Coded By Kids

By creating equity in tech education and promoting diversity and inclusion in the industry, Coded by Kids is providing a platform to give underrepresented young people the tools and resources necessary to excel in the tech industry and access the financial and social wealth defining the highly profitable tech industry. We focus on preparing students for tech-focused startup entrepreneurship and careers in the areas of tech lacking diversity, equity, and inclusion the greatest – those with high earning potential and opportunities for growth. Coded by Kids’ vision is to create equity in the world through technology and innovation. We are leveling the playing field, creating opportunities for underrepresented young people to excel and become leaders in tech and innovation.

Our main drivers of success are measured through increased socioeconomic equity for underrepresented Philadelphia residents. This means more people from underrepresented groups working in the tech and innovation fields, launching successful tech-driven startups, and moving into leadership positions within tech companies.

Coded by Kids’ mission is to prepare underrepresented young people to succeed as tech and innovation leaders through project-based learning and mentorship. As technology becomes a core component of our lives and workplaces, opportunities for people with software development, data science, and user experience design skills have grown at a rapid pace. By improving access to tech education, we are creating opportunities to diversify the tech industry as well as providing access to tech careers for communities and youth from underrepresented groups.

Our core program, CBK Classroom, teaches web development, digital design, and tech startup entrepreneurship concepts. Students participate in our programs for multiple years, progressively increasing their skill level and experience. They learn in highly engaging environments and gain real-world skills. We connect them to mentors from tech and innovation to ensure they have a network and support system of professionals.

Our approach is unique, driven by our vision to develop programs and opportunities that focus on the personal, intellectual, and social capital growth of young people in the underrepresented communities that we serve. Our programming focuses on the depth of knowledge and the value of experiences that we are able to offer our students. Our holistic curriculums enable students to master a wide spectrum of core competencies and industry-relevant skills to prepare them for career opportunities in tech and entrepreneurship. We believe that to diversify the tech industry and change the face of leadership, we have to develop a well-rounded and comprehensive curriculum that engages our students over multiple years.

Our programs go beyond technical proficiency, developing students’ soft skills to ensure their success during post-secondary education and in their careers. Programs focus on critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving abilities as well as professional development (i.e. resume building, interviewing, networking).

We want our impact to speak, not through the sheer number of students we serve, but through the experience that they receive through our programming, the companies, projects, and ideas that they launch.

Coded by Kids has led the effort in the Philadelphia region to teach underrepresented students software engineering, web development, and user experience design. Coded by Kids provides coding, digital design, and computer science education programs to children between the ages of 8 and 24 years old. We partner with schools, community groups, and local governments to turn community spaces into innovation education centers.

Our team and Board of Directors consist of a diverse group of entrepreneurs, tech educators, and nonprofit professionals. Our CEO and Founder, Sylvester Mobley, is a veteran with 12 years of military service who discovered his passion for tech while serving in the Air Force Reserves. He found endless possibilities and opportunity for growth of economic and social capital in the fast-growing tech industry, but the lack of diversity was glaringly obvious. The need for increased access to tech education and diversity in the tech industry inspired Mobley to launch Coded by Kids in 2014.

We employ full-time paid instructors that come from the education and/or tech space, and are committed to our values of equity and inclusion. The majority of our instructors identify with groups underrepresented in tech (e.g. women, Black, Hispanic/ Latinx). The diversity of our instructors is very important to our programming, as a majority of our students identify with groups underrepresented in tech. We believe that when our students are taught by instructors they can relate to or who come from the same neighborhoods as them, they are empowered and more likely to envision themselves pursuing technology and succeeding. Our instructors are able to foster stronger longer-lasting relationships with our students based upon their shared experiences.

Coded by Kids is committed to offering free tech-ed classes to underrepresented young people. By creating opportunities in technology for all underrepresented young people, regardless of income level or the resources available at their schools, we are leveling the playing field in the tech industry. Our programming exposes these students to high-quality tech and entrepreneurship education, and the mentorship and support system, needed to prepare them to succeed as tech and innovation leaders.

Since 2014, Coded by Kids has served over 1,500 individuals across our programs in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Over 80% of our students enrolled in the integrated programs come from underserved and/ or underrepresented populations. The median household income of the neighborhoods we serve in Philadelphia ranges from $18,557 to $58,784.

The spending gap between wealthy and low-income school districts in Pennsylvania ranked the highest in the nation in 2015. In a city such as Philadelphia, where the School District spends $9,062 per student (2016-2017) in comparison to the $15,748 spent per student in a typical wealthy district in PA, there are simply no resources to provide students with high-quality tech education and computer science courses. Our programs bridge that gap, creating opportunities for underrepresented young people to enhance their social capital and financial wealth through tech. With an average of 800 program hours taught every year, 80% of our graduated students report pursuing a career in tech.