When the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we do business, technology opportunities shifted from Silicon Valley to Main Street. Still, many black tech professionals—particularly those in the Midwest—didn't have the same opportunities as their peers. However, the Midwest Tech Project – based in Grand Rapids, MI – hopes to change all that.
“Midwest has had to overcome a lot of adversity because it's in the heart of the rust belt,” co-founder Jonathan Jelks said exclusively. “As industry moved out, technology moved in – and it's a question of whether these big tech companies can see that.”
“Careers in tech aren't just about engineering and coding,” agreed co-founder AJ Hills IV. “They include everything from cyber security to front-end and back-end development, even e-commerce and social media management. Our company's purpose is to enable black men and women to see that there are many, many ways to transition into a full-time career in technology.”
Together with their partner Willie “Willie The Kid” Jackson, The Midwest Tech Project has built a business portfolio that helps the West Michigan small business ecosystem grow.
For his part, Hills is a Business City of Grand Rapids developer who oversees the city's Equal Business Opportunity Program and Micro Local Business Enterprise certification with a focus on growing business equity in West Michigan. He has used this position as an opportunity to connect black Midwestern professionals with the opportunities they deserve.
“We try to go for the low-hanging fruit first,” Hills said. “We have events where companies — like Google, like Microsoft, like all the big tech companies — can come and talk to the community. Then the community gets a chance to see what they want — what they're looking for — and even, sometimes, offer them jobs, which is of course the ultimate goal. The job, really, of the Midwest Tech Project is to democratize the information available to tech professionals and create partnerships that are within our own ecosystem.”
However, the founders of the company do not want to focus their efforts only on technology. Like many young professionals today, they are serial entrepreneurs. Hills works with his wife in real estate investing and a non-profit organization. Jackson & Jelks own a new music discovery streaming platform called radi8er and executive produce an upcoming documentary, “I Too Sing America: Langston Hughes Unfurled,” — a biopic of the great poet and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance.
However, their diverse interests do not prevent them from promoting the Midwest Tech Project in other ways. They've even found a way to help ex-prisoners: TechX, which is also under the Midwest Tech Project umbrella.
“This is the program that allows us to help black men and women coming out of prison get and keep gainful employment,” Jelks said. “When thinking about strategies that can reduce recidivism rates while providing sustainable employment opportunities to a forgotten community, technology is the great equalizer. There aren't many candidates who can fit into the tech culture and possess the resilience required to thrive than those who return home and seek to start a new chapter.”
For more information about The Midwest Tech Project, visit their website here.
