Source Code Academy Canada (S.C.A.) is a Not-For-Profit Organization founded by Curtis Carmichael who was a former childhood drug dealer who is now an award-winning author, cross-Canada Cyclist, social entrepreneur, and a self taught mobile app developer for the World’s First Augmented Reality memoir, Butterflies in the Trenches. Curtis Carmichael was born in Toronto public housing projects in Regent Park but spent the majority of his life in the eastside community of Cataraqui— Block 13—in Scarborough.
“I was introduced to computer programming from my football teammate during my junior year at Queen’s University. I grew up in one of Scarborough’s public housing neighbourhoods where knowing computer programmers was not the norm. Although excited to now know one first-hand, I felt confused by the lack of Black and Indigenous computer scientists and professionals in the STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math) industry. This awareness fuelled me to pursue my Bachelor of Education at Ontario Tech University, focusing specifically on computer science and STEM fields and research. During my time at both universities, and in my early teaching career in the Greater Toronto Area, I felt culturally isolated. Very few colleagues and classmates looked like me or shared similar experiences and aspirations of dismantling systemic anti-Black racism and structural barriers for low-income communities and moving towards liberation, educational freedom and intersectional justice. I was seeking equitable actions as opposed to performative activism. I came to realize that many people from marginalized backgrounds, like myself, also felt this cultural isolation in the spaces that they occupied.
In 2017, during my cross-Canada cycling journey, I continued to observe a clear lack of access and exposure to STEAM (STEM + Arts) education and resources for low-income and marginalized people, specifically Black and Indigenous communities. In 2019-2020, I was the director of a coding and STEM centre while also teaching myself mobile app development. During this period, I continued to study the research on STEAM fields and the lack of equitable access for Black and low-income communities. My findings continued to echo Canada’s historical legacy of inequitable practices amongst marginalized communities, including but not limited to: food deserts, underfunded schools and community programs, lack of affordable housing, lack of mental health services, over policing neighbourhoods, and a lack of access to financial literacy and business/entrepreneurship education. I began to view this lack of access to prepare children and youth for the future of work as systemic exclusion and structural neglect, rather than a lack of interest. I knew that I needed to create my own grassroots solutions to these systemic barriers.
By launching Source Code Academy, Canada’s inaugural location based in Scarborough where I grew up, I hope to provide a grassroots community based solution to systemic barriers. A youth-led academy that encourages design thinking, curiosity, and innovation within local youth. A place where Black, low-income, and marginalized children and youth will learn in-demand skills in: computer science, STEAM education, and entrepreneurship at a time where they are naturally thinking about what they want to do and create when they grow up. Neighbourhoods like mine, both locally and globally, are filled with transferable skills, raw talent, creativity, and entrepreneurial drive. I want to provide the opportunities and platforms that I never received as a child. These solutions are needed now more than ever, as the injustices continue to increase at an alarming rate. At Source Code Academy Canada, we will anchor a cultural and intellectual hub for children and youth where they can build the future. We will empower children and youth through education by bringing them from the Streets to the New Silicon Valley.
Why Does Source Code Teach Digital, STEAM, and Entrepreneurship Skills?
Source Code Academy Canada was founded in 2021 by Curtis Carmichael who is a former classroom teacher turned social entrepreneur, software developer, professional speaker, and the author of the World’s First Augmented Reality memoir. As a 2023 Forbes Top 30 under 30 alumnus for his impact in education his multifaceted backgrounds in education, activism, technology and corporate Canada inspired him to put used and refurbished technology and equipment to work teaching skills to future-proof disenfranchised communities and empower young people to elevate the social and economic fabric of the communities they call home.
We Know The Potential and Innate Talent of Urban Communities on the Margins
Curtis Carmichael was raised by his parents who immigrated to Canada in the late 80’s from Guyana. He grew up as a childhood drug dealer in Toronto public housing projects in Scarborough and now uses his struggles and transferable skills from his childhood as an inspiration to change the narrative for children and youth growing up in communities like his and work towards building sustainable grassroots solutions to poverty through education rooted in innovation and entreprenuership.
The Inspiration
Nipsey Hussle and his older brother, Samiel Asghedom, are the best examples in the world on how to elevate the social and economic fabric of an entire community as they empower those on the margins and people globally by giving us social, political, economic, and buying power. And overall the best compass on how to pass power to the people in a grassroots way. Two key organizations in the Crenshaw District in Los Angeles that Nipsey founded—in collaboration with his business partner and real estate developer David Gross in partnership with the LA City Council District 8—that inspired Source Code Academy are Vector90 and Too Big To Fail.
Vector90 is an inner city coworking space, cultural hub, and incubator focused on developing underrepresented entrepreneurs. Vector90 creates economic, intellectual and cultural hubs for entrepreneurs and creatives to heighten the existing social fabric of the inner city neighbourhoods. The goals of the cultural hub are two fold: to support and develop local entrepreneurs and business, and to identify investment opportunities for Vector90 and other sophisticated investors. Recognizing that the future of the industry lies within the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the second level of Vector90 is home to a community STEM lab, “Too Big To Fail”. Too Big To Fail is a STEM center and MakerSpace that encourage design, thinking, and innovation in local youth. Their mission is to provide space that anchor cultural and intellectual hubs for entrepreneurs and creatives, and heighten the economic and social fabric of neighbourhoods they enter.
The Compass
Butterflies in the Trenches is the World’s First Augmented Reality Memoir by Curtis Carmichael with a foreword by global icon and philanthropist Michael “Pinball” Clemons. As a self taught computer programmer and former STEM elementary classroom teacher, Curtis built the mobile app which brings his memoir to life by giving readers access to hidden content that can be activated when holding your phone over photos throughout the book.
Butterflies in the Trenches is now a critically acclaimed memoir and the winner of the 2021 Best Indie Book Award for Inspirational non-fiction. The memoir has been featured on CBC, CP24 Breakfast, Your Morning Show, CBC Here and Now, Toronto Star, CTV News, Kirkus Reviews, Queen’s University, Chatter that Matters, ByBlacks, Breakfast Television, and Toronto Life. His cross-Canada charity bike ride featured in his memoir was covered in an award-winning documentary titled Ride for Promise directed by Sherien Barsoum and fundraised $100k in one summer with proceeds for Toronto public housing after-school programs.
The Spark
The cross-Canada charity bike ride and documentary that sparked Source Code Academy and Butterflies in the Trenches memoir
“Former CFL prospect Curtis Carmichael (our founder & CEO) cycled across the nation to challenge Canadians on their perceptions of Black, and racialized youth growing up in marginalized communities. Along the way, he learned some things aren’t as they seem.” IMDB
Sponsors and partnerships that made the ride across Canada movement a success included Canadian Tire, Walmart, Enterprise, Dixie Ford, MEC Toronto, Rotary Club Canada, Muskoka Woods, Urban Promise Toronto, Gears Bike Shop, Coldwell Banker, Mac Dev Financial, and Specialized Canada.