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Crime Stoppers of Flint & Genesee County received an international award for using technology to help solve local crimes. The organization, led by its director Jule Lopez, uses location-based advertising and public service announcements. It’s Morden way of tracking and solving crime made it the winner of the 2021 Crime Stoppers International Digital Media Award in the category for programs serving 300,000 to 1 million people. Back in 2019, Flint and Genesee County became the first Crime Stoppers program in the country to utilize “geofencing” technology with OUTFRONT, an outdoor

The Latinx Technology and Community Center has been awarded more than $600K in funding to renovate its second floor, part of its larger plans to create a Latinx district in Flint. To aid in this renovation, the C.S Mott Foundation has given the tech center a grant of $575,000 which was complemented by a grant of $40,000 from the Community Development Block Grant program. It comes after the tech center released a list of projects aiming to beautify both the center’s building and the handful of city blocks surrounding it

Coalition to Back Black Businesses, co-founded by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, American Express, and four leading national Black business organizations – announced the 491 Black-owned small businesses that have been awarded funding. The organizations, which are based across 39 states, were each awarded a $5,000 grant as part of a multi-year grantmaking and mentorship initiative. The recipients will be eligible to apply for enhancement grants of $25,000, which will be provided to a select number of 2021 grantee recipients in July 2022. The group itself was formed back

As the non-fungible token (NFT) cryptocurrency continues to grow and expand – it has left room for racism. From NFTs depicting George Floyd as “Floydies,” to more recently a project by the name of “Meta Slave” which featured images of Black people – questions on whether it’s being regulated enough have risen. The “Meta Slave” collection included thousands of NFTs which had a Black face, priced around 0.01 ETH, and simply named “META SLAVE” and an assigned number. The faces had the hallmarks of being algorithmically generated, such as surreally malformed accessories

Brand will lead the company’s Global People Team and inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility initiatives while working with executive management and the Board of Directors to support the company’s strategic direction. She joined the company back in 2018, most recently serving as vice president of People Experience and head of Inclusion and Diversity. Brand has become the second Black woman and third Black C-suite executive at Twitter since the company went public in late 2013. Her promotion is a pretty big deal – given the number of minorities – particularly

The RK Mellon Foundation has made a project-related investment into a Black father-son-led company that aims to increase diversity in STEAM fields so disadvantaged populations are included in the future of work.  Damola and Wole Idowu, both engineers, founded Toyz Electronics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Using its Social-Impact Investment Program, the Richard King Mellon Foundation invests in for-profit companies looking to accomplish a public good that aligns with its Strategic Plan. These investments are known as Program-Related Investments. The Convertible note investment leads a $500,000 seed round for Toyz Electronics and provides

According to a poll carried out by CoderPad, a candidate assessment platform, a majority of tech recruiters believe there is bias in the job hiring process. The research, which included participants from 131 countries, had 4,000 tech workers respond and almost 4,000 recruiters, half of whom were based in Europe. Almost 65 percent of them said bias was an issue in tech recruitment. Lack of diversity in tech is an issue that has been around for decades – that we know. Back in 2014, big tech companies acknowledged the gap and made

The fund, dubbed the Norrsken22 African Tech Growth Fund, reached its first close of $110 million last week and it’s the latest fund launched by Norrsken after closing €125 million impact fund for European startups last March. This is good news for the continent which saw a boom in investment last year. Africa VC funding reached an all-time high in 2021 at over $4 billion, more than what startups in the continent raised in the two previous years combined. But still – deals such as $100 million-plus rounds were relatively

Research conducted by My Code, a digital media company for multicultural groups, has found that some Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American Pacific Islander audiences feel excluded from the smart-home tech market. The study, which surveyed 1,295 people in the US last November, suggested this might be because advertisers aren’t prioritizing marketing to these audiences. The study also noted a difference in interest between multicultural homeowners and renters. Based on the survey, 63% of Black and 66% of Latinx renters would purchase smart-home techs such as smart locks, smart-home light switches and smart speakers.

Humble Games and the Black Game Developer Fund have announced eight new developers and projects that will receive funding from the initiative. Each development team will receive a portion of the nearly $1 million funds. “The Black Game Developer Fund is all about identifying talented game makers with a passion for their craft and a vision for compelling game concepts, and providing resources and support to help them take the next step on their journey—whether that’s formulating a pitch, fleshing out a prototype, or creating advanced builds,” the BGDF wrote

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