower.  CODE2040 provides college-age African-American and Latino students who have shown an interest in computer science with both an encouraging network of peers and, more pointedly, a summer internship program aimed at placing them at tech companies whose narrowly focused recruiting efforts often overlook them.  Tristan Walker, Co-Founder of CODE2040 and CEO of Walker & Company Brands, is quoted in USA Today saying "If you're a smart company, you'll want an ethnically diverse team empathetic about the needs of your diverse consumers. What we're doing at CODE2040 isn't charity work. We're trying to help tech organizations because there is a real business imperative here."

Pandora's Diversity Program.  Last year, Pandora, located in downtown Oakland, joined a wave of Silicon Valley companies that revealed the makeup of their workforces. The music streaming site said that about 70% of its U.S. employees are white, and 3% are African-American..  More recently the numbers have shown that nearly half of Pandora employees are women, a far better gender balance than most tech companies have achieved, but the majority of them are White.  This diversity in tech conversation will go on for many years, but it's important to track certain companies and their efforts in, at least, working on more diversity in the field.  When Lisa Lee, Diversity Program Manager, joined the company last spring, she spent her first month simply listening and learning about what people were already doing. “She asked them about some of the things they were proud of that had happened in the past and what else they would like to see in the future. Instead of instructing employees on what they should do, Lisa incorporated their opinions and insights as she drafted the company’s diversity strategy.  The strategy of empowering different employee groups so they can have a voice in the diversity dialogue, both in the company’s culture and the way it conducts business is critical to inviting employees to drive diversity initiatives. 

As a young girl, Barbara Beskind dreamed of becoming an inventor. Now, at 91 years old, she's seeing it through.  Beskind works as a tech designer for IDEO, a Silicon Valley design firm. Two years ago, she read an article about IDEO, which is famous for creating the first mouse for Apple, and decided to apply for a job, saying: Beskind primarily works on projects pertaining to aging. She feels like her coworkers can't always put themselves in the shoes of the elderly.

 

And go!

HBCU, UNCF and Stanford University - What do they have in common? An innovative conversation.

The challenges facing the landscape of tech innovation and economic inclusion are difficult to ignore. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, America has come to realize it cannot achieve its economic competiveness goals when so much of its talented landscape is producing so little.

UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) hosted the 2nd National HBCU (Historically Black College Universities) Innovation Summit at Stanford University and San Jose Marriot Hotel, November 13 - November 17, 2014. The Summit is an outgrowth of the UNCF-based HBCU Startup and Innovation Initiative launched as part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Tech Inclusion Initiative two years ago.

The theme of this year’s Summit is Defining Pathways for Success in the Tech Industry, and the agenda focused on identifying best practices for computer science education and training, tech-workforce development as well as university-based innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship.

On November 17th, Dr. Persis Drell, Dean, Stanford University, School of Engineering, gave opening remarks and spoke candidly saying that while the students felt included, there was little engagement between them.  Dr. Drell is the first female Dean of the engineering school and also the first to be hired from 'outside' the university. According to Dr. Drell, there is work to be done in the areas of inclusivity and engagement among the students as they have exceptional talents that the university is eager to tap into.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, President of Spellman College, moderated one of the panels which included representatives from Chevron, Facebook, Texas Instruments, Google, SpaceX and Sodexo.  Dr. Tatum was very good at drilling down answers to ensure each panelist shared specific examples of what their respective companies were doing to address the lack of diversity and inclusion of African Americans   Nicholas Leach from Chevron stated that the majority of its contribution in this area are funds donated to UNCF to address the issue and they also had a University Partnership Program with several HBCU's.  Maxine Williams from Facebook stated that in her travels to many college campus advocating for STEM education, she realized the limited knowledge that students had around which kinds of jobs were available in the technology field.  In an effort to educate students and others, Ms. Williams informed that Facebook has recently posted interviews on their website to be more transparent about what to expect during an interview and this was also a way to inform on the various jobs available in the field and at Facebook.

Cedric Brown, Kapor Center for Social Impact

I was very excited about the remarks from Professor Ayodele Thomas, who is the first Black woman to receive a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.  Professor Thomas talked about the many PhD programs at the university that are completely paid for by the school.  These, of course, are highly competitive opportunities, but to know there are programs of this caliber where students receive a financial stipend and can attain an education by one of the top Ivy League schools in the country, was a THRILL!  I feel something 'bubbling' up in me. Imagine that!

The conversation and the work continues and it will take efforts similar to these forums and others to continue calling accountability to the carpet and following-up to ensure the needle continues to movs towards a much more diverse and inclusive society.  Not just in the technology space, but throughout corporate America in all areas, from the Board rooms, to the C-Suites and within those who hold the last words on recruitment/hiring strategies.  We understand it's one thing to be 'invited to the party' and another 'to be asked to dance at the party', and we need to move the dial on much more dancing.

