Hispanic Heritage Foundation to partner with Sabio and City of Los Angeles in support of innovative re-entry program focused on tech entrepreneurship through Reboot LA Tech Incubator

Initiative to Provide Technical and Entrepreneurial Incubation to Returning Citizens in LA

 LOS ANGELES, CA – The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) will provide programmatic support of Sabio Enterprise, Inc.’s Reboot.LA Tech Incubator through “Techpresarios” – an innovative, intensive web-development and tech-entrepreneurship program providing stronger pathways for re-entry to formerly incarcerated individuals in LA.

Unemployment among the formerly incarcerated is five times higher than the general public with Black and Latinx – especially women – facing even greater challenges in finding jobs. According to a Prison Policy Initiative Report, employment helps formerly incarcerated people gain economic stability after release and reduces the likelihood that they return to prison. Individuals who have a criminal record and reside within the City of LA are invited to apply for the Fellowship at Reboot.LA.

Techpresarios, which is being piloted in partnership with the City of Los Angeles with plans to scale in other regions of the country, will provide free technical and entrepreneurship incubation services and support to individuals with a criminal record, training them to become full-stack web developers who launch their own tech-consultancy companies siting.  The Techpresarios Fellows will learn how to source clients, create a digital portfolio and run their own tech consulting company.

“Similar to how rebooting a computer performs a reset, RebootLA gives individuals with significant barriers, such as a criminal record, an opportunity to restart their lives” said Claudia Diaz, RebootLA Program Director. “The employment opportunities for folks who were either formerly incarcerated or hold a criminal record are often limited, which poses a significant barrier to their advancement in life. RebootLA bridges the justice-impacted community to a career in tech by providing them highly-demanded technical and entrepreneurial skills.”

The program was designed by Sabio CEO & Co-Founder, Liliana Aide Monge, after working with the Anti-Recidivism coalition, and noticing that many of the people served by ARC are exceptionally entrepreneurial and tech savvy. The program is committed to incubating 28 successful revenue-producing businesses which will potentially create jobs in the tech sector.

Los Angeles-based Sabio was founded in 2013 with the mission to increase the participation of women and people of color in the innovation economy. Sabio is one of the oldest software development coding bootcamps in Southern California and is run exclusively by senior industry software practitioners. Sabio believes that by providing a justice-impacted community a pathway into tech via technical training and entrepreneurship, barriers will be significantly reduced.  Sabio has partnered with HHF’s Code as a Second Language (CSL) since its inception seven years ago.

“There is talent everywhere including in the formerly incarcerated community and our collective effort with Sabio and the City of LA is to develop that innovative potential through the Techpresarios program,” said Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO of HHF. “Finding a job is one of the biggest challenges to re-entry and entrepreneurship is the best response because favor creating our own opportunities and then creating for others in a similar situation.  That’s at the core of this effort and I am grateful to the vision and leadership of Liliana and Sabio.”

About Sabio

Sabio was founded in 2013 by Liliana Monge and Gregioro Rojas, two Latinx Immigrants. Gregorio Rojas, a self-taught programmer noticed the lack of technical training programs available and even less to people of color like himself. In a direct attempt to resource disparities, Sabio was created with the purpose to increase the women and people of color that participate in the innovation economy.

Sabio is a certified minority-owned small business located in the City of Los Angeles and operating throughout the U.S. The current instructors are alumni of companies such as Fox, Gamefly, Stack Overflow, TMZ and UCLA. Sabio’s software development program focuses on .NET/C# and trains across the full-stack in Mobile, Front End, Back End, Source Control, Database and Development platforms. Sabio’s alumni now work at amazing companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, Activision, MedMen, UCLA, and USC. (Visit https://sabio.la/).

About the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and CSL

The Hispanic Heritage Foundation is a national nonprofit focused on education, workforce, innovative leadership, and culture to meet America’s priorities. Through HHF’s program, Code as a Second Language (CSL), tens of thousands of students across the nation are introduced and taught to code. Once they are initiated, they are funneled into a larger network of coders including mentors, workshops, activities through the LOFT (Latinos On Fast Track) program for further development, connectivity and ultimately placement into the workforce with Fortune 500 companies (Visit www.HispanicHeritage.org) Follow HHF on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. 

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