CHCI Visits Silicon Valley, Pushes for Latino Diversity in Tech Sector

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Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

Jun 10, 2015, 02:34 ET

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) led a delegation of its board of directors and advisory council, including Hispanic members of Congress, for a Tech Community Summit in Silicon Valley, hosted by Google, on Friday, June 5, 2015. In addition to the Summit, the CHCI delegation held high level meeting with tech companies. Last year, after mounting pressure from diversity advocates, leading technology companies made public their gender and race employment statistics, revealing a startling diversity gap, with Latinos being one of the most underrepresented minorities. The numbers revealed on average that top technology companies had less than 4 percent of Latinos in their workforce.

"We need each other and need to work together to address these very low numbers," said Rep. Linda T. Sánchez, CHCI Chair. "I applaud the companies who have shared their employment figures – what gets measured gets results. We know that the tech sector is fueling job growth. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be approximately one million newly created STEM jobs in the next 10 years. That corresponds with an increase of 16 million Latinos in the same period. Latino talent can fuel these employment ranks."

The Tech Community Summit included Latino representatives of Silicon Valley technology companies, start-ups, non-profits and associations, joining CHCI's board and advisory council for roundtable discussions to address how best to develop a pipeline of Latino talent in the tech sector.

The conversation continued with high level discussions at several of Silicon Valley's top companies to advance Latino diversity and address how technology companies can work towards better outcomes by:

Replicating successful STEM and Tech programs in K-12 programs
Investing in higher education and Hispanic Serving Institutions
Strengthening recruitment and retention strategies, including investing in paid scholarships and internships
Supporting Latino start ups and looking to Latino firms through procurement process
And increasing Latino representation on their boards

Watch Esther Aguilera discuss efforts to increase Latino diversity in Silicon Valley on MSNBC here.

"We advocated for a comprehensive approach and critical investments so talented young Latinos can gain access to this critical job sector," said Esther Aguilera, CHCI President & CEO. "Silicon Valley does not need to look very far to recruit more Latinos and CHCI hopes to partner with them to ensure they are providing jobs not only for coders and engineers, but in marketing, law, human resources, and the many other areas of work they employ."

CHCI has invited the technology companies to continue the conversation at its Public Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., this October 6-7.

About CHCI
CHCI is the premier Hispanic nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) leadership development organization in the country that educates, empowers, and connects Latino youth by providing leadership development programs and educational services. CHCI directly impacts the lives of more than 1,700 students and young professionals each year through its fellowships, congressional internships, scholarships, Ready to Lead (R2L^®) college readiness program, and R2L NextGen program. CHCI NextOpp is its latest resource allowing young Latinos to save, search and share life-changing opportunities for Latinos across the United States. The CHCI Board of Directors is comprised of Hispanic members of Congress, nonprofit, union and corporate leaders. Visit www.chci.org, or join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.