Y'Anad Burrell, Board VP, California Diversity Council, San Francisco Chapter

HBCU Innovation Summit 2014 Press Release

5th Annual Silicon Valley African Film Festival | October 17th - 19th, 2014

The 5th year, SVAFF takes place October 17-19, 2014 at Community School of Music and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, CA 94040. Presented by Oriki Theater and Community School of Music and Arts, the Silicon Valley African Film Festival is the only film festival in California that is exclusively focused on films made by African filmmakers and provides audiences with exquisite lenses to the real Africa. 

The mission of the festival is to promote an understanding and appreciation of Africa and Africans through moving images. A few special festival highlights include a visual arts exhibit and youth forum entitled Listen Up by 21 year-old Canada based artist, Ms. Kosi Nnebe and an“African Women in Technology" forum on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 12:00PM. The forum, presented in partnership with the African Diaspora Network and the Institute of International Education, will feature an illuminating conversation with Africa's next generation of women leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, visiting from 16 African countries. 

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Friday, October 17, 2014
5:30PM: Red Carpet Walk and Lobby Reception
6:30PM: Formal Opening Ceremony with parade of flags of countries in the festival, live performances by Stanford University’s award winning a cappella group Talisman; Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dance company, and Oriki drumming ensemble.
8:00PM: Opening Night Feature film.
10:30PM: Opening Night Party / Filmmakers Reception.

Saturday, October 18, 2014
11:00 am: All day film screenings and post-screening dialogues with filmmakers in attendance, African Marketplace and Food
10:00AM: "Listen Up" Youth Forum with Canada based visual artist Kosi Nnebe - gallery walk and dialogue.
12:00 Noon: African Women in Technology Forum - an illuminating conversation with Africa's next generation of women leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, visiting from 16 African countries.

Sunday, October 19, 2014
11:00 am: All day film screenings and post-screening dialogues with filmmakers in attendance, African Marketplace and Food
5:00 pm: Closing Night Film
7:00 pm: Closing / Awards Ceremony

Information: www.svaff.org

Technology Round-Up (Oakland, CA): MindBlown Labs - Black Girls Code - Hack The Hood

Jason Young – MindBlown Labs

Harvard graduate, JASON YOUNG, is the Founder & CEO of  MindBlown Labs, ,an education technology company based on Oakland, CA that creates highly interactive, experiential learning tools to empower young people to make better life decisions. Its first financial capability solution is Thrive 'n' Shine, a captivating mobile app/game that teaches teens and young adults about personal finance.  This game player creates a character, chooses a career and then starts making choices about where to live, what to buy or spend money on, and how to save for things like college, tuition or mortgages.  Young was inspired to start this company after watching his mother, a single parent, go through an eviction from their home after not being able to keep up with a high interest mortgage loan that ultimately exceed the family’s income capacity.  It was apparent to Young at that time the importance of making the sound financial decisions.

Young was recently appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young People.  The Council is focused, as Young understands it, on “creating tangible and innovative partnerships between public and private organizations that will drive change. Young is also the co-founded of the Hidden Genius Project which was designed to help low-income youth learn coding skills and develop work habits.

MindBlown Lab’s goal is to impact 20 million teens and young adults by the year 2020. They are pursuing this goal by partnering with high schools, colleges, non-profits, and other institutions that can help us scale our impact.

Read more

Kimberly Bryant – Black Girls CODE

Kimberly Bryant is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Girls CODE, a non-profit organization in Oakland, CA dedicated to introducing girls of color (ages 7-17) to the field of technology and computer programming with a concentration on entrepreneurial concepts.  Since 2011 Ms. Bryant has helped Black Girls CODE grow from a local organization serving only the Bay Area, to an international non-profit organization with chapters in seven U.S. cities and Johannesburg, South Africa serving over 2000 African/African-American, Latina, and Native American girls.  Black Girls CODE offices are located at HUB Oakland, 1423 Broadway Street, Oakland, CA

Black Girls CODE is 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, the company introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.  By promoting classes and programs, Bryant hopes to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds.

Bryant has enjoyed a very successful 20+ year professional career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as an Engineering Manager in a series of technical leadership roles for various Fortune 100 companies such as Genentech, Merck, and Pfizer.  In 2013 Bryant was selected by Business Insider as one of the “The 25 Most Influential African- Americans in Technology” she was also honored as a Champion of Change by the White House for her work in tech inclusion and for her focus on bridging the digital divide for girls. Bryant has been identified as a thought leader in the area of tech inclusion.

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Hack The Hood – Google Grant Challenge Winners

An Oakland-based organization, Hack the Hood, which trains youth how to build websites for local nonprofits and small businesses, has received a $500,000 grant from Google as part of its 2014 Bay Area Impact Challenge. Research shows that students from low-income communities aren’t exposed to the math and science training, or tech mentors that lead to job opportunities in the field.  Without this access, these students are underprepared for careers in science and technology.  Hack the Hood will address digital equity by training low-income kids to build websites for local small businesses, actively supporting them to launch their own tech careers. In two years, 5,000 students will support over 25,000 businesses across the Bay Area and receive technology training.  The grant will also help the organization expand in Oakland as well as in the five counties in the immediate Bay Area. In addition, the organization will use the grant to expand its curriculum and training materials and develop partnerships with nonprofits and schools.

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