INDIANAPOLIS — A new partnership between a technology academy and several Indianapolis organizations hopes to make big changes to the tech world and neighborhoods on the east side.
Eleven Fifty Academy is offering technology courses at organizations across the 46218 ZIP code. That ZIP code stretches from Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue to North Arlington Avenue, between East 16th Street and East 38th Street.
The academy is partnering with Edna Martin Christian Center, Him by Her Collegiate School for the Arts, New Beginnings Fellowship Church, New Direction Church, and Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church to place a cohort on its campus to provide a workforce option for people to develop skills into a sustainable career in tech.
The organizations are joining Martin University, Eastern Star Church, Goodwill Industries, InnoPower, The Indianapolis Recorder, along with Eleven Fifty Academy in the collaboration. The groups will work to provide programs to help residents in that area living in or near poverty make progress toward achieving lasting economic self-sufficiency.
They say it's giving an opportunity to those who are not well-represented in the tech field, such as African Americans, Hispanics and women.
"This is an opportunity for us to come into the community and to offer those opportunities to individuals here in challenged areas where crime is sometimes high and sometimes known as a 'food desert,' so we're solving those problems," said Eleven Fifty president and founder Scott Jones.
The academy is also working with hundreds of companies to find people good-paying jobs once they are done with the course, which can take as little as 90 days.
"Guiding individuals along a path to financial independence and generational wealth building is what we are all about, and Eleven Fifty's courses have the potential to accelerate this process," said Immanuel Ivey, Senior Director of Workforce Development and Entrepreneurship.
Eleven Fifty claims it has a graduation rate of over 80% depending on the cohort, and approximately 70% placement rate into jobs paying entry-level compensation averaging more than $55,000 to start.