Last summer, New Yorker Patrick McConlogue made headlines when he offered a homeless man a choice: $100 cash or JavaScript textbooks, a laptop and an offer to teach him how to code.
Leo Grand, the homeless man, chose the latter.
Now thousands have heard his story through major media outlets as well as McConlogue’s personal blog and the Journeyman—his nickname for Grand—Facebook page, which has more than 65,000 followers.
Inspired by Grand’s experiences, organizers at the Central Iowa Shelters and Services (CISS) are hoping to bring his story a little closer to home through a coding club for homeless members of the community.
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“One of our board members shared the article with us and let us know that there was a shortage of programmers in central Iowa,” CISS executive director Tony Timm said. “After considering the opportunity we have decided that a coding club could be very beneficial to the individuals we serve.”
While an official start date has yet to be determined the Iowa non-profit hopes to offer the community it serves weekly coding courses in its new facilities, which has a 40-computer classroom.
“In our previous facility we had about five computers and we did provide basic computers skills training and it was fairly well received,” CISS development coordinator Tom Vance told Silicon Prairie News. “When we opened our new facility in Sept. 2012, we greatly expanded our capacity.”
Even with new facilities, the non-profit will need a number of coders from the community to donate their time and lead the club on a weekly basis in order to get the program off the ground.
“There is a window of opportunity for this to work here too,” Timm said. “Our guests could learn code and find jobs, go back to school or even make their own apps.”
If Grand’s experiences are any indication, the Iowa non-profit’s goals might not be too far off—his app, Trees for Cars, hit the App Store in early December.
Want to help? CISS is in need of code-savvy volunteers and computer language textbooks to begin its program. To donate textbooks or get involved, contact the organization’s development coordinate Tom Vance via email or call (515) 280-2990.
