These are self-serving, of course, but they do much to address the general problem. Hewlett-Packard has programs to encourage females and minorities to enter math and science college programs and are focused on their corporate locations. However, HP also ran an online mentoring program for the same purpose that was national in scope. 3COM has a community project running in Boston incorporating the federal government, the city government, the business community, other high-tech industries, the schools and the general community with a focus on school to work and parent involvement. Apple recently announced another round of its Apple Distinguished Educator Program.
Corporate foundations are also heavily involved in community efforts.
Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, to name only three, are very active. These extend to other corporations that are not high tech, of course. And in my area, the Barry Bonds Foundation is dedicated to helping underachieving kids by supplying technology for after school use. Well, the point is numerous efforts at the community level are indeed going forward. While these programs help, they seem to be reacting rather than working on systemic change.