Apple joins Boys & Girls Clubs of America to 'bring new coding opportunities' to kids

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Apple Stem Day Students
Apple Stem Day Students (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple and Boys & Girls Clubs of America are working to bring coding to kids across America.
  • More than a dozen cities will have access to coding via Swift.

Apple and Boys & Girls Clubs of America have announced a program that will bring coding to Boys & Girls Clubs in more than a dozen US cities. The announcement was made via a Newsroom post, with Apple saying that the new collaboration "will bring coding with Swift to tens of thousands of students across the country, building on Apple's existing partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America through the company's Community Education Initiative in support of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative."

The program will initially kick off in 10 new regions including "Atlanta; Austin, Texas; metro D.C.; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Wake County, North Carolina; and Silicon Valley." Programming is already available in "Atlantic City, New Jersey; Chicago; Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; and Newark, New Jersey," where Apple says that "engagement will continue to expand."

Apple Stem Map

Apple Stem Map (Image credit: Apple)

Using iPad and Apple's free Everyone Can Code curriculum — and with ongoing professional support from Apple educators — kids and teens at local Boys & Girls Clubs will integrate coding into their programming, giving students the opportunity to create and collaborate on the basics of app design and development, with an emphasis on critical thinking and creative problem-solving.

The new announcement expands on an existing relationship as part of Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.

More information about the program can be found in the announcement post, with Apple saying today's announcement expands on a 2020 initiative that has already brought 2,5000 devices to Boys & Girls Clubs of America locations across the country.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.