Equity takes
initiative.
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Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) is an effort to address systemic racism and expand opportunities for communities of color across the country. REJI programs make an impact in three key areas:
Education. Greater access and greater opportunity.
Everyone deserves access to learn the skills needed for the workforce of today and tomorrow. We partner with institutions to make that real.
Criminal justice. An unfair system is unfit for everyone.
The criminal justice system disproportionately fails communities of color. We support organizations working to end mass incarceration and defend civil rights.
Economic empowerment. For today’s entrepreneurs.
Black and Brown business owners deserve a fair shot and a fair share. Through mentorship and financial investments, we back founders who have historically been cut out of funding opportunities.
Detroit is the home of automotive engineering, and now a growing class of entrepreneurs are pioneering a new future of digital innovation. The Apple Developer Academy, which has opened more than a dozen locations around the world, now brings its program to Michigan State University, its first-ever U.S. location, to help entrepreneurs, creators, and coders hone their skills and their iOS apps. In collaboration with the university, the academy is expected to reach nearly 1,000 participants each year from in and outside of MSU with both short-term and long-term programs that teach the fundamentals of coding, design, and marketing. With its wealth of minority-owned businesses, bringing the Developer Academy to the Detroit area was an easy choice.
Our Impact Accelerator is a capacity-building program designed for Black-, Latinx-, and Indigenous-owned businesses that share our focus on innovation and our commitment to the environment. With customized training and access to Apple experts, the Impact Accelerator will help environmental product and service providers achieve their next stage of development.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) are critical leaders in expanding educational access, as are community colleges and other centers of learning. To support their continued leadership, Apple is collaborating with minority-serving institutions across the country on programs designed to build a more inclusive workforce. We are a founding partner working with a range of community stakeholders to support the launch of the Propel Center, a first-of-its-kind global innovation and learning hub in Atlanta’s historic Atlanta University Center. The Propel Center will offer tech-related learning programs, career opportunities, and fellowships. In addition, we are establishing two innovation grants to support HBCU engineering programs, creating a Faculty Fellows Program for HBCU educators, and offering 100 scholarships to students of color. Also, in partnership with Apple, California State University Northridge’s HSI Equity Innovation Hub will work to transform Hispanic-Serving Institutions throughout the CSU system and nation in order to increase student success and equip Latinx students and other students from historically underserved groups with skills for high-demand careers in STEM.
The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. And the system is set up to disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities. Apple is donating to preeminent organizations working to end mass incarceration and racial injustice in America. Our grantees include the Equal Justice Initiative, Vera Institute of Justice, Inc., Turn 2 U, Inc., Council on Criminal Justice, Sentencing Project, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Recidiviz, and regional branches of the Innocence Project.
In 2021, we announced two financial investments to further empower entrepreneurs of color. Our investments in Collab Capital and VamosVentures, venture capital funds working exclusively with entrepreneurs of color, support historically overlooked business owners. And in 2020, Apple invested in Harlem Capital, an early-stage venture firm that’s working with 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. We also backed Siebert Williams Shank’s Clear Vision Impact Fund with an investment that will provide small- and medium-size minority-owned businesses with capital to grow.
With the right technology and resources, educators can take creativity in the classroom to new heights. Our Everyone Can Code curriculum provides them with a holistic approach to teaching code. Our interactive Swift Playgrounds app helps students learn the basics of the Swift programming language through a series of fun puzzles and challenges. Educators are also using Apple’s Everyone Can Create curriculum to deepen creative expression and engagement. Our free project guides teach students how to develop and communicate ideas through video, photography, music, and art. We’re also partnering with schools serving Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students to enrich their STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) programming. STEAM is the backbone of the modern economy. And when educators are equipped with today’s learning tools for coding and creating with purpose, they can unleash any young person’s potential.
Black and Hispanic/Latinx founders and developers in technology face unique challenges, and deserve solutions designed to cut through systemic racism. Our Entrepreneur Camp programs for app developers from underrepresented communities give them one-on-one code-level guidance from Apple engineers, ongoing support from an Apple Developer representative, and membership in the Apple Developer Program. Participants also become members of the Apple Entrepreneur Camp alumni network, a world-class group of ambitious leaders working across tech, business, and social impact.
We’ve developed the Taking Action on Racial Equity and Justice series, a set of conversation guides and learning-based challenges on race and inequality issues for teachers to use with their students. Partnering with The King Center and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, these discussion guides and materials also educate youth about social justice and encourage positive community impact. These are great resources for parents looking to have those conversations, too.
Vice President, Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives