Technology For All 
Occasional Update -  July 2004  

"Together We Empower Communities Through Technology"

Here's a quick update of news and information regarding Technology For All (TFA) and our collaborative efforts to empower residents of low-income and underserved communities through the tools of technology. We hope this assists in your understanding of what we do. Important information for Community Technology Centers (CTCs) and nonprofits doing community technology is located at the bottom. If you like this newsletter, please e-mail it to a friend.   

_______________
News and Updates   

ChevronTexaco Donates Monitors to TFA --- Technology For All and ChevronTexaco announced today a donation of several thousand monitors to TFA for distribution to Houston area community technology centers serving low-income neighborhoods. Beginning later this  year 4000 ChevronTexaco employees from Houston and other parts of the United States will begin moving into the newly purchased building at 1500 Louisiana in downtown Houston. "The consolidation of office space has produced a great opportunity for company to support the community through the donation of surplus information technology equipment," said David Feldman, Community Affairs Representative with ChevronTexaco. "We appreciate the role that TFA plays in receiving the equipment and re-distributing it to non-profit organizations with the greatest need. Our partnership with TFA has proven extremely valuable to both the community and our company. We hope to continue our collaborations in the future."  TFA will use many of the ChevronTexaco monitors to provide upgrades for Houston area CTCs as well as Learn and Earn programs at CTCs. For more information contact Pam Gardner @ 713.961.0012  or Pam.Gardner@techforall.org

Project GRAD and TFA Announce Collaboration  --- Technology For All and Project GRAD are working together to support the success of Houston area high school students. A recently initiated Project GRAD program encourages minority and low-income students to enroll in and successfully complete Advanced Placement courses in several area high schools. As a part of Project GRAD's overall plan for the program, students reaching certain benchmarks in the program will receive computers through TFA's "Learn and Earn" a computer program at its Mission Milby Community Technology Center. For more information go to www.projectgradusa.org .

"Houston, We need more MICE and COMPUTERS!"  --- Several times a year, TFA receives "Requests for Computers". In the latest round, ten new organizations have requested 175 computers to develop and upgrade CTCs serving their communities. The computer cupboard is almost bare. Without your donations of Pentium III or faster computers, these requests will go unfilled. Plus, we hope to distribute 500 computers through Learn and Earn programs in 2004-2005. TFA will have plenty of monitors from the ChevronTexaco donation, but please remember TFA and the communities we serve when you or your company upgrades its computers.  TFA would like to talk with individuals, small businesses, law firms and corporations preparing to replace computers. If you or your company is replacing computers and other peripherals, call Douglas Caldwell at 713.961.0012 or email him at Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org. TFA will work with you to provide tax incentives and community goodwill for usable equipment that can be redeployed with our community partners while addressing your concerns for security of company data and software.  All computer hard drives are erased and "zero filled" and then as a "Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher" TFA loads a new licensed Windows 2000 operating system. We also insure the environmentally safe disposal of equipment we can't use through EPA approved partners. Individual computer donations can be delivered to TFA's program office at Mission Milby at 2220 Broadway in Southeast Houston. For a map click here.

TFA Updates Web Site --- Soon you will be able to check out the look and feel of an updated and redesigned TFA web site. Our thanks and kudos go to TFA's new webmaster J. Fagner and his colleague Michael Bain.  Michael and J. are recent graduates of Texas Tech University with B.F.A. degrees in Design Communications. 

Rice Graduate Student Testing Wireless Network  --- Technology For All is on the brink of deploying a wireless mesh network for research in the Pecan Park community surrounding TFA's Mission Milby Program Office in southeast Houston.  Joseph Camp, an MS/PhD student at Rice University with the TAPs group (http://taps.rice.edu) is spearheading the effort by using off-the-shelf Mesh Access Points (MeshAP) developed by LocustWorld.  The MeshAPs will wirelessly communicate to one another at distances well beyond the typical range of home or even commercial access points to provide a wireless backbone throughout the square mile.  Each access point will additionally offer Internet service at speeds of greater than 1Mbps for the users within their range.  Together, TFA and Rice hope to concurrently bring wireless broadband Internet access to the neighborhood to stimulate economic development while building a network research test bed that will provide potential masters thesis material on traffic engineering, multi-hop fairness, and community mesh networks.

BLOG for Houston area CTCs--- What is a BLOG? A BLOG is a web log of information and resources useful to the persons and organizations utilizing it.  A new BLOG for community technology centers and others interested in community technology around the Houston area has been created at http://texasctcs.blogspot.com. TFA will use the BLOG to post current community technology information and resources. If you would like to include information of interest to other community technology practitioners, send an email to Will.Reed@techforall.org .

STREET U/JobTech update --- TFA's JobTech project is a Department of Commerce funded "TOP" grant to create jobs at CTCs that is being matched with local contributions.  The goal is to initially create forty livable wage jobs in Houston's East End, the Third Ward and in the Heights. The STREET U initiative is the training provider for the project.  Several STREET U Level 1 and 2 classes have been completed at Mission Milby. STREET U Level 1 has recently begun at East Side Village Community Learning Center in the Third Ward. Level 3 training will begin soon at Mission Milby.  By early Fall, the first employees of JobTech will be working and earning a livable wage as document conversion specialists at Mission Milby.

"Congratulations to East Side Village Community Learning Center" --- On Monday, July 19, 2004 the University of Houston and Provost Dr. Jerald W. Strickland hosted a reception honoring East Side Village Community Learning Center and the work of The Reverend Manson Johnson. The reception also announced the SBC Foundation as a new major contributor to East Side Village with a gift of $100,000. Other contributions were recognized from Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft, Blue Lance, Triumph Cabling Systems and many more.

