Page 45 - Innovation Delaware 2021

DESA BURTON
already grown to 25 participants.
This is an important part of the conversation, and of the problem solving, around the digital divide: it’s not just about access to the internet — it’s also about access to the technology job economy. Arguably one of Delaware greatest success stories in this arena is Zip Code
Wilmington.
Founded in 2015, Zip Code to date
has graduated over 450 new coders and software developers, and a large percentage of them have remained in the Wilmington
STEPHANIE KOSTA
area and have jobs in tech. If you walk into the JPMorgan Chase Delaware Technology Center wearing a Zip Code t-shirt, you won’t get far without a high five from a Zip Code alum, says Burton. Thirty percent of Zip Code graduates are women; 30% are African American or Latinx; 25% lived at least 200% below the poverty line when they joined the program — some were homeless, some were single mothers raising four children, and they got through the intense, three-month, 80 to 100 hour-a-week training program.
“Our candidates come from all walks of life,” Burton says. “They were baristas, they were customer service reps, they were bagging groceries, they were delivering pizzas. We have some people who were teachers, we have some people who were engineers, but we just as easily have other folks who were homemakers, who were unemployed, who had jobs but not careers, folks that had to do multiple jobs to make ends meet for themselves and their family. And then, to leave Zip Code, it completely changes not just their life— it changes the life of their entire family. And it changes the life of our community because we have folks that are making an average of mid-$20,000 a year and they come out of Zip Code making mid-$70s. That’s a dramatic change for people. From there, you can buy a house, you can buy a car, you can pay bills, you can put your kids in great schools and make sure they have the things that they need; you can be a role model for all the members of your extended family, you can be a role model for your entire community — it’s life changing, not just for you, but for anyone else that’s connected to you.”
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INNOVATION DELAWARE 43