Base Camp Coding Academy (BCCA), a non-profit learning center in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, offers intensive computer programming training to recent northern Mississippi high school graduates free of charge. Based in Water Valley, BCCA was first launched in 2016 as a pilot program in partnership with Northwest Community College (NWCC). Between 2017-2020, BCCA graduated 41 students certified in several computer languages supporting both front-end and back-end development, many with job offers in hand.

With ARC support, BCCA recently began renovating an abandoned local garment factory into a multi-use tech center to include extra training space, a workforce training facility, and a tech innovation hub. The extra space will enable BCCA to expand curriculum and enroll more students. The workforce training facility will be operated in partnership with NWCC, the closest community college to the facility. The tech innovation hub will include a business incubator and office space available to BCCA’s partnership network.