The Bay Area is home to an ever-growing field of technology companies. Developing alongside this financial and creative business growth is a tremendous gap in access to technology jobs for communities of color in Oakland. Many Oakland youth have tremendous hurdles to overcome as they grapple with issues of violence in their communities and lack the necessary resources to secure employment in the technology industry. Several of our communities in Oakland are in crisis as the skills needed to overcome the digital divide take time and resources needed elsewhere. In their work with the public, staff across Oakland Public Library’s neighborhood branches noticed that there was more need in their communities than available Library resources. Staff also noticed an absence of opportunity for youth of color in Oakland and decided that the Library was in a key position to address both these needs with one service delivery program. In the Bay Area, several nonprofits are working to address these issues, but many of these organizations choose to address only select groups in the community. The Hidden Genius Project is one example of this work, but they selectively work with African American youth between the ages of 13-17. For the Library, we simply saw a greater need in Oakland to connect with multiple diverse communities and found our organization in the perfect position to accomplish this.

The Ready, Set Connect! program addresses the lack of diversity in the technology industry and the digital divide in Oakland’s communities while developing youth between the ages of 16-24. A primary focus of this program is to recruit a cross section of youth from across Alameda County that speak more than one language and have an interest in technology. Youth are enrolled in an eight-month curriculum focused on developing a comprehensive professional employment portfolio for each youth. Over the course of eight months, youth receive social media and graphic design skills training; create a resume and LinkedIn profile; practice public speaking and engage in community outreach; and are assigned a technology professional mentor through Bluewolf, a global consulting firm located in San Francisco. Youth are also provided with an engaging speaker series with representatives from companies like Google, Zynga and the Kapor Center for Social Media. Youth travel from Oakland to local tech companies at least three times over the course of the eight months to meet technology professionals in their offices while receiving internship and career path information. The Ready, Set, Connect! program also provides practical work experience with the public and library staff. Youth are placed as computer tutors in six branches across the Oakland Public Library system where they provide one-on-one computer assistance to library patrons and focus on system-wide technology support offerings such as eReader assistance and teen resume support. Youth are also strategically placed in branches that need computer assistance from patrons that speak a multitude of different languages but most commonly include Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Oakland Public Library has now offered two sessions of the Ready, Set, Connect! program during 2013 and 2014. During the spring of 2013, twelve youth were enrolled in our pilot program which ran for fifteen weeks. Each youth participant in this session received 30 hours of professional development instruction (including mentoring sessions) and provided 26 hours of computer tutor assistance in a library branch. The total impact of one-on-one computer assistance provided to library patrons was 312 hours over the course of thirteen weeks. By the end of the pilot program in June of 2013, 352 patrons received computer assistance from the Ready, Set, Connect! youth. In the fall of 2013, Oakland Public Library expanded the program to accommodate twenty youth and extended their enrollment period in the program to eight months. By the completion of this program in May 2014, each youth participant will have received 64 hours of professional development instruction (including mentoring sessions) and provided 64 hours of computer tutor assistance in a library branch. The total impact of computer assistance provided to library patrons will be 1280 hours over the course of eight months. As of February 2014, youth have served over 900 patrons in Oakland’s communities. Oakland Public Library has continued to support youth that have graduated from the Ready, Set, Connect! program by providing letters of reference for job and college opportunities. Two Ready, Set, Connect graduates have also acquired positions within Oakland Public Library.