Al Gore, Internet, and government money

V.P. GORE's INFORMATION AGE BENEFITS FOR WORKING FAMILIES

September 29, 1999-- Vice President Al Gore announced $9.9 million in grants to help working families gain Information Age benefits by bringing computers and the Internet to community centers, public housing, and libraries.

"Technology must be about opportunity for every American family and that means making technology available to every family for education, skills development -- even for young children just learning to read," said Vice President Al Gore. "The world is changing quickly and we must make sure those changes work for our families. Community Technology Centers will bring countless new opportunities to working families -- helping children and adults to help themselves."

He urged the Congress to provide full funding for $65 million for Community Technology Centers (CTC's). The prior week, the House and Senate provided only $10 million, a cut of $55 million.

Aimed at "narrowing the digital divide," the Community Technology Centers will be located near the working families who will use them -- in public housing facilities, community centers or libraries -- and will provide a range of services.

• Workforce development and employment information -- basic and advanced computer skills training, resume writing workshops, and online access to job databases.

• Pre-school and family programs available at times when parents can bring young children to use age-appropriate software. Linked to other programs such as Head Start, family literacy or daycare providers without access to computers.
• After-school activities that will provide structured opportunities for students to use software that offers homework help, academic enrichment, and exploration of the Internet.
• Adult education -- individually, or in collaboration with existing programs, GED training, English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction, adult basic education, or post-secondary education classes using the latest learning technologies.

"These awards will help parents and students, who don't have computers at home, link learning at school with learning anywhere through technology," U.S. Secretary Richard Riley said. "The Community Technology Centers bring the power of computers and information-age resources to those who have the greatest need."

Forty grants and more looming

The administration has requested $65 million for Community Technology Centers in fiscal year 2000, to support 300 additional grants, and the formation of up to 500 new centers to help more working families.

The Children's Aid Society, Harlem, New York City.

The grant will be used to expand an existing center and build three new satellite centers. Serving the Harlem Empowerment Zone, the centers will work with Computers for Youth to increase home access, improve computer literacy among residents, and increase participant exposure to information technology careers through "Silicon Alley" mentors.

DePaul University, Chicago.

The award provides for the expansion of the existing Learning by Association Community Technology Center. In addition, it will create a new center in one of the most impoverished, mostly immigrant areas of Chicago's Humbolt Park. The center will provide assistance for adult education, after-school programming and small-business start-up assistance through connections with the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development.

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Community Technology Centers Program

FY 99 Grant Award Abstracts

Armory (NY) High School Sports Foundation

216 Ft. Washington Avenue
New York, NY 10032-3704
Year 1 Award: $305,426
In the Washington Heights section of New York, a Community Technology Center will offer a complete schedule of computer skills building workshops, a technology-infused early language intervention curriculum for pre-school children, and a business applications class. The area to be served has a largely Dominican population with more than 50% of the families receiving AFDC.

Science Museum of Minnesota

Year 1 Award: $211,908
The project will expand STUDIO 3D (Digital, Design, and Development), an after-school outreach program providing computer access for adolescents and their families in low-income, inner-city areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Two new community technology centers will be created and STUDIO 3D will be made available on a mobile lab.

Fairfield (CT) University Psych. Department

Year 1 Award: $166,599
Fairfield University's ABCD Literacy Technology Training Center will provide computer, internet access, and training to low-income families in the Bridgeport, Connecticut Enterprise Community. Building on a collaborative partnership between the University and a non-profit agency, Action for Bridgeport Community Development, Inc. (ABCD), the project will create "satellite" computer centers in Head Start/School Readiness classrooms that enhance both the computer and "traditional" literacy of parents and children.

Douglas-Cherokee Economic Authority (TN)

Year 1 Award: $299,992
A Technical Education Center (ATEC) and three satellite centers will place a special emphasis on increasing the computer literacy of female head of households.

Casa Grande Elementary School District 4

Year 1 Award: $287,473
The centers will serve at-risk children, the working poor, and those without access to computers. Instructional technology at the centers will be used for academic enrichment, workforce development, and GED completion.

