AnnieCannons believes that economic empowerment is the key to breaking cycles of abuse and exploitation. They have not only imagined a world where survivors of trafficking and violence are given opportunities to advance in tech careers, they have made it possible.
By cultivating an innovative training program that develops critical skills for the digital economy, offers mentorship and coaching to build confidence, and provides a direct pathway to monetize their skills, AnnieCannons successfully transforms survivors into software engineers while strategically diversifying the technology industry.
These inspiring trainees are invited to channel their talents, passion, and self-motivation into a phase-based training program that carries them from digital literacy to mastery through a hands-on, incremental and empowerment-based approach to education.
Program participants are trained on the fundamentals of web development, followed by more advanced front-end and full stack development, before they begin applying their knowledge more directly through project-based learning, where they practice and hone their coding, time management, and teamwork skills together.
Modeling survivor-informed programming from the ground up, AnnieCannons has designed a work environment tailored specifically to their graduates’ needs. The initial phase of the program is taught by survivor-graduates and includes trauma-informed practices in mindfulness, meditation and other techniques that are specific to the needs of the AnnieCannons community.
Ongoing, each individual is supported by her instructors and peers, and set up to succeed with custom coaching, onsite childcare, classroom meals, opportunities for remote work, and regular opportunities to participate in mental health workshops.
The success of the AnnieCannons program is measured not only by the personal transformation of its graduates, but by their proven ability to secure sustainable, high-income opportunities with the agency’s clientele – building websites, developing applications, and providing technological support for businesses across the country.
Through strategic funding support provided by The Jensen Project, AnnieCannons will scale their software development training program over the next two years by implementing an enhanced, accelerated engineering training model designed to support a higher number of survivors in reaching a higher level of income at a faster pace.
By expanding access to their nationally renowned training program through a virtual platform, AnnieCannons will be able to reach new target populations across the U.S., including youth and young adult survivors, offering them the flexibility to pause and rejoin a training cycle, as needed. They will also focus on capacity-building within their own organization as well as local and national frontline service partners by providing needs-based technical trainings.
Lastly, they will expand and leverage their monitoring, evaluation, and learning metrics to strengthen evidence-based practices in economic empowerment initiatives. It is the pleasure of The Jensen Project to invest in a partnership designed to build a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
"Through strategic funding support provided by The Jensen Project, AnnieCannons will scale their software development training program over the next two years."
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