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From Gang Bangers to Web Developers?

Posted by Cliff on from the turning-ones-life-around dept.

evenprime asks: "The Economist is running an article about a program that takes gang members in Milwaukee, sends them through rehab, and teaches them web development so that they can have a decent paying job. I think this type of program - one that gives people the ability to help themselves - is a great idea, and it is something that many of us could help with. Do slashdot readers know of any similar programs in other places? If so, what type of qualifications do you think they would require before allowing someone to help teach web design?" Such programs are just too damned cool. Are there any others like it?

3 of 603 comments (clear)

  1. Considering the current state of tech companies... by x+mani+x · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think a lot of ex-web developers will be running to Compton, begging the gang-bangers to teach them how to pimp and push crack.

  2. This is what our prison systems should be doing... by supabeast! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Right now most nations spend billions of dollars every year filling prisons with people who sit in cages all day watching television. Those people then get released years later, with no new skills, severely damaged social skills, and no real contacts other than criminals they met in prison.

    Imagine if, instead of being locked down all day, the US prison population was educated. Classes all day, homework all night. Give them job skills. Rehabilitate criminals into functional members of society so that when they get out they know how to do something other than be a pain in the ass!

    Of course, is most of the world this will never happen, because prison building and maintenance is now an important industry, and rehabilitation of criminals is detrimental to construction companies, their employees, police unions and their members, as well as prison employee unions and their members. Welcome the the twenty-first century, where deprivation of human freedom is a commodity.

  3. Some clarifications by c0rnfused · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For starters, I am an employee at Homeboyz Interactive, the company reported in the article.

    Just wanted to clarify a few things. The students who go through the program are not simply taught how to launch Dreamweaver and click their way to a Web site. They go through about nine months of training ranging from HTML, to JavaScript, PHP, databases, data modeling, use cases, etc. We provide more skills to these students than most of my university peers seem to have! We are just starting to use Java to deal with some of our larger projects where PHP becomes a burden.

    Think again if you're worried that this is just another basic class in WYSIWYG HTML editors... you are very wrong ;)