United Way of Midlands, Columbia, SC

Year 1 Award: $225,603
Fast Forward will increase access to information technology for adults and children in the inner city. Offer after-school enrichment, adult education, and technical training. Midlands Technical College will teach courses at the centers leading to an Associate's Degree in Computer Science.

Family Investment Center

Year 1 Award: $263,083
The Charles Hayes Family Investment Center will expand its current services in Chicago's Empowerment Zone by creating four new satellite centers. The Chicago Consortium for Higher Education will provide access to an interactive videoconference network run on dedicated T-1 lines.

Blackfoot School District

55 270 E. Bridge Blackfoot, ID 83221 Year 1 Award: $300,000 

A Family Technology Center (FTC) would be built to serve American Indian and Hispanic individuals in a low-income, rural area in southeastern Idaho. The Center would draw students and community members living on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation and migrant farming community. 

The FTC would have a goal of increasing access to information technology and using the technology to improve academic achievement and job skills. 

Massachusetts Easter Seal Society, Inc.

484 Main Street Worcester, MA 01608 Year 1 Award: $192,129 The Easter Seals Assistive Technology Center, currently focusing on individuals with disabilities, would be expanded to serve the broader community. The center will provide after-school enrichment for students, adult education, and career development. 

Desert Sands Unified School District

 47950 Dune Palms Road La Quinta, CA 92253 Year 1 Award: $192,755 Technology centers will be opened to provide opportunities for a largely Hispanic population in a rural Empowerment Zone plagued by illiteracy and high unemployment. 

Board of Education, Prince George's County Public Schools

14201 School Lane Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 Year 1 Award: $290,067 Focusing on Langley Park, with 700 elementary school children from 36 countries and speaking 21 different languages, a community technology center will provide after-school access and computer-based enrichment exercises in basic math and English. The Center would also serve adults who want to complete their GED, improve their English, or learn basic computer repair skills. Adults will upgrade older computers for donation to needy families. 

Harlem Center for Education

1 East 104th Street, Room 382 New York, NY 10029 Year 1 Award: $353,710 A new center will be created in East Harlem, a designated Empowerment Zone, to better prepare teachers to use technology and provide computer literacy courses to area residents. Services will also include adult education, after-school enrichment, and small business assistance. 

New York City Board of Education

433 West 123rd Street New York, NY 10027 Year 1 Award: $299,908 Community School District 5 in New York will create a Renaissance Community Technology Center. School-to-Work students will gain valuable work experience by reconditioning donated equipment, maintaining center computers, and providing technical support. Using the space of a Parent Literacy Center currently under renovation, the center will offer video-conferencing equipment for distance learning. 

Ganado Unified School District

P.O. Box 1757 Ganado, AZ 86505 Year 1 Award: $279,340 Located in the Navajo Nation, and the Window Rock Enterprise Community, the Ganado Technology Center Project will focus on improving a school-based computer lab, with expanded service to the wider community. Project objectives include increasing student achievement, encouraging the participation of adults in information technology training, and increasing home-access to computers. 

Edudyne Foundation

2232 Salt Air Drive Santa Ana, CA 92705 Year 1 Award: $298,120 A community technology center program will be created in an economically distressed area. The center will help Spanish-speaking students, and their parents, to improve their English-language proficiency and computer literacy. With donations from local industry, home-ownership of computers will be increased. 

The Children's Aid Society

105 East 22nd Street New York, NY 10010-5413 Year 1 Award: $286,657 The Children's Aid Society will expand an existing center and build three new satellite centers. Serving the Harlem Empowerment Zone the centers will work with Computers for Youth to increase home access, improve computer literacy among residents, and increase participant exposure to information technology careers through "Silicon Alley" mentors. 

Mott Community College

1401 East Court Street Flint, MI 48503-2089 Year 1 Award: $177,813 Mott Community College is partnering with several community organizations to serve residents of the Flint Enterprise Community through the creation of three new centers, one of which focuses on serving those with disabilities. Mott Community College will serve as the hub site providing internet access, two-way audio/video conferencing, and technical support.

