AnnieCannons on the Life-Changing Importance of Access
We spoke with Laura Hackney, the CTO and Cofounder of AnnieCannons, one of our fantastic recipient organizations in Oakland, CA. We were so humbled to learn more about their work. We’re excited to share this conversation with you because it’s an example of the range of nonprofit organizations we work with: food insecurity comes in many forms, some more visible than others, and at Replate we think it’s important to acknowledge all those forms and all of the people this problem touches. It’s not only those who are housing insecure or who may frequent shelters or soup kitchens that face this issue. Read on to learn about the work AnnieCannons does to provide survivors of human trafficking and other gender-based violence with the opportunity and access from which they have been excluded.
What is AnnieCannons?
AnnieCannons is a software engineering company in Oakland, California. All of the engineers that build custom software products are survivors of human trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence.
What is your role in the organization and how did you get involved?
My cofounder and I started AnnieCannons in 2015 and we’re currently in the midst of our 5th cohort. We run two programs: the first program is a coding bootcamp that begins with digital literacy and ends with front end web development. From there, our students graduate to the second program, our earning program, where they become independent contractors who work on client projects. I myself run the training program as Lead Instructor and am also the CTO for all of our external projects.
What was the impetus for starting AnnieCannons?
I had been working with lots of nonprofits that led to me working with lots of survivor leaders in that space. My previous job had been in academia doing research on human trafficking. Through my work, I kept hearing from survivors that as difficult as it is for people to get out of exploitation, it is also very difficult to break out of the cycle of vulnerability and the inability to access opportunities that would allow them to see their full potential.
I have more experience in the NGO sector while my cofounder has more experience with startups in the San Francisco Bay Area. We started talking about the fact that these survivors we were encountering in our work were women with grit and problem-solving ability but that they had limited access to opportunities. Even people who could access housing and legal aid weren’t getting access to career or job training. So we started discussing what a really beneficial job training would be that didn’t require a four-year degree. We thought software engineering worked so well because so many roles in the field have flexible hours that help if you have young kids to take care of, and it is generally a very lucrative career path. We also knew that software is an industry very skewed towards certain experiences and voices and backgrounds, so we liked the idea of bringing different voices to the table. Ultimately, AnnieCannons was born out of acknowledging this gap but also out of the frustration of the narrative around trafficking of these women as victims or damsels in distress, when really they are determined and just need the same access as everyone else.
Can you share with me an interesting or favorite success story from the organization?
From the very first class, we had someone referred to us who came in with a little bit of computer experience but had never coded. (We have people who join the class who have never interacted with computers.) She started the class by saying no one had ever told her she could be successful at this kind of thing. She thrived. She ultimately became one of the best JavaScript developers I’ve ever met. She has since moved out of a shelter, out of transitional housing. She recently went on vacation. She has been able to build up her life and her future, to think about and plan it the way she wants to.
My favorite thing is to be able to attend tech conferences for the first time with students. We underestimate the ability to say “I’m a doctor”, “I’m a lawyer”, “I’m a software engineer”, which is really the ability to introduce yourself to someone as a person who possesses a set of skills that mainstream society values.
We have students come up with their own software ideas so they can learn the process of coming up with a software project. We had a student in her second class talk about the experience of how difficult it is to fill out a temporary restraining order, how the process is difficult, how the language on the form is really convoluted. Her product idea was a mobile app to help someone understand and fill out this kind of form. This is a beautiful example of a problem that a lot of VC funders aren’t investing in because it’s not a problem everyone would encounter. But now in this case the actual people who are building the app have experienced the problem that they are building to solve. You can take a look at her work here.
How long has AnnieCannons worked with Replate? How did you get connected?
In July of 2019 I just reached out. One of the hardest things about what we do is that when we start working with students, a lot of the gaps in services around the Bay Area become very clear. We have students who can get housing but not enough resources to bring food to class every day, or students who have never had their vision tested. So we’ve had to fill in these gaps ourselves. Our ideal model is partnering with other service providers to be able to provide the resources we need. We had been looking for food support partnerships, even just going to grocery stores and asking if they could help us out. We were connected with another food recovery service who said they had no more volume to give.
Once I found Replate and reached out the setup was immediate. It’s been incredible. It’s been transformative the fact that we’ve had students not only have meals in class but have their kids who come in have food, good food, and have them be able to take it home for the weekends.
Was it easy to implement our service into your daily programming?
Yea, absolutely. We had some logistics to figure out on our end, but it’s been great. I also think food is one of the things our students have had to be anxious about. And now they don’t have to worry if they have something to pack for breakfast or lunch when they leave the house.
Have the women come to expect the meals?
There is a bit of variety, we have people with dietary restrictions and it’s been really nice to have those options. If these women were working at a big tech company like Google or Facebook, they would have these nice catered meals, so the fact that we are able to offer this is wonderful. It’s important to show that their work is valued just as much as it would be at these other companies.
It also works really well with the training because it’s helpful to have a social lunch break in the middle of a four hour class. It’s so nice to talk over a shared meal and bond with classmates rather than having to run out to buy an expensive lunch on your own.
Have you seen a way in which donations have improved general morale or perhaps overall retention of the women in your program?
They’ve removed anxiety, and it’s just so important to have full meals throughout the day while you’re trying to learn something difficult. And just a greater feeling of support if you’re able to have a full meal and really sit down and focus and finish the project.
At times as a nonprofit it’s been really difficult to have the budget to be able to do this, and so for a week or so we were really trying to figure out how to do it. Our TAs were bringing in Cup-o-Noodles, it wasn’t sustainable or healthy. Having Replate also removes staff anxiety.
Are there any other ways in which food donations are supporting internal operations?
It’s just really nice when we’re able to bring things back to the office and have things for the staff as well. It’s great to be able to support our hard-working staff who are working for a below market wage because they really want to do this work, so it’s always nice to offer them more support.