Project Techup Pilot:
I want to offer you an opportunity to volunteer for an important project. We are changing lives in our most impoverished community through technical training. We need Salesforce instructors, a project manager, people with connections to Salesforce, money, PC/wireless hardware, employers to hire our graduates, and thoughtful people to join our call and help think through issues. Breaking the cycle of poverty by teaching skills for a rewarding career in technology is the ultimate game-changer. If the pilot is a success, and we get several graduates, we would plan to scale into something that is repeatable.
Specifically, we are running a pilot to train 8-12 underserved individuals in Haddington Cobbs Creek (The poorest neighborhood in Philadelphia) to become Salesforce Administrators. We hope to change lives through 12 weeks of intense technical training. A Salesforce Administrator starting salary can exceed $45,000. We are partnering with ACHIEVEability, an organization that has been dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty for over 25 years in West Philadelphia. We are calling the effort “Project Tech-up.”
We plan to run seminars in the community during January/February to find candidates desiring job training. We have fundraised enough money to pay a $15/hour stipend to the candidates during their training, alleviating the conflict of working and learning at the same time. We are close to recruiting enough Salesforce certified trainers (we want 8, have 6). The training is virtual, with some in-class learning at ACHEIVEability’s new headquarters at 60th and Market Street. We expect to start training on April 12th, 2021.
My friends Sandeep Banga (Acutedge CEO) and Grant Acosta (Senior Manager Simpus), and I are co-sponsors of this effort. Originally we were working with the Philadelphia Prison system to train inmates on Salesforce, but COVID disrupted our efforts. The societal need to correct the injustices of systemic racism is great--and obviously, opportunities abound. We plan on getting back into the correctional system once COVID abates.