Apple is investing an additional $25 million in venture capital
to expand support for minority businesses and address systemic
barriers to funding access
Apple® today announced its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative
(REJI), a long-term global effort to advance equity and expand
opportunities for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous
communities, has more than doubled its initial financial commitment
to total more than $200 million over the last three years. Since
launching REJI in June 2020, Apple has supported education,
economic empowerment, and criminal justice reform work across the
U.S., with recent expansion to Australia, the U.K., and Mexico.
Apple launched REJI at a pivotal moment in the U.S., as protests
against racial injustice swept the nation. The initiative built
upon the company’s years of work to create greater access to
opportunity and advance equity for underserved groups, establishing
a new entity dedicated to accelerating progress through deep
engagements in schools and communities.
“Building a more just and equitable world is urgent work that
demands collaboration, commitment, and a common sense of purpose,”
said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are proud to partner with many
extraordinary organizations that are dedicated to addressing
injustice and eliminating barriers to opportunity. And we’ll
continue to lead with our values as we expand our efforts to create
opportunities, lift up communities, and help build a better future
for all.”
Through REJI’s education grants, Apple has reached more than
160,000 learners through in-person courses and out-of-school
offerings, while committing over $50 million to Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions
(HSIs) to support science, technology, engineering, arts, and math
opportunities. With a focus on economic empowerment, REJI funds
financial institutions — including venture capital firms, Community
Development Financial Institutions, and Minority Depository
Institutions — that support Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous
entrepreneurs and businesses. And REJI’s criminal justice reform
grants have supported legal services, safe housing, identification
services, healthcare access, and other vital reentry services for
more than 19,000 justice-impacted individuals.
“We launched REJI at a critical inflection point for our
country,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment,
Policy, and Social Initiatives. “We are resolved to keep building
on the progress we’ve made to ensure equitable opportunity for
Black and Brown communities across America and around the
world.”
New Partnership to Expand Access and Equity
As part of its expanding work, today Apple announced a new
partnership with the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), a program
of the Obama Foundation. Through this strategic partnership and
funding, Apple aims to help close opportunity gaps faced by boys
and young men of color by supporting training for community leaders
and MBKA staff, expanding programming for boys and young men of
color, and strengthening the MBKA network through targeted
community impact microgrants. The program plans to train more than
500 leaders and engage over 50,000 youth across the U.S.
“Apple’s continued support of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance
empowers the foundation to develop and implement new initiatives
that create opportunities for our young people,” said Valerie
Jarrett, the Obama Foundation’s CEO. “Together, we are building a
more inclusive educational system that nurtures creativity, fosters
innovation, and transforms the lives of boys and young men of color
across the country. We are grateful for their partnership and look
forward to our continued collective efforts to ensure all youth can
reach their full potential.”
Increasing Investments in Minority Businesses
Apple today committed an additional $25 million to Collab
Capital, Harlem Capital, and VamosVentures — three venture capital
funds working with minority-owned businesses. With this new round
of investments, Apple has committed $50 million in venture capital
support and more than $100 million in overall financing to
mission-aligned diverse businesses and financial institutions.
These investments are part of REJI’s economic empowerment pillar
aimed at addressing systemic barriers to access, creating
opportunity, and supplying funding to support underrepresented and
underresourced communities and businesses of color.
Advancing Opportunities Globally
Building on its ongoing work in the U.S., REJI has continued to
expand globally. Today, Apple announced new programming in New
Zealand in partnership with Te Pūkenga — New Zealand Institute of
Skills & Technology, the country’s largest vocational educator.
This work will support efforts to equip educators with the skills
they need to prepare underrepresented Māori and Pasifika students
to enter the country’s growing technology sector.
In Australia, Apple announced REJI’s expansion in August 2022
with initial grant funding to support initiatives and nonprofits
serving Indigenous communities, including Deadly Connections, ID.
Know Yourself, First Australians Capital, Art Gallery of NSW’s
Djamu Youth Justice program, and Original Power. New funding will
support Karrkad Kanjdji Trust, a charitable trust established by
the Traditional Owners of Warddeken and Djelk Indigenous Protected
Areas (IPAs) to achieve their vision for a healthy country. Through
REJI and the environmental justice grant program, Apple is also
supporting the Women Rangers program with funding to enhance its
diverse portfolio of land management, leadership, and
skill-building activities.
In the U.K., Apple partnered with the Southbank Centre to launch
Reframe: The Residency, a program designed to reduce the barriers
that exist for aspiring Black creatives. In May, the program’s
first cohort was selected from London, Birmingham, and Manchester.
Artists will present their work at a free exhibition, which opens
on Tuesday, July 18, at the Southbank Centre. Also a part of
Reframe, Inspire Schools works with educational institutions to
teach students new skills by making digital magazines focused on
the climate crisis.
