Black Lives Matter.
We are witnessing the beginning of a long overdue wake up call for our country, at the expense of lives taken by people holding racist ideas working in racist systems. This should never have been necessary. Our Black family, friends and community members should never have had to experience the trauma of the past few months, nor the centuries of systemic oppression that have led to it. We stand with those who are demanding dramatic, meaningful and immediate change in service of removing anti-Blackness from our beliefs, actions, and systems.
At our very core, Ada exists to create economic justice. We know that access to our country’s highest paying jobs is, and has always been, primarily limited to white men. Without economic power, those who are not white men have little voice in every other aspect of our society. We know that we have all played a role in creating the systems and structures that have led to this moment, and we all have a role to play in dismantling them and building just systems and structures in their place.
Here’s what we are doing at Ada to combat racism in and through our work everyday:
- We are training staff, students, corporate partners and board members to be actively anti-racist in our beliefs, actions, systems and processes.
- We are recognizing the many different – and often painful – lived experiences of the people in our community that is full of intersectional diversity. We are building support for our community members based on those experiences, and supporting them as whole people.
- We are working to enact systems level change by shifting who holds economic power in our country. Explicitly embedded in every segment of our program strategy are goals, metrics, and tactics for increasing the number of historically oppressed people we serve.
To learn more about Ada’s social justice strategy and the steps we are taking to combat systemic racism in tech and everywhere read our Action Plan.
Resources for Company Partners
We believe it is critical that companies are open about their anti-racist policies and we hope that some of our strategies may be of use to other companies and organizations that are looking for ways to become more actively anti-racist.
It is our mission to not only develop amazing software engineers, but to ensure that the Tech industry they enter after Ada is a supportive and open environment, empathetic to their lived experiences and ready to continue the hard work of propelling our diverse Adies to success.
Read our Employer’s Guide to Supporting Black Employees
Resources for Students & Alum
To ensure our students have access to the critical support services they may need to navigate mental health, emotional trauma and learn the tools necessary to advocate for themselves and others during their tenure at Ada and ongoing careers, we have created several free programs available to current Adies and alum.
- Therapy program for all students: Ada now offers free, confidential, and ongoing therapy with national coverage through Better Help. This service is available to students in both the classroom portion and the internship portion of the program.
- Affinity group meet-ups: In addition to private, clinical space, we also believe in the importance of community support and the power of shared experience. Student and Alum led Affinity meet-ups allow students to come together to provide mutual support, build community, and advocate as a collective.
- Racial equity facilitation: Ada hosts workshops, critical conversations, and presentations around racial justice at Ada and beyond.
Advocacy
Adies are not only trained to be strong developers but also strong advocates. Ada hosts workshops, critical conversations, and presentations around racial justice at Ada and beyond.
Ada students graduate from our program as stronger advocates for themselves and others than when they began the program.