June 14, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Apple’s Racial Fairness and Justice Initiative surpasses $200 million in investments, doubling preliminary 2020 dedication
Apple is investing an extra $25 million in enterprise capital to broaden assist for minority companies and handle systemic boundaries to funding entry
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple right now introduced its Racial Fairness and Justice Initiative (REJI), a long-term world effort to advance fairness and broaden alternatives for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities, has greater than doubled its preliminary monetary dedication to complete greater than $200 million during the last three years. Since launching REJI in June 2020, Apple has supported training, financial empowerment, and prison justice reform work throughout the U.S., with latest enlargement to Australia, the U.Ok., and Mexico.
Apple launched REJI at a pivotal second within the U.S., as protests in opposition to racial injustice swept the nation. The initiative constructed upon the corporate’s years of labor to create better entry to alternative and advance fairness for underserved teams, establishing a brand new entity devoted to accelerating progress by means of deep engagements in faculties and communities.
“Constructing a extra simply and equitable world is pressing work that calls for collaboration, dedication, and a standard sense of function,” stated Tim Cook dinner, Apple’s CEO. “We’re proud to associate with many extraordinary organizations which might be devoted to addressing injustice and eliminating boundaries to alternative. And we’ll proceed to steer with our values as we broaden our efforts to create alternatives, raise up communities, and assist construct a greater future for all.”
By means of REJI’s training grants, Apple has reached greater than 160,000 learners by means of in-person programs and out-of-school choices, whereas committing over $50 million to Traditionally Black Faculties and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Establishments (HSIs) to assist science, know-how, engineering, arts, and math alternatives. With a give attention to financial empowerment, REJI funds monetary establishments — together with enterprise capital companies, Group Growth Monetary Establishments, and Minority Depository Establishments — that assist Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous entrepreneurs and companies. And REJI’s prison justice reform grants have supported authorized providers, protected housing, identification providers, healthcare entry, and different very important reentry providers for greater than 19,000 justice-impacted people.
“We launched REJI at a important inflection level for our nation,” stated Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice chairman of Surroundings, Coverage, and Social Initiatives. “We’re resolved to maintain constructing on the progress we’ve made to make sure equitable alternative for Black and Brown communities throughout America and all over the world.”
New Partnership to Broaden Entry and Fairness
As a part of its increasing work, right now Apple introduced a brand new partnership with the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), a program of the Obama Basis. By means of this strategic partnership and funding, Apple goals to assist shut alternative gaps confronted by boys and younger males of coloration by supporting coaching for group leaders and MBKA workers, increasing programming for boys and younger males of coloration, and strengthening the MBKA community by means of focused group impression microgrants. This system plans to coach greater than 500 leaders and have interaction over 50,000 youth throughout the U.S.
“Apple’s continued assist of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance empowers the muse to develop and implement new initiatives that create alternatives for our younger folks,” stated Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Basis’s CEO. “Collectively, we’re constructing a extra inclusive instructional system that nurtures creativity, fosters innovation, and transforms the lives of boys and younger males of coloration throughout the nation. We’re grateful for his or her partnership and look ahead to our continued collective efforts to make sure all youth can attain their full potential.”
Growing Investments in Minority Companies
Apple right now dedicated an extra $25 million to Collab Capital, Harlem Capital, and VamosVentures — three enterprise capital funds working with minority-owned companies. With this new spherical of investments, Apple has dedicated $50 million in enterprise capital assist and greater than $100 million in general financing to mission-aligned various companies and monetary establishments. These investments are a part of REJI’s financial empowerment pillar aimed toward addressing systemic boundaries to entry, creating alternative, and supplying funding to assist underrepresented and underresourced communities and companies of coloration.
Advancing Alternatives Globally
Constructing on its ongoing work within the U.S., REJI has continued to broaden globally. Right this moment, Apple introduced new programming in New Zealand in partnership with Te Pūkenga — New Zealand Institute of Abilities & Know-how, the nation’s largest vocational educator. This work will assist efforts to equip educators with the talents they should put together underrepresented Māori and Pasifika college students to enter the nation’s rising know-how sector.
In Australia, Apple introduced REJI’s enlargement in August 2022 with preliminary grant funding to assist initiatives and nonprofits serving Indigenous communities, together with Lethal Connections, ID. Know Your self, First Australians Capital, Artwork Gallery of NSW’s Djamu Youth Justice program, and Unique Energy. New funding will assist Karrkad Kanjdji Belief, a charitable belief established by the Conventional House owners of Warddeken and Djelk Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) to attain their imaginative and prescient for a wholesome nation. By means of REJI and Apple’s environmental justice grants, the corporate can be supporting the Ladies Rangers program with funding to boost its various portfolio of land administration, management, and skill-building actions.
Within the U.Ok., Apple partnered with the Southbank Centre to launch Reframe: The Residency, a program designed to scale back the boundaries that exist for aspiring Black creatives. In Might, this system’s first cohort was chosen from London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Artists will current their work at a free exhibition, which opens on Tuesday, July 18, on the Southbank Centre. Additionally part of Reframe, Encourage Colleges works with instructional establishments to show college students new abilities by making digital magazines centered on the local weather disaster.
