Technology For All
Occasional Update - May 2005

"Together We Empower Communities"

Here's a quick update regarding Technology For All (TFA) and our collaborative efforts to empower residents of low-income and underserved communities through the tools of technology. Important information for Community Technology Centers (CTCs) and other community technology practitioners is located at the bottom. If you like this newsletter, e-mail it to a friend.   To support our work call 713.454.6400.
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News and Updates   
 
His name was Carlos --- Yes, that is a fictitious name, but his story is true. Earlier this week a bright 15 year old Latino young man came to TFA's Community Technology Center at Mission Milby. He is 9th grader at Milby High School and had a school project to complete two days later. In conversation with Carlos, Jim Forrest, one of our staff persons, learned among other things that neither of his parents speak English at his home in a nearby apartment. Carlos needed help on his project and Jim showed interest in him and took the time to help him find the online resources he needed, print them out and put together a display. A teacher from Milby had given him a used display board and TFA donated a few sheets of colored paper, tape and the use of a paper cutter to put the display together. It wasn't much, but Jim Forrest gave an hour of his time to a kid with a lot of promise, whose statistical chances of graduating in 2008 are 1 in 3.  Maybe that hour will make the difference between success and failure. There are over 2000 at-risk kids like Carlos who attend Milby High School and Deady Middle School two blocks north and south of our facility.  We attempt to do our small part to increase the chances that kids like Carlos will graduate and have a sense of hope for a future that is broader and with more opportunities than most of those kids have. 
How can you help?  We need mentors and tutors to work with kids in our summer programs and during the school year. We need school supplies so kids like Carlos can successfully finish their projects. If you want to help give me a call.   Will Reed, 713.454.6411 (will.reed@techforall.org)
 
SBC, UH and TFA team up to assist East Side Village --- East Side University Village Community Learning Center (ESVCLC) is a project of the Southeast Houston Community Development Corporation serving Houston's Third Ward. With a generous contribution and assistance from SBC and the University of Houston, ESVCLC will be upgrading and expanding its capabilities to serve its community.  A "Net Day" blitz of installation of equipment and services is scheduled for Saturday, May 7 beginning  at 8:00 am. TFA has donated some equipment for the installation and works with ESVCLC as a partner in TFA's  JobTech  social enterprise that is training and employing persons as document conversion specialists. ESVCLC has a rich history of service to its community under the leadership of Pastor Manson B. Johnson, III, Executive Director, who also serves as the Senior Pastor of the Holman Street Baptist Church. 
 
TFA students to celebrate and receive computers ---At the end of each semester of classes, training and other activities at TFA's Mission Milby Community Technology Center, students are recognized for successful completion of classes and other achievements. Twenty-seven (27) students will receive computers for successfully completing various Learn and Earn classes at a celebration scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday evening, May 12. Almost 100  students will be recognized for completion and/or participation in STREET U classes, Spanish Computer Classes, English as a Second Language, and GED classes. Computers given to students come from corporate and individual donations.

Brown Bag --- The monthly community technology "Brown Bag" will be held on Wednesday, May 25 at 12 noon at Mission Milby. For more information click here.

TFA thanks the University of Houston College of Technology, its interns and its students....  ---TFA was the recipient of over 1600 hours of IT services provided by seven interns during Spring 2005 from the University of Houston College of Technology. The seven interns recently completed their work and were honored at the UH Celebration Day held at Mission Milby on Friday, April 29. Interns honored include Levi Adkinson, Ted Bronstad, Chris Bossier, Geremy Eiland, Teague Kramer, Kevin Nguyen, Larry Nguyen. In addition, student project teams from  University of Houston "Technology in the Community" classes presented their findings from technology planning and other projects completed with ten CTCs across the region.  TFA especially thanks TFA-Houston board member, Dr. Cheryl Willis, for her faculty leadership in establishing these service learning opportunities that benefit both the students and Houston area community based organizations with CTCs.
 
Summer Youth Programs --- In collaboration with the Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, LNESC and other community partners, TFA is implementing an extensive summer program of planned learning activities for youth in the East End coordinated by Pete Rodriguez, our AmericorpsVISTA. TFA recently received a United Way Community Building grant to help cover some of the costs of the program which is expected to serve several hundred different junior and senior high students over the summer. For more information contact Pete.Rodriguez@techforall.org or call 713.454.6400.

