A Los Angeles program called URBAN Txt teaches young children how to build iPhone apps, Facebook apps, and open-source technologies in the hope that it will help them avoid gangs and stay in school. Founder Oscar Menjivar is looking to change the astoundingly high rate of LA kids that will drop out of high school, as well as the rate of kids that will be unemployed or in prison by the time they would have graduated high school.
The results thus far have been encouraging, with a 95% program retention rate and 100% of participants going to college. URBAN Txt only costs about $1,000 per child, a sharp difference from the $47,000 a year it takes to incarcerate those same teens. It is, however, still a rather small program: URBAN Txt could only afford to accept 35 kids last year.
Teens working in the URBAN Txt program
This year, UBRAN Txt is looking to triple the number of participants through a crowdfunding campaign on Razoo. Menjivar is hoping that the campaign will not only raise funds, but help expand the program to two schools in South LA and Watts, as well as the creation of a “Technology Innovation Hub” also located in south LA.
The program, partially funded by Edison and the Durfee Foundation, teaches participants HTML code, CSS, and Javascript, as well as PHP or Objective-C , technologies they can use to build their own iPhone apps. Participants have already built apps that help community organizations meet interested volunteers, helped gain inter-city citizens access healthy food, and help other teens practice for the SAT in the guise of a ninja fighting game.
Menjivar is optimistic about the program’s future, stating that URBAN Txt “needs to bring in more staff, more volunteers, and reach out to more schools” in order to expand on the good the program has already done.
In order to contribute to UBRAN Txt, visit their crowdsourcing fund.
Source: VentureBeat
Advertisement