Persevering with Apple’s Group Training Initiative work with universities throughout Mexico, REJI has partnered with Enactus to assist the enlargement of iOS Growth Labs that train coding with Swift and put together learners for careers in Mexico’s thriving iOS app financial system. And with the 2 latest labs in Tijuana and Chiapas, REJI helps create new alternatives for historically underserved communities.
Spotlighting Affect
Right this moment, Apple launched its first-ever REJI Affect Overview, which supplies a snapshot of the initiative’s impression throughout its areas of focus. The corporate continues to determine new companions and new avenues to advance its mission. Within the three years since Apple launched REJI, the applications and organizations the initiative helps have continued to make a tangible impression in communities all over the world. The next signify REJI’s three precedence focus areas:
Training
Constructing on its longstanding work with minority-serving establishments, Apple is a founding associate of Propel, a worldwide HBCU know-how and innovation hub. This summer season, Propel will introduce Propel Be taught, a brand new platform that gives experiential studying experiences, profession alternatives, and microcredentials — all developed particularly for and by the HBCU group.
Apple’s New Silicon Initiative at HBCUs throughout the nation helps put together college students for careers within the rising fields of {hardware} know-how, laptop structure, and silicon chip design. Grants awarded to Alabama A&M College, Howard College, Morgan State College, and Prairie View A&M College are designed to assist engineering applications as they develop their curricula in partnership with Apple specialists.
Launched with an funding from Apple, the International HSI Fairness Innovation Hub at California State College, Northridge (CSUN) goals to equip Hispanic/Latinx and different traditionally underserved college students with high-demand abilities in science, know-how, engineering, and math. In collaboration with different California State College campuses and HSIs throughout the nation, the hub accelerates instructional fairness whereas equipping college students to succeed.
Financial Empowerment
By means of a partnership with fintech firm CNote, Apple helps fund mission-driven banks and credit score unions that serve low- to moderate-income folks, and Black and Brown communities. CNote facilitates money deposits that assist gas inexpensive housing and small enterprise loans, and supply a simply various to predatory lending.
Apple’s Affect Accelerator expands entry to alternative for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous environmental answer and repair suppliers. The 12-week capacity-building program helps individuals attain their subsequent stage of growth and scale their impression.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp helps underrepresented founders and builders with app-driven companies as they construct the following era of cutting-edge apps. Along with attending hands-on know-how labs and getting one-on-one code-level steerage from Apple, collaborating Hispanic/Latinx, Black, and feminine founders and builders turn into part of a worldwide community that encourages the pipeline and longevity of those entrepreneurs in know-how.
Prison Justice Reform
To fight systemic racism, REJI is working to deal with deep disparities in prison justice that disproportionately impression Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Apple has partnered with a number of group schools — together with the Los Angeles Group Faculty District, Delgado Group Faculty in New Orleans, and Houston Group Faculty — to implement applications to assist incarcerated and paroled people be taught new abilities, forestall recidivism, and create financial alternative for parolees and probationers.
Apple has additionally made significant contributions to numerous nonprofit organizations that advance fairness and justice, together with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Defy Ventures, Vera Institute of Justice, and The Final Mile.
Taking Motion Throughout Apple
Guaranteeing that racial fairness and justice is mirrored throughout Apple, the corporate companions with native communities to drive impression and obtain significant change:
- In March, Apple added illustration of Indigenous lands to Maps. In an replace made in collaboration with Indigenous communities, Maps now shows tribal, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis territories within the U.S. and Canada. Maps additionally carried out assist for dual-language labels — together with in Indigenous-language syllabaries — and redesigned the Maps place card used for Indigenous lands to indicate extra element, working straight with communities to curate their place card content material.
- Strengthen Native Communities (SLC) is an Apple grant program that gives funding to native organizations the place Apple crew members reside and work, together with grants to minority-led organizations centered on environmental fairness and justice. This system helps to coach future environmental leaders, present low-cost instruments for educators, and be certain that First Nation communities profit from the transition to scrub vitality.
- To assist communities disproportionately impacted by local weather change, Apple works straight with organizations that advocate for frontline communities, advance local weather justice, and domesticate options that prioritize fairness and group constructing inside the environmental motion. The corporate has partnered with organizations together with Environmental Well being Coalition, Little Village Environmental Justice Group, Native Conservancy, Unique Energy, and UPROSE.
- Apple’s Problem for Change Studying Collection is designed to assist learners of all ages discover vital points of their communities and create revolutionary options to make lasting impression. To be taught extra, go to training.apple.com/#/dwelling/rp/R005920.
- Apple lately labored in collaboration with representatives from the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation so as to add Chickasaw (Chikashshanompaʼ) and Choctaw (Chahta) language assist within the keyboard on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This effort is a part of Apple’s objective to construct merchandise that signify everybody, together with communities and languages that could be underrepresented and underserved in know-how.
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