(Toronto) Google Canada will dedicate $2.7 million in grants to help Indigenous communities prepare for tech jobs and implement digital media literacy training focused on supporting underrepresented communities.
Posted yesterday at 2:22 p.m.
The US tech giant said more than $1.3 million will be donated to Winnipeg-based training and career development charity ComIT to help bridge the skills and education gap between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous, preparing Indigenous workers for new careers in technology.
The money will be spent on ComIT’s Recoding Futures program, which teaches indigenous communities subjects like design thinking and programming languages and software including HTML, CSS, Javascript. NET, Python, React, and Node.
Google will also award $670,000 to Actua, an Ottawa-based science, technology, engineering and math organization, to expand a program that teaches young people from vulnerable groups how to be safe online and detect misinformation.
Actua’s program will aim to educate young people about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It targets disadvantaged communities and groups that are underrepresented, including Indigenous youth, girls and young women, at-risk youth, and youth living in northern and remote communities.
Another $670,000 will be donated to Ottawa-based digital literacy organization MediaSmarts to develop an education program to help underrepresented communities learn to think critically when using, creating and use online content.