Our Story
The Impowerment Group began unofficially when Prince Hoff Jr. volunteered as coached to a Rhode Island pre-teen football team. During team meetings, Prince recognized a significant issue: the other coaches conveyed the misleading message that playing sports was the key to success in life.
While there is some truth to this notion, the likelihood of securing a professional sports contract is incredibly slim. It's far more feasible to aspire to be like Mark Zuckerberg and create a web app than to sign a professional athletic contract.
First Pupil
This realization led Prince to begin informally tutoring any child interested in learning software development. His first student was his youngest brother, Placido Hoff, who is currently a Front-End Web Developer for the Secretary of State of Rhode Island.
To give back, Placido volunteers with The Impowerment Group as a mentor. He mentors students and teaches Facebook (Meta) React framework.
The Rhode Island Training School
While working at East Side Clinical Lab (now Sonic Healthcare), Prince volunteered as a programming instructor at the Rhode Island Training School. He believed that equipping incarcerated youth with critical skills to earn a living was essential for their reintegration into society.
​
Unfortunately, the Rhode Island Training School declined Prince's proposal to teach computer programming to inmates.
Asa Messer Elementary School
Despite the disappointment of not being able to teach incarcerated youth computer programming, Prince was motivated to try even harder. He discovered that the Center for Dynamic Learning (CDL), a Rhode Island non-profit, offered after school programs at Asa Messer.
Prince reached out to CDL and became their computer programming instructor, teaching two groups of students. Kindergartners through second graders learned to code using Code.org's visual coding platform, while third and fourth graders were introduced to web development.
Team-Up
"Wonder-Twins Powers, Activate!"
Later, Michael Manzi, a friend from Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island, and a fellow Chi Phi Fraternity brother, recognized the significance of teaching children coding and joined Prince. Together, they officially rebranded The Impowerment Group, originally created by another friend to focus on low-income housing, to focus on computer programming, instead.
With Manzi's financial expertise and Prince's coding knowledge, the two are collaboratively working to create a positive impact on the community.
Recent News
West End Community Center
With the approval of Ms. Lynn, the administrator, Prince was granted permission to teach coding during the summer. Unfortunately, after only three sessions, the classes were canceled. Parents complained to Ms. Lynn that their children were being "punished" by learning to code while other kids played basketball.
This situation was not only unfortunate but also revealing, highlighting the community's preference for what their children should learn and showing that computer programming was not a priority.
Rosa Parks Resource Center
In the summer of 2004, Placido introduced Prince to Arthur "Archie" Johnson, the co-founder of Rosa Parks Resource Center in Providence, RI.
Fortunately, Archie recognized the importance of early coding education and offered The Impowerment Group a location to host and teach classes.
Lanre Ajakaiye, a childhood friend and principal developer for 25 Bough Street - a project in Olneyville (Providence) with a Mission to "bring together a holistic focus on mind, body, and soul, including undeserved youth, women, and communities" - offered The Impowerment Group a permanent location to teach once the building construction completes.
In 2005, Prince taught HTML to fifth graders in an after-school program.
Currently
The Eden Group (Liberia)
We are collaborating with Sarweah Bailey and over 700 students from Kingsmind International Academy and thanks to our generous donors, The Impowerment Group has provided High-Speed Internet service to the school.
While the students are diving into web development, we are raising funds to purchase nutritious breakfast and lunches daily, clothing, and critical school supplies - backpacks, notebooks, pencils, etc.
Why Liberia?
This is a personal message from Prince Hoff Jr., a co-founder of The Impowerment Group.
a Harsh Reality
For over a decade, I've been striving to bring computer programming to inner-city youths, but have encountered obstacles at every turn. What makes this especially disheartening is that these roadblocks often come from the parents and the community itself.
The computer programming class I initiated at at West Elmwood Community Center in Providence's West End district was canceled because parents believed their children were being punished by having to learn coding once a week while other kids played basketball.
Essentially the programming class was canceled in favor of sports. Let that sink in.
With rappers, NFL, NBA, boxing, and other entertainment as the focus, can you blame children for not wanting to learn something that does not provide immediate praise from the community?
Liberia lacks a thriving entertainment industry, which leads parents to see education as the primary pathway out of poverty. Consequently, much emphasis is placed on learning. Unlike in America, the community obstacles I encounter here do not exist in Liberia.
Civil Wars
The two Liberian Civil Wars were devastating. The first war resulted in over 250,000 deaths and displaced nearly a million people.
As schools were destroyed or repurposed for military use, teachers and students fled, leading to a brain drain.
Post-war, the education system struggles with inadequate funding, low teacher quality and outdated teaching methods.
Emigration
I was born in Monrovia, Liberia. In 1979, my parents emigrated to the United States to escape the impending war, and I joined them later as a child. I was fortunate not to have experienced the hardships of that time.
Therefore, I believe it is my duty, and the duty of all Liberians living abroad, to use the knowledge we have gained to educate the next generation.
What's Next
Board of Directors
Understanding the importance of establishing a Board of Directors, the friends naturally reached out to individuals who shared their passion for children's coding education. Daymon Smith and Robert Hotaling readily answered the call.
Deputy Program Advisor for Infrastructure at the State of Connecticut to assist on BIL/IIJA, IRA and CHIPS opportunities.
Robert Hotaling
Chief Product and Technology Officer at Interwell Health | Product Management & Technology Strategy | P&L Management | Business Operations & Process Optimization.