Family Solutions

2100 Front Street Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 Year 1 Award: $298,400 Family Solutions, a United Way family service agency with a 78-year history, will develop two community technology centers. One will be located in the Akron Enterprise Community. The center will serve youth and adults who will learn to use information technology tools through digital photo imaging/editing, web page design, and graphic design. 

Peninsula College

1502 East Lauridsen Blvd. Port Angeles, WA 98362-6698 Year 1 Award: $200,000 Peninsula College, in partnership with four Native American Tribes and the Washington Employment Agency, will create a network of community technology centers serving disadvantaged individuals in the remote communities of the North Olympic 

Peninsula. Future Teachers of Chicago

513 W. 72nd Street Chicago, IL 60621 Year 1 Award: $300,000 Future Teachers of Chicago, City Colleges of Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools, and other partners plan to implement project LIFTT (Learning is Fun Through Technology). The LIFTT collaboration will establish computer learning centers in four Park District sites. College participants will gain hands-on teaching experience in the use of technology as they prepare to become inner-city teachers.

YMCA of the East Bay

2230 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612 Year 1 Award: $298,999 In the San Francisco East Bay area, the "digital divide" is particularly pronounced with flourishing Information Technology companies existing near pockets of urban poverty. Targeting communities in West Oakland and South Richmond, a unique collaborative will develop four, linked community technology centers with a focus on after-school enrichment and job training for adults.

Southeast Regional Resource Center

210 Ferry Way Suite 200 Juneau, AK 99801 Year 1 Award: $299,205 Two new community technology centers will be created in Juneau, an Enterprise Community, and Ketchikan, an economically distressed area. These centers will provide access to technology and related learning services. The Centers will be networked with educational institutions and social services agencies to better serve disadvantaged Southeast Alaskans. 

ASPIRA Association Inc.

1441 I Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 Year 1 Award: $299,769 ASPIRA will replicate their community technology center model, building four new centers in the mostly Latino, Empowerment Zone neighborhoods of Chicago, Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Connecticut and Carolina, Puerto Rico. Existing ASPIRA community centers will be expanded to include computer learning rooms with internet connected computers and educational software.

Chicago Commons

915 N.Wolcott Avenue Chicago, IL 60622-4998 Year 1 Award: $297,242 Three new community technology centers will be created in Chicago Commons settlement houses, which are located in Chicago?s Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community. Each site will have a trainer working closely with settlement house staff to assist residents use information technology to improve their lives.

Detroit International Stake Adult Housing Corporation

16631 Lahser Road Detroit, MI 48219 Year 1 Award: $75,880 The project will expand an existing Neighborhood Networks Computer Learning Center and a new center will be created serving Detroit's Empowerment Zone. Objectives of the project include improving the job skills of adults and enhancing the learning of students in the after-school hours.

Seattle Public Library 

100 4th Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 Year 1 Award: $300,000 A collaborative alliance has been created to expand the services and ensure the sustainability of seven existing community technology centers. The centers will serve low-income communities in Central and Southeast Seattle, part of a federally designated Enterprise Community. 

Capital Area Intermediate Unit 

55 Miller Street Summerdale, PA 17093-0489 Year 1 Award: $205,508 In addition to building satellite centers in neighborhoods that are part of the Harrisburg Enterprise Community, the project will expand Career Cybercafe, where high-school students and other residents learn information technology skills, explore careers in technology, and are connected to e-mentors. Sinte Gleska University P.O. Box 490 Rosebud, SD 57570 Year 1 Award: $280,428 Sinte Gleska, one of the first tribal colleges and located in the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, will open computer learning rooms at four of their outreach extension centers. Project goals include open access to technology, increased information technology skills, and improved retention of high school and college students. 

