Pilsen incubator BLUE1647, one of the biggest drivers of technology diversity in Chicago, is taking its model to bridge the tech divide in another one of America's most segregated cities.
BLUE1647 will soon open a 10,000 square-foot facility in St. Louis, where it has partnered with the local NAACP and LaunchCode to bring technology classes and workforce development programs to the city's underserved youth. The building, tentatively named BLUE1647 St. Louis, expects to open in March and be part of a larger technology corridor on Delmar Boulevard, a street known as a a divide between the city's white and black communities.
"We're trying to change the narrative for the city of St. louis in our own little way," BLUE1647 CEO Emile Cambry said.
The racial tension and the economic disparity among St. Louis residents has made national headlines recently with the events of Ferguson, noted Cambry, who said making technology resources available to all residents is one way to spur job growth in the community.
"This is really an opportunity to stimulate the local economy," he said. "It's going to be a powerful opportunity for the city."
BLUE1647 opened in Chicago in August 2013 and serves two purposes: to provide a co-working space for local tech startups and to serve as a learning lab for students. BLUE1647 has worked with thousands of Chicago students, teaching a wide range of technology skills from coding, to video editing, to 3D printing. And being located in Pilsen has allowed BLUE1647 to become one of the most diverse co-working spaces in Chicago, drawing from residents in both the South and West sides.
Cambry, a University of Chicago graduate who worked on Barack Obama’s election campaign to become U.S. Senator, previously announced that BLUE1647 will open an Englewood facility by the end of 2015.
But a push to get BLUE1647's model into other cities has always been the organization's goal, Cambry said, and a host of other cities, including New Orleans, have reached out to get the incubator in their region. Cambry said St. Louis was the closest interested city, but he expects to expand into other states down the road.
"We're really targeting cities that have a lot of diversity," Cambry said."Cities that may not necessarily have established players yet ... We've been able to create a cool community and culture, and we really want to expand that."
On Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis the city is creating a tech corridor, where BLUE1647 will work with a new charter school on STEM programming. And another facility is moving there that will focus on life sciences, Cambry said. The St. Louis tech incubator hopes to work with roughly 1,000 students per quarter, helping people get the skills to find jobs in technology. Eventually, with a network of U.S. tech hubs, Cambry hopes to be getting 100,000 people trained in tech on a quarterly basis.
"It's ambitious, but that's where we feel like we should be operating."
Creative Commons Image via Daniel Schwen
