LCTC Meeting Minutes for Nov. 15, 2000

Present: Barbara Abrahamian (Lowell Career Center), Frank Allaby (CIRCLE-UML), Andy Chandonnet (YWCA), Gregg Croteau (UTEC), Sr. Janet Deaett (St. Julie Asian Center), Cathy Horn (Girls, Inc.), Kristina Ickes (LifeLinks), Samkhann Khoeun (CMAA), Maryellen McEleney (New Beginnings), Chris McClure (Pathfinders / Milestone), Osvalda Rodrigues (MAPS), Peggy Shepard (CTI), Kate Snow (Codman Square Health Center - Boston), Dan Toomey (CIRCLE -UML), Ed West (MRC),

Computer donations - Chris McClure secured 40 computers from MCC and redirected 6 or more pallets to Goodwill. For those looking for Computer donations, contacting MCC might be a good first step.
Education Working Group - Chris handed out a short draft of issues and a plan for the Education Working group (see attached). He will write a brief narrative overview to summarize. First steps will be to conduct a survey of what programs and skills are currently being offered within the community.
Community Dialogue - Peggy Shepard announced to the group that CTI has received a small grant to explore issues of the Digital Divide within low-literacy and non-English speaking populations. Felicia reminded folks to also make full use of the media outlets of LTC to distribute multilingual messages and programming. Osvalda Rodrigues pushed for members of the Portuguese-speaking community to be included in these dialogues.
Program First Steps - Sr. Janet @ St. Julie let the group know that the computer center is in heavy use and the students in the ESOL classes are learning basic skills and praticing their English. The first student newsletter has been published with articles written by students and the layout created by staff.
New Hire - Kathy Horn at Girls, Inc. let the group know that they have finally hired their Technology Coordinator - C.J. LaBlanc who is a student in the UML Art Department. Girls, Inc. is moving fast at getting the facility wired, getting DSL in, and putting network cards in all of the workstations.
Another VISTA - Maryellen McEleney @ New Beginnings let us all know that they have an agreement for a new VISTA volunteer who will start in the next round of swear-ins.
Information Working Group - Maryellen also let the group know that NB and Weed and Seed have been working out an information survey for the new community information database. They would like input on the form once it is completed.
Expansion - The YWCA has hired 2 teen lab monitors (one Khmer-speaking and one Spanish-speaking) who will be working at the Acre and Belvidere centers. The YWCA has also received formal o.k. to use the Acre Center as a SeedTech site and new equipment will be installed in that facility soon. The Y is also a finalist in the INTEL Computer Clubhouse process and will hear soon about their grant proposal. Their 3^rd round of computer trainings will start on 11/27 with classes being held Mondays and Thursdays from 6-8pm.
New Portuguese Curriculum - Osvalda let the group know that MAPS is in their 4^th successful week of training on Thursday nights and will be expanding their hours to Saturdays. The facility is also being used for open access hours.
Resource Gathering - Gregg Croteau @ UTEC still has a 10 hour a week position for a videographer and is authoring a grant for audio technology coordinator. The UTEC VISTA is almost in place and a Cisco Systems site visit makes funding look promising.
Computer Recycling - Dan Toomey reported on Goodwill Industries massive effort to provide and intake and sorting of old computer equipment. Goodwill is refining their process for getting usable workstations out of the countless unused machines that the organization receives.
Training non English Speakers - Dan also indicated that the Gear Up! Program is encountering challenges in training non-English speakers in their technology programs and are looking for creative ways to work in such an environment.
New Funding Opportunity - A representative from PowerUp, national organization comprised of AOL foundation, Gateway and a number of other manufacturers came to meet with Consortium organizations working with youth programs. Felicia indicated that the Consortium has been moved out of the Affiliate / non-affiliate process and into the Partnership process. PowerUp is very enthusiastic about working with the Consortium and it is a matter of going through the proper administrative steps.

Before Kate started she wanted everyone to know that all of the information about the Tech Goes Home program can be found at http://www.tghboston.org/index.html and information about her organization can be found at http://tech4us.org . She can be emailed at kate.snow@codman.org Web materials consist of a program book and curriculum guide.
Tech Goes Home started with a pilot project from Ecco Sai of Haiku Computers to give 1000 computers to families in Boston. City went to the NPO community to help in the development and design of the RFP for this program
3 communities (South Boston, Alston=-Brighton, Codman Square) were part of this initial program which was a good example of a city, NPO, corporate and citizen collaboration.
Codman worked with 5 partner agencies to design and implement their program. Each organization nominated 4 families and these 20 families (who had filled out applications and demonstrated need) were then interviewed. Each family was scored and 10 families were chosen to participate in the program.
These families went through a 10 week / 2 nights a week program where one adult and one child in the household attended training to create some support for their computer activities in the home. The training consisted of putting a computer together, basic troubleshooting resource steps, office application use, and public presentation. The classes were taught by representatives from each of the 5 host agencies. Upon completion of program recipients received a new computer with printer and internet service in the home as well as access to online resources through an intranet.
The pilot program was extremely successful and the City is expanding it. The program also received a TOP award from the U.S. Department of Commerce to hire coordinators at each of the pilot sites.
Some follow-up has been conducted and at least 3 and may 5 of the 10 families have gotten jobs or improved their jobs.
Some of the things that are challenges is that the model is intensive in staff time, shared teaching has its plusses and minuses, with the second round which expanded from 10 to 20 families there seemed to be less of a personal investment in individual families and enthusiasm is slightly less.