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Code Academy Tech-For-Good

lucypei

Training in programming skills takes a new prominence as an area of tech-for-good: previously, there was a great deal of focus on k-12 and university education to teach programming skills in order to increase social mobility and access to high-paying jobs, or just because STEM education is a good in some stories, or to increse diversity in tech fields as an end unto itself. 

Now re-skilling, in this case through a private corporation's CSR and advertisement campagin for new paying membership, is taking on new significance as massive layoffs and furloughing has left people at home, responsibilized to find a new job. Meanwhile, the tech industry is in quite a few cases hiring as reliance on digital connectivity for things that were once done in-person has increased with quarantining. 

Code Academy

lucypei

By matching purchases of Pro Membership of their programming training with five donation subscriptions, this private business is casting itself as socially responsible. They are re-skiling people who have been furloughed or laid off during the pandemic and this allows them to be competitive for jobs that are still in demand as programmers. Programming and tech industries are the most resilient in a situation of social distancing, as everyone more or less fully relies on digital connectivity for interaction, and this company is capitalizing on that situation to increase its paying membership while boosting its image of social responsibility. 

As a purchaser of Pro Membership, I'm doing a good because I'm "unlocking" the donations to 5 people who get the opportunity to receive training in a new skill through a premium version of a free platform, and this might get them employment. 

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wolmad

The mission statement of the Center for Prisioner Health and Human Rights is as follows:

"The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights seeks to improve the health and human rights of criminal justice populations through education, research, and advocacy."

The center's directors, members, and volunteers establish specific priorities on how this mission is going to be approached. Their current focuses as stated on their website are as follows:

– To bring attention to the health and healthcare issues and challenges of prisoners and other criminal justice populations.
– To improve the continuum of care for prisoners from admission to a correctional facility through release, including improving healthcare access and opportunities for criminal justice populations in the community.
– To advance policies and programs that promote both public health oriented approaches to mental illness, addiction, and substance use and [alternatives to][less reliance on] incarceration and the criminal justice system.
– To engage students and health professionals in the Center’s mission with training and education opportunities, and by providing students with practical experiences working directly on concrete issues, problems, and challenges.

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wolmad

In recent years, incarceration rates and prison populations nationwide have grown exponentially for a variety of sociological and political factors. The organization believes that research indicates that this epidemic has had a particularly hard impact on economically vulnerable communities, where a majority of the people brought into custody suffer from addiction, substance use, and/or mental illness. Due to their economic situation these people were likely unable to seek care or treatment from any public health system in the community. This interaction of illnesses and diseases and criminalization in communities and incarceration results in a complex public health and human rights crisis in both correctional and other criminal justice settings. The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights seeks to apply new research to help to mitigate this.

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wolmad

The program is focused on educating students and researchers in various methods to further research on the criminal justice system and its associated sociological factors. As of this time, the Center is offering two main educational opportunities, one for summer research interns and one for researchers to participate in a 2 year study on HIV in prisons funded by  the National Institute on Drug Abuse