Civil rights activist Van Jones has created Yes We Code, an initiative that aims to teach 100,000 low-income kids programming skills. Yes We Code is helping dozens of organizations around the U.S. that are trying to address high-tech's racial and gender gap, from Black Girls Code to Hack the Hood. It connects those groups with the resources they need, according to Jones. Last year, leading technology companies released data showing African Americans and Hispanics make up just 5 percent of the companies' workforces, compared with 14 percent nationally. Jones says the lack of minority participation means Silicon Valley may be missing out on the next big idea or company because it employs too few women and people of color. He says Yes We Code wants to get communities to redirect young people's talents, and to help the technology industry access that talent from new places, such as community colleges, coding boot camps, tribal colleges, and historically black colleges and universities. "Yes We Code aspires to become the United Negro College Fund equivalent for coding education," Jones says. "Yes We Code exists to find and fund the next Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg in communities you would never expect to find them." To read further, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/19/van-jones-yes-we-code-diversity-technology/21889543/.