Diversity Push: Black Girls Code Gets NYC Google Office

Google opens a new office for Black Girls Code today.

Black Girls Code, a five-year-old nonprofit devoted to teaching computer and tech skills to girls of color, plans to use its office at Google “as both a classroom and a base for coordinating its East Coast programs,” according to Fast Company. “The nonprofit teaches girls of color to code through a variety of programs ranging from one-day seminars to longer six- or 12-week programs.”

Black Girls Code’s founder Kimberly Bryant explained that having the New York office within Google makes it so Google employees “will have an opportunity to directly interact with young women of color on a regular basis.”

Check out more on the coding projects in this video via Fast Company.

“The tech industry has a well-documented challenge when it comes to filling its ranks with women and people of color,” says Raines International Managing Director Markos Moya, also Raines’ Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) and Diversity Practice lead.

“Our clients in the tech sector certainly focus on this issue, particularly at mid-management and senior levels,” Moya explains. “Programs like Black Girls Code and CODE2040 are focusing on the next generation to ensure that the technologist talent pool will become richer in its diversity. It is also important that corporations launch their own youth-level diversity programs from within, like Google’s CS First and Dell’s Youth Learning grassroots initiatives, to help address the tech sphere’s lack of diversity.”

With its Black Girls Code partnership, Google is looking to stay at the front of the pack when pushing forward its community engagement and diversity initiatives.

Google’s head of external affairs William Floyd told CNET, “We need a tech sector that looks like the society it serves, and groups like Black Girls Code are ensuring that we can cultivate and access talent in communities of color.”

Google is currently trying to expand its diversity, after its 2015 diversity statistics found only 2% of staff were African-Americans, according to Fast Company.

“Since then, Google has put its money where its mouth is,” Fast Company says. “In 2015, it committed to spending $150 million on inclusion programs and diversity initiatives both inside and outside the Googleplex. Beyond granting cash to institutions like Black Girls Code, the company is recruiting from a wider pool of colleges around the U.S. in an effort to find talent. It’s also building out programs internally aimed at making its office culture more inclusive to a broad spectrum of people.”

To learn more about the organization, visit www.blackgirlscode.com.