Byte Back — Computer Foundations Digital Skills Training for Low-Income Adults (Washington, D.C. & Baltimore)

Byte Back was a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that ran free, bilingual (English and Spanish) digital-literacy and workforce-technology classes for 27 years, expanding to Baltimore in 2019. Its foundational course, Computer Foundations 1, taught practical skills such as composing emails, managing files, using search engines and completing online job applications for adults from historically underserved communities.
A pilot evaluation by the RAND Corporation tracked close to 300 Computer Foundations 1 participants and found that employment rates almost tripled, from 14% to 40%, within two months of completing the course - one of the more striking documented outcomes in the digital-skills-for-employment field. Despite this evidence of effectiveness, Byte Back was unable to secure sustained funding and ceased all programming at the end of July 2024, closing its doors after nearly three decades of service.
Byte Back transferred its training curriculum to Computer CORE, a Northern Virginia nonprofit with a closely aligned mission, which is expanding into Washington, D.C. and Maryland to continue similar programming. Byte Back's story is included here as an evidenced but cautionary case: strong measured impact does not guarantee organisational survival without durable funding.

Read the full analysis: https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2025/08/this-digital-skills-training-tripled-job-rates-why.html