First class graduates from prison web development program
There’s a constant need for adept programmers in Atlanta’s growing tech industry, and national nonprofit Persevere is working to help fill that gap with people coming out of incarceration.
They offer a one-year program teaching full-stack software development and life skills through corrections systems.
Their first class of 12 graduates recently completed the course at the Metro Reentry Facility in Atlanta.
While the state as a whole is experiencing record low unemployment at about 3%, the formerly incarcerated are unemployed at a rate of over 27%.
Georgia has around 47,000 prisoners incarcerated and is ranked number four on the list of states with the highest prison populations.
Julie Landers, Georgia program director for Persevere, joined WABE’s “All Things Considered” to describe how the organization empowers inmates and the formerly incarcerated to change their lives.
Landers said Persevere is always looking for volunteers who can teach coding, employers interested in hiring graduates, or people just interested in acting as mentors.
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