Justice Through Code

A world where every person, regardless of past convictions or incarceration can access life-sustaining and meaningful careers. 
We are working to make this vision a reality through our technical and professional career development accelerators. 
Our Mission: We educate and nurture talent with conviction histories to create a more just and diverse workforce. We increase workplace equity through partnerships that educate and prepare teams to create supportive pathways to careers that end the cycle of poverty that contributes to incarceration and recidivism.

JTC is jointly ​offered by Columbia University’s Center for Justice, and the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at the Columbia Business School.​

Our Job-to-Career Lifecycle of Opportunity


 

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The Foundation

During The Foundation, participants develop the skills necessary for jobs in the 21st-century workforce. Over an 8-week intensive, participants develop the technical and professional skills to secure jobs and build the foundation of stability to begin the next steps in their journey from job to career. Course topics include building habits, organization, communication, understanding and working with data, mastering office productivity tools, and the foundations of programming. 

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Pathways

The 17-week Pathways program dives deep into digital problem-solving skills through the lens of computer science. Fellows develop technical skills in topics including Python, Javascript, HTML, and CSS, and discover career pathways aligned with their interests including software engineering, data analytics, project management, and UX design. While gaining this exposure and knowledge, Fellows prepare for the program's culminating achievement--the technical assessment and career map--which is required for entry into The Flagship and referral to partner programs.

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The Flagship

During The Flagship, participants develop the skills to enter into apprenticeships and early career roles in Software Engineering. Fellows advance their technical skills and gain experience with Python, Flask, HTML, CSS, GitHub, data structures and algorithms, and technical interviewing as they work towards their culminating achievement--3 months of developing production-level code experience through contributing to open-source software products. 


Donations, Sponsorship, and Hiring Our Graduates

Want to join us in our fight for equitable and sustainable careers for the formerly incarcerated? Want to help with our goal to reduce recidivism? Looking to hire one of our graduates for contract work or to work for your company?

Please email j[email protected] to learn more about sponsorship, and hiring our graduates.

If you're interested in supporting our students by donating to the program, please donate to the Justice Through Code gift account.


OUR PARTNERS 

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Coursera logo
Google.org logo
JC Flowers Foundation logo
JP Morgan Chase & Co. logo
Santander logo
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