Continuing Apple’s Community Education Initiative work with
universities across Mexico, REJI has partnered with Enactus to
support the expansion of iOS Development Labs that teach coding
with Swift® and prepare learners for careers in Mexico’s thriving
iOS app economy. And with the two newest labs in Tijuana and
Chiapas, REJI is helping create new opportunities for traditionally
underserved communities.
Spotlighting Impact
Today, Apple released its first-ever REJI Impact Overview, which
provides a snapshot of the initiative’s impact across its areas of
focus. The company continues to identify new partners and new
avenues to advance its mission. In the three years since Apple
launched REJI, the programs and organizations the initiative
supports have continued to make a tangible impact in communities
around the world. The following represent REJI’s three priority
focus areas:
Education
Building on its longstanding work with minority-serving
institutions, Apple is a founding partner of Propel, a global HBCU
technology and innovation hub. This summer, Propel will introduce
Propel Learn, a new platform that provides experiential learning
experiences, career opportunities, and microcredentials — all
developed specifically for and by the HBCU community.
Apple’s New Silicon Initiative at HBCUs across the country helps
prepare students for careers in the growing fields of hardware
technology, computer architecture, and silicon chip design. Grants
awarded to Alabama A&M University, Howard University, Morgan
State University, and Prairie View A&M University are designed
to support engineering programs as they develop their curricula in
partnership with Apple experts.
Launched with an investment from Apple, the Global HSI Equity
Innovation Hub at California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
aims to equip Hispanic/Latinx and other historically underserved
students with high-demand skills in science, technology,
engineering, and math. In collaboration with other California State
University campuses and HSIs across the country, the hub
accelerates educational equity while equipping students to
succeed.
Economic Empowerment
Through a partnership with fintech company CNote, Apple helps
fund mission-driven banks and credit unions that serve low- to
moderate-income people, and Black and Brown communities. CNote
facilitates cash deposits that help fuel affordable housing and
small business loans, and provide a just alternative to predatory
lending.
Apple’s Impact Accelerator expands access to opportunity for
Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous environmental solution and
service providers. The 12-week capacity-building program helps
participants reach their next stage of development and scale their
impact.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp supports underrepresented founders and
developers with app-driven businesses as they build the next
generation of cutting-edge apps. In addition to attending hands-on
technology labs and getting one-on-one code-level guidance from
Apple, participating Hispanic/Latinx, Black, and female founders
and developers become a part of a global network that encourages
the pipeline and longevity of these entrepreneurs in
technology.
Criminal Justice Reform
To combat systemic racism, REJI is working to address deep
disparities in criminal justice that disproportionately impact
Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Apple has
partnered with several community colleges — including the Los
Angeles Community College District, Delgado Community College in
New Orleans, and Houston Community College — to implement programs
to help incarcerated and paroled individuals learn new skills,
prevent recidivism, and create economic opportunity for parolees
and probationers.
Apple has also made meaningful contributions to various
nonprofit organizations that advance equity and justice, including
the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Defy Ventures, Vera Institute of
Justice, and The Last Mile.
Taking Action Across Apple
Ensuring that racial equity and justice is reflected across
Apple, the company partners with local communities to drive impact
and achieve meaningful change:
- In March, Apple added representation of Indigenous lands to
Maps. In an update made in collaboration with Indigenous
communities, Maps now displays tribal, First Nations, Inuit, and
Métis territories in the U.S. and Canada. Maps also implemented
support for dual-language labels — including in Indigenous-language
syllabaries — and redesigned the Maps place card used for
Indigenous lands to show more detail, working directly with
communities to curate their place card content.
- Strengthen Local Communities (SLC) is an Apple grant program
that provides funding to local organizations where Apple team
members live and work, including grants to minority-led
organizations focused on environmental equity and justice. The
program is helping to train future environmental leaders, provide
low-cost tools for educators, and ensure that First Nation
communities benefit from the transition to clean energy.
- To support communities disproportionately impacted by climate
change, Apple works directly with organizations that advocate for
frontline communities, advance climate justice, and cultivate
solutions that prioritize equity and community building within the
environmental movement. The company has partnered with
organizations including Environmental Health Coalition, Little
Village Environmental Justice Organization, Native Conservancy,
Original Power, and UPROSE.
- Apple’s Challenge for Change Learning Series is designed to
help learners of all ages explore important issues in their
communities and create innovative solutions to make lasting impact.
To learn more, visit education.apple.com/#/home/rp/R005920.
- Apple recently worked in collaboration with representatives
from the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation to add Chickasaw
(Chikashshanompaʼ) and Choctaw (Chahta) language support in the
keyboard on iPhone®, iPad®, and Mac®. This effort is part of
Apple’s goal to build products that represent everyone, including
communities and languages that may be underrepresented and
underserved in technology.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230614348371/en/
Samya Epps Apple samya_epps@apple.com
Eric Hollister Williams Apple e_hollisterwillia@apple.com
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