HRC Welcomes TransTech, Business That Connects Transgender People with Job Training, Mentors, Work

Yesterday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced that TransTech Social Enterprises (TTSE) will maintain an office at HRC national headquarters, giving the Chicago-based company a foothold in the nation’s capital to advance its work in providing education, job skills training and workplace connections to transgender people.

“TransTech has grown exponentially in the past year, and we see this as an opportunity to strengthen the relationships between larger national organisations and the trans community,” said Angelica Ross, TTSE founder and CEO. “This will build on the work we’ve already been engaged in with HRC — from collaborating on corporate outreach, to ongoing conversations with organisations interested in TransTech’s model of empower, educate and employ.”

“We welcome the opportunity to deepen our existing collaboration with Angelica, and to create new opportunities for transgender people,” said Jay Brown, HRC’s Director of Research and Public Education.

Ross founded TransTech as a combination training academy and creative agency offering services including graphic design, web development and social media management. She will  maintain a part-time office at HRC.

“Many of us have seen a disconnect between the reality of transgender people’s lives and the steady progress of corporate America — where far too many transgender people are facing unemployment, violence, and a lack of access to healthcare and other critical services, while at the same time companies are increasingly offering transgender-inclusive policies,”  said Deena Fidas, head of HRC’s Workplace Equality Program and co-author of HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which measures LGBT-inclusive policies and practices at Fortune 500 companies and the nation’s 200 largest law firms.

“The kind of work Angelica Ross envisions through TransTech can provide a solid bridge between these two worlds,” Fidas said.

Since 2002, Fortune 500 companies, driven in large part by CEI scoring benchmarks, have implemented transgender-inclusive policies, benefits and practices at rates far outpacing legislation passed by lawmakers. The number of Fortune 500 companies with gender identity protections has risen from 3% to 66% in a little over a decade. More than a third now offer transgender-inclusive medical coverage, and hundreds of major businesses have adopted training and protocols around respectful gender transitions in the workplace.

TransTech uses video, mentorship and hands-on experience to create a safe learning environment, and also offers an apprenticeship program, scholarships and sliding-scale membership pricing to make opportunities accessible to those in the most marginalised communities.