AdelanTECH Leadership Development Program
The Challenge
AT&T wanted to create a public-private-labor partnership to build pathways for farmworkers and their families to participate in California’s growing technology economy.
The AdelanTECH Leadership Development Program brought together AT&T, United Farm Workers (UFW), CORO California, Hartnell Community College, and Udacity to address barriers facing rural Californians seeking opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Launched in Salinas, the multi-year program provided leadership development and skills-based training to cohorts of 12 farmworkers and adult children of farmworkers. Fellows received 10 months of CORO leadership training while earning a Udacity front-end web development nanodegree recognized for entry-level software development employment at major technology companies.
Our Role
Kearns & West convened the partners and built a program that combined each organization’s strengths: AT&T’s technology and employment perspective, UFW’s connection to farmworker communities, CORO’s leadership development expertise, and Udacity’s technical training. In conjunction with program partners, we managed the partnership and program implementation, helping create a working program with a defined curriculum, participants, partner roles, and path from training to employment.
Key Contributions:
- Convened the public-private-labor partnership around a shared goal and program.
- Defined partner roles and coordinated implementation.
- Combined technology training with leadership and professional development.
- Designed the program around the needs of farmworkers and their families.
- Managed the program from development through launch and implementation.
Services Provided:
Outcome & Impact
Multiple cohorts of emerging rural leaders received fully funded leadership and technology training, supporting new opportunities for farmworkers and their families to participate in the technology economy.
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