Hopeworks ‘N Camden gets featured in Wired: ‘Not a typical tech-training program’

You’d need to put nonprofit Hopeworks ‘N Camden in any shortlist of organizations helping reshape Camden’s economic and tech narrative.

Founded at the start of the dotcom crash in March 2000, the nonprofit offers training and mentorship to youth in tech and IT. But it goes beyond that, as a recent Wired profile tells:

In addition to tech training and counseling, Hopeworks arranges tutoring to improve students’ math and language skills. If housing is an issue—and it is for many Hopeworks students—the organization has a home next door, nicknamed the Crib, where interns can live for $375 a month. Most of the money is returned to interns as a nest egg once they move out. Hopeworks also helps students apply for college scholarships and works with the local Cooper University Healthcare system to help students earn college credits toward a degree in medical billing and coding.

“Our mission is not to fill tech jobs: Our mission is to change the trajectory of lives,” Executive Director Dan Rhoton told reporter Issie Lapowsky.

Check out Hopeworks youth featured in @WiredMagazine ! https://t.co/3u88Gjelrn

— Hopeworks Camden (@hopeworkscamden) October 23, 2017

The profile yields some stats of interest: 78 percent of students complete the tech training program and 60 percent are employed either full-time, or part-time while finishing college within the year. Fifty-five students finished the program last year.

Hopeworks ‘N Camden is nominated to NationSwell’s Tech Impact AllStars 2017 alongside Philly startup Borderwise.