Giving Tuesday: Help us outfit the Creative Career Cohort with new laptops

The Creative Career Cohort needs your help.

Beginning in January 2021, we are launching an 18-week career-connected learning program for BIPOC students interested in creative career fields. This creative cohort combines photography, and graphic design, with mock interviews, portfolio development and more and is offered completely free of charge. COVID-19 precautions have us working virtually for the first session in January and we need new laptops for the cohort to access the most recent software. Our old laptops (early 2000s) will no longer work with the new Adobe Creative Suite and remote technology access is critical for students to learn and grow in the program. $5,000 covers 6 of the ACER laptops we will provide to students in this cohort.

How will a laptop help students with this Creative Cohort?

"Having a laptop that can operate the digital editing software students will learn to use in this program is paramount to their success. The nature of digital media requires users to have current technology that is reliable and functional to even get started. The cost of this equipment is often a huge barrier for people in historically marginalized communities." -Benji Anderson, Community Engagement Coordinator at Youth in Focus

70% of Seattle high school students never take a visual arts class. Students of color, those facing poverty and housing insecurity, or for whom English is not a first language are disproportionately impacted. There is a huge need for high-quality career-connected arts education programming to not only teach these skills, but create a career pipeline and social network for BIPOC students furthest from education justice.