Full Schedule at Mission Milby  CTC --- STREET U is just one of the many programs now underway at TFA's Mission Milby CTC. A full complement of programs are underway including: Legal Services in collaboration with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, ESL classes in collaboration with Houston Community College, Basic Computer Skills classes for Homeless clients of the Crossroads Homeless Ministry, "Learn and Earn" a Computer classes with Milby and Chavez High School students, GED classes in espanol in collaboration with Houston Community College and the Greater East End Management District, Computer classes in Spanish taught by community volunteers, online tax assistance and open access to the computer labs at various times during the day and after school. For more information, contact Laura Ortiz (Laura.Ortiz@techforall.org) at 713.961.0012.

TFA Welcomes Laura Ortiz --- Laura Ortiz recently joined the TFA staff as Program Manager for Community Outreach. With primary responsibility for community outreach in the immediate community surrounding TFA's Mission Milby CTC, Laura will also focus her efforts on the success of of the JobTech project. Laura is bilingual in English and Spanish and is a 2002 Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Houston with a B. A in Marketing.  Most recently Laura served on the staff of the Avenue CDC.

Recent Grants and Computer Donations --- M. D. Anderson Foundation, Powell Foundation, Rowan Foundation, and the Vivian Smith Foundation, Andrew J. Clark, III and Will and Karen Reed have made recent grants and gifts to TFA. Computer donations have come from the Houston Texans and ChevronTexaco. 

Save the date ....... Thursday, November 4, 2004 ---  Third Annual Community Technology Conference and Awards Reception honoring the 2004 Community Technology Center of the Year. Featured speakers include Kavita Singh, Executive Director of the Community Technology Centers Network, Amy Borgstrom, Program Officer of the Department of Commerce TOP program and Dr. Carlos Solis from Rice. Additional workshops will be held throughout the day. For more information go to http://www.techforall.org/untitled_folder/index.html 

_______________
Important Info for CTCs and CBOs

CTC Brown Bag -- Wednesday, July 28, 2004 -- "Houston Works "  

12:00 noon to 1:30 pm @ 
Mission Milby CDC
2220 Broadway
Houston, Texas  77012

The CTC Brown Bag is a monthly event for community technology leaders on the Fourth Wednesday of each month except November and December. 

Community Technology Review --- The summer issue of the "Community Technology Review" is now available online  (http://www.comtechreview.org) and in hard copy. The new issue highlights assistive technology with sections designed to complement the tracks and workshop sessions that were offered at the annual CTCNet conference in Seattle in June. 

Printers Available from Dell through Gifts In Kind --- Check this out! Gifts In Kind International is pleased to announce a new donation program with Dell Inc. Through this program, Dell will be donating All-In-One Printers (recycled) that print, scan and copy. They will also donate a brand new black and color cartridge, cable and CD with the printer driver for each printer! For more information go to http://www.giftsinkind.org/dell.asp

Information about Federal Grant Programs ---  Information about grant programs in the U. S. Department of Education and other federal agencies that faith based and community organizations operating CTCs may want to consider applying for can be found at http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/fbci/grantguide.html    

______________
Websites of Interest to CTCs 

Fact Monster Almanac --- This site is so cool that you'll wish you could stick it in your pocket. It is a cornucopia of information in eight major topics: World, US, People, Word Wise, Science, Math, Sports, and Cool Stuff. Each is further subdivided into subtopics, such as Women in Sports, Inventions, U.S. Geography, and each subtopic is further subdivided. This is a wonderful place for the lover of arcane information, for anyone seeking to expand his knowledge, and probably for anyone about to enter a trivia contest. Spend some time here and then impress your friends with the answers to questions such as "what is the difference between the dragon as seen in Western versus Eastern culture," "why is there a Miranda Warning and what does it include," and "when was the first all-female boxing match and what did the winner receive?" To access the site go to: http://www.factmonster.com/almanacs.html  

Education Oasis --- Are you looking for an easy to use compendium of sites for students in your CTC. This is just one of the resources on the Education Oasis site. www.educationoasis.com . This is a thorough listing of student appropriate web sites in all categories. Go to http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/student_sites.htm 

Join CTCNet today - TFA encourages community technology centers to join the community technology centers network. For more information, go to www.ctcnet.org .

Remember our Program Partners  ---  For a complete list of TFA and TFA-Houston program partners, click here.

We welcome your feedback!  Contact Will Reed at 713.961.0012, x102 or by email at will.reed@techforall.org . 

_______________

TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL/Technology For All-Houston

This newsletter is produced by Technology For All especially for our donors and friends.

Technology For All (TFA) and Technology For All-Houston (TFA-Houston) are Houston based non-profit organizations working together to empower underserved communities through the tools of technology.  TFA has supportive relationships with over 325 community based organizations operating CTCs in 56 US cities. Since 1997, TFA-Houston has assisted 185 community based organizations create and develop community technology centers that bring technology and the opportunities it provides to Houston's underserved communities. TFA-Houston operates its own CTC at Mision Milby in Houston's East End. To make a donation go to https://app.etapestry.com/happ1/Technology%20For%20All/OnlineGivingCreditCard.html. To learn more call 713.961.0012 or email info@techforall.org.

If you do not wish to receive the Technology For All occasional update send  an email to Will.Reed@techforall.org  with the words "please remove" in the subject line.

Copyright 2004  Technology For All, Inc. All rights reserved.

back