Texas A&M Center for Housing and Urban Development

College Station, TX 77843-3137 Year 1 Award: $223,216 Texas A & M will partner with numerous State and local agencies to open computer learning labs in nine existing community centers along the Texas-Mexico border. Project goals include increasing the educational level of residents, improving their job skills, and increasing access to technology. Delaware Technical & Community College 1832 N. DuPont Parkway Dover, Delaware 19901 Year 1 Award: $242,404 Delaware Technical and Community College will create a mobile community technology center that will serve distressed urban and rural communities. WHEELS (Working to Heighten Education and Employee Learning Skills) will be a custom designed vehicle capable of bringing directly to those who need it basic education, skills training, and access to computers. Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin P.O. Box 910 Keshena, WI 54135 Year 1 Award: $62,288 Three community learning centers will be created in outlying community facilities to implement a technology-based education program designed to improve high school retention and completion. 

Mercy Charities Housing

1028A Howard Street San Francisco, CA 94103 Year 1 Award: $200,000 Mercy Charities Housing, a non-profit dedicated to building affordable housing, will create NET (neighbors, education, and technology) centers in seven low-income housing developments. Leadership, Education, and Athletic Partnership, Inc. 31 Jefferson Street New Haven, CT 06511 Year 1 Award: $265,000 Leadership, Education, and Athletic Partnership, Inc. (LEAP) currently operates a network of five LEAP Computer Learning Centers. They will expand the learning services at these centers and build two additional centers. The project will focus on ensuring the long-term sustainability of the centers so that they become a permanent community resource, like schools or libraries. 

Des Moines Area Community College

2006 S. Ankeny Blvd. Ankeny, IA 50021-3003 Year 1 Award: $252,927 A large technology center will be established in the heart of the Des Moines Enterprise Community and in a satellite center nearby. In partnership with the State of Iowa Department of Workforce Development, Des Moines Area Community College will open centers that deliver educational technology to disadvantaged citizens in both urban and rural communities. 

100 Black Men of Albany,New York Capital Region, Inc. 

388 Clinton Avenue Albany, NY 12206 Year 1 Award: $296,942 The 100 Net 2000 project will expand the 100 Black Men of Technology Center to satellite centers in inner city neighborhoods. The project is using as a framework the Urban CyperSpace Initiative, of the Center for Urban Youth and Technology at the University of Albany, which focuses on infusing advanced multimedia and telecommunications technologies into under-served communities, using community technology centers to provide opportunities for community and workforce development. 

Community College of Southern Nevada

3200 E. Cheyenne Ave. North Las Vegas, NV 89030-4296 Year 1 Award: $195,871 In one of the most economically distressed neighborhoods of Las Vegas, the Community College of Southern Nevada Neighborhood Educational Center will add 2 computer classrooms with full internet access, online connections to distance learning, and educational software. 

Hudson County Community College 

25 Journal Square Jersey City, NJ 07360 Year 1 Award: $299,563 The Hudson County Community College is forming a county-wide partnership to develop a far-reaching network of community technology access sites. Two core sites, one in Jersey City and the other in Union City, will ultimately be working with 8 satellite centers. 

DePaul University

1 East Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL 60604-2287 Year 1 Award: $236,050 This project will expand the Learning by Association Community Technology Center at the West Town Association Site and create a new center in one of the most impoverished, mostly immigrant areas of Chicago, Humboldt Park. In addition to adult education and after-school programming, the centers will provide small-business start-up assistance through connections with the Mayor?s Office of Workforce Development. 

Middle Rio Grande Development Foundation

P.O. Box 1199 Carrizo Springs, TX 78834 Year 1 Award: $197,926 The FUTURO project, focusing on a five county area and rural Enterprise Community, will develop five new Technology Centers, open during the after-school hours, evenings, and on weekends. Activities include a pre-school reading enhancement program, interactive videoconferencing for small business development, and webpage design. Fairnet, Inc. 1215 Cowles Street Fairbanks, AK 99701 Year 1 Award: $141,799 FairNet (Electronic Community Network), the Literacy Council of Alaska, the Fairbanks Native Association, the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and other partners have joined forces to develop three new community technology centers and a mobile center to serve low-income neighborhoods. All centers emphasize public access, open lab time, and elder services.