The past two years have been a period of collective grief, but also of collective reimagining for our Oakland community at HtH. We watched our youth organize to protest the compounding challenges of systemic racism, police brutality, COVID-19, and increasing economic disparity, and we knew we needed to rise further to meet them. 2021 became a year of visioning, designing, building, evaluating, and iterating in service of our learners, who inspire us with their purpose to positively impact their communities every day. 

In response, we recommitted to our core belief that technology is a central tool in the pursuit of justice. We understand that true justice is possible when Black, Latinx, AAPI, and Indigenous learners are equipped with the tech and data literacy skills they need to access opportunity and be an agent of change. We spent much of 2021 shaping this vision by creating our education philosophy, our strategic plan, and our tech for justice values. With these to guide us, we accomplished the following:

• Deepened the technical rigor of our curriculum to better prepare our learners for the future of work, with a focus on teaching Python skills, data literacy, and tech for justice.

• Continued to build out post-program career pathways and laid the foundations for career navigation programs that will help learners better connect to certifications and degrees.

• Began sharing our tech justice curriculum with other educators and supported them to deliver it to their learners.

• Engaged with our community by tapping into our local tech and business partners to provide mentorship, tech equipment, and tech training opportunities to our learners and small business partners.

• Bolstered the effectiveness of local small businesses via our mentorship program where learners got work experience as a technical consultant.