Recent Donations to TFA --- TFA expresses thanks to its recent donors including the United Way, Plant Success, Access Sciences Corporation, Rice University, Dr. Will Reed, Dr. Bill Haglund, John Brasher, Adam Gohlieb, Crescent Real Estate Equities, The Powell Foundation, ChevronTexaco, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the  U. S. Department of Commerce.  Cash donations can be sent to Technology For All, 2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas, 77012. To make a computer or other in-kind donation contact Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org or call 713.454.6412.
 
WE NEED COMPUTERS! --- Is your corporation replacing desktops or laptops? TFA has several community organizations waiting to provide a home for those computers in service to community technology centers serving Houston's low-income neighborhoods. Also, we need "learn and earn" computers for students in the East End. Consider the goodwill that your computer donation can create by empowering a low-income community. We have a large donation of several thousand monitors from ChevronTexaco underway, but each of those monitors needs a computer. Can your company or organization fill the gap? TFA has established TFA-STARRS to assist corporations with its Secure Technology Asset Recycling and Redeployment Services. Through our strategic alliances we can provide you a turn key solution that addresses your data security issues and reduces your total cost of ownership when upgrading computers. For more information contact Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org or Jim.Forrest@techforall.org at 713.454.6400.  
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Important Info for CTCs and CBOs

Get Net Wise --- http://www.getnetwise.org/   - The Internet is an increasingly important place to work, play and learn for both adults and children. At the same time, we are concerned about the risks we face online. The challenge is to stay "one-click" ahead of would-be pornographers, hackers, child-predators and those who would misuse your and your child's sensitive information. GetNetWise can help. 

The Winter 2004 issue of Nonprofit Quarterly includes an excerpt from Paul Light’s new book, Sustaining Nonprofit Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It. “The Spiral of Sustainable Excellence” illustrates a different look at nonprofit lifecycles based on his research of high performing organizations.
 
THE SUSTAINABLE NONPROFIT: Are You an Effective Competitor? ---- In the first installment of a three-part series, David La Piana and Michaela Hayes, authors of Play to Win: The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy, explain how ethical competition is essential to a nonprofit organiization's- success and sustainability. To read the complete article, visit: http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/1362/tsn
 
March CTC Brown Bag online - Terry Hogdson from NASA's educational services department was the featured speaker at the March CTC brown bag hosted by Technology For All.  The topic for the day explored collaboration opportunities between NASA and community technology leaders. The complete presentation with hotlinks to NASA resources is online at  http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/CTC/ .
 
Is your organization ready to apply for a grant at Grants.gov? http://www.grants.gov/. ---Let the Federal Government help! See the Spring Succeed Newsletter article titled, "Why Apply for Grants at Grants.gov?" with instructions and tips including a step-by-step guide to getting started and some common mistakes to watch out for when applying for Federal support. Learn more about these and other developments in the latest issue of the Grants.gov Succeed quarterly newsletter, http://www.grants.gov/assets/GrantsSpringNewsletter2005.pdf.
 
14th Annual CTCNet  Conference - Cleveland, Ohio ---  The 14th Annual Community Technology Conference, "Making Connections, Strengthening Communities", is just around the corner (June 17-19 in Cleveland, OH). Check the conference website at http://www.ctcnet.org/conf/2005 regularly.  
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Websites of Interest to CTCs and CBOs

NASA Education Resources for CTCs --- http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/CTC/TFA_BrownBag/ProgramSummaries.htm  
Kids Health --- http://kidshealth.org/index.html  
YouthLearn Afterschool --- http://www.youthlearn.org/afterschool/ 
Tall Buildings --- http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/tallbuildings/index_f.html , Note, some kids will be fascinated by this site on Tall Buildings created by the Museum of Modern Art
America Connects --- www.americaconnects.net
Digital Divide Network --- www.digitaldivide.net
Association for Community Networking - www.afcn.org 
Join CTCNet today - TFA encourages community technology centers to join the  Community Technology Centers' Network. For more information, go to www.ctcnet.org .
Support our Program Partners  ---  For a complete list of TFA and TFA-Houston program partners click here.
We welcome your feedback!  Contact Will Reed at 713.454.6400 or by email at will.reed@techforall.org . 

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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 community based organizations operating CTCs in 56 US cities. TFA creates social enterprises to empower low-income and under-resourced communities. Since 1997, TFA-Houston has assisted over 200 community based organizations to create and develop community technology centers that bring technology and the opportunities it provides to the residents of Houston area neighborhoods. TFA-Houston operates its own CTC at Mision Milby in Houston's East End. To make a donation go to  www.techforall.org and click on the donate now button. To learn more call 713.454.6400 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 2005  Technology For All, Inc. All rights reserved.

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