CLEVELAND — It’s no secret that technology is a field dominated by men, a majority of them white.
As the workforce continues to shift to technology-driven industries, one Cleveland-area training company is working to make sure Black people aren’t lost in the shuffle.
There are gadgets and gizmos aplenty at Urban City Codes.
“We have a buffet of different things you want to learn,” said co-founder Tondi Allen. “Hey, try them all.”
Co-founders Tondi and Terrance Allen love all things tech.
“Exposure is the key,” said Tondi.
The couple bonded over their shared passion for technology and decided to combine their talents and separate tech businesses into one.
“Technology is consistently inconsistent,” said Tondi.
After a few years of helping Black-owned businesses transition from brick and mortar to online stores, they realized there was a gap in skills.
“We were getting lots of calls around basic digital literacy questions like how do I upload a picture? How do I resize a picture?” said Tondi.
After uncovering that larger issue, they opened a culturally-focused technology training company.
“We have all Black instructors. All Black mentors and all Black coaches and the reason for that is for representation,” said Tondi.
“It’s fun and rewarding and gives people the opportunity to have a sustainable career at the end of it if they follow through,” said Terrance.
Urban City Codes moved into a space in Cleveland Heights in July of 2020.
“At Urban City Codes, you can start anywhere from the basic skills, digital literacy certification, all the way to emerging technology,” said Terrance.
Today, they bring people together to tinker with emerging tech trends and invite the community to take part in various IT, cybersecurity and coding programs to help garner interest in technology-related jobs.
“The future of work involves robotics, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity,” said Tondi.
She doesn’t want her community to get left behind.
“Especially for the Black and brown community. We right now only make up two percent of the industry,” she said.
The goal is to also foster conversations about why few Black people are currently working in tech, and work together on ways to empower under-represented people to have a prominent place in our ever-changing technical world.
“So, in the movies you never see the Black and brown person cracking the code or coming up with the encryption key or solving the cybersecurity problem or something like that. Those are not accurate images. We are actually and can be a part of all of that,” said Tondi.
