Non-Profit Secures Funding From The Bank Of America To Expand Digital Literacy In Underrepresented Communities

Code Black Indy (CBI) has plans to expand its programs as it receives a $30,000 economic mobility graant from the Bank of America.

What Is Cody Black Indy?

CBI seeks to reintegrate the “The Village” principle back into the community.

The non-profit serves Hoosiers who are underrepresented in the tech field, like people of color, women, individuals with disabilities, and those from low-income backgrounds.

Through collaborations such as hands-on training, mentorship, and job placement support, they seek to redefine how one learns through applying technical skills.

After working in corporate as community liaisons, the founders of CBI were constantly reminded of the disparity of culture, which made it difficult to connect to a community of a similar background.

This meant talent went undiscovered, leading them to educate under-served students in the city of Indianapolis.

CBI’s mission is to exist as the pipeline to high-paying tech careers and crowd-sourced technology advancements by forming an environment for under-served communities to elevate themselves.

The Future Plans

CBI currently has a new digital literacy class led by president and co-founder of CBI, Samuel Campbell. 

“The basis of this program, essentially, is to create a foundation of digital literacy and then help them to kind of get more comfortable with technology,” Campbell told WRTV Indianapolis.

The new digital literacy programming is free for community members as the Bank of America awarded the organization a $30,000 economic mobility grant.

The grant also helped Code Black Indy move into its first office space in Downtown Indy.

“Our next step is to create our student-led tech support service for our students are in high school right now,” Campbell said.

“They’ll be actually able to work in our office with us while they’re in school. Then, for adults who are going through workforce development, they can get some hands-on experience in a business setting.”

The first round of the digital literacy classes wrapped up before Thanksgiving.

CBI leaders are now looking for more sites to host the program after the first of the year.