Transmission Project

A community technology center with an after-school program and summer camp. A big part of their summer camp involves computers and digital art.

Founded in February 2000, the Neighborhood Technology Resource Center’s mission is to create public spaces where technology can be experienced and serve as a catalyst for individual and community capacity development. The NTRC accomplishes this mission by creating programs in collaboration with residents that are practical, relevant and contribute to their digital proficiency. Our long term vision is that local citizens, community organizations, churches and businesses will have access to and the necessary knowledge of digital technologies and its benefits for the purpose of individual and community development.

Our programmatic focus has been to use digital technology to: (a) increase literacy and educational competency among youth, adults and organizations; (b) enhance training, employment goals and outcomes for long-term career development; and (c) strengthen organizational infrastructure to facilitate growth and development.

The Neighborhood Technology Resource Center (NTRC) has three locations in Chicago’s North Lawndale, West Town and Grand Boulevard communities. At NTRC North Lawndale we have 20 computer workstations with T1 Internet access. Located in the Northwest Tower Apartments, NTRC West Town has twelve computer workstations connected to the Internet through a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), while NTRC Grand Boulevard hosts over 45 computers for public use.

Our Mission is to improve the quality of life for the residents of Lee, St. Francis, and Phillips counties, by offering community economic development opportunities and activities in affordable housing, youth leadership development and intervention services, alternative adult education methods, job skills training, and community access to technology and training, which will lead residents to sustainable self-sufficiency.

Lee County CDC programs include education projects designed to increase the skills of youth and adults in the community. Within the offices of the CDC is the Lee County Community Technology Center. The center promotes local technology awareness and education by providing low-income area youth and adults with the opportunity to enhance their computer skills. The Center offers technology training and provides hardware and software to various sites throughout the Lee County area. Currently 560 individuals (children and adults) have taken advantage of the Technology center and the programs offered. Lee County CDC also provides space for the Lee County GED/ABE Adult Education Program in cooperation with Crowley’s Ridge Vo-Tech Center in Forrest City. The average enrollment for this class both day and night is 15 students.

Lee County CDC served as the pilot site for the Biz Tech Program. The Biz Tech program is an on-line entrepreneurial development program which focuses on teaching youth the skills needed to start their own businesses. Fifteen youth participated in this pilot project; with eight of those young people working together to start a small business called “A Little Something Special”. The group made, marketed and sole individualized gift baskets for Valentine’s Day. The business project was successful and ended showing a profit.

We see a future where the children of Friendship House graduate from high school, from technical school, from college, with a meaningful education and a full compliment of life skills. We see a future where our kids are getting and keeping good paying jobs with benefits and the potential for advancement. We see the people who graduate from our program owning homes, buying goods and services, starting businesses, and paying taxes. We see them being actively involved in civic and social affairs and working collectively to improve and strengthen our community and the community of Billings at large. This is what breaking the cycle of poverty looks like and that’s what we are doing.

The “digital divide” is very real in our neighborhood. In June 2004 we made a commitment to significantly strengthen the academic and technological components of our youth development program. We have invested more than $150,000 in this effort to date. Currently, only children and teens enrolled in our programs have access to our computers and related technologies. So we are constructing an addition to the building that will become a Community Technology Center (CTC) and allow us to share these resources with the entire community. When people lack access to the technology that is defining our economy and its job market and they lack the skills to use this technology, they find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. Our expanded CTC will provide education and skill building opportunities to community members of all ages and abilities in an environment supportive of learning.

The EDGE opened to the public in Spring of 2002 thanks to grants provided by the Department of Education (Office of Vocational and Adult Education), The Institute of Museums and Library Services and the Jeannette Musgrave Foundation. The project is currently supported by the Springfield-Greene County Library District.

The EDGE is a 3,000 square foot Community Technology Center located in the renovated lower level of the 100-year-old Midtown Carnegie Branch Library. The facility contains a 12-computer hands-on training room adjacent to a 4-computer study/demonstration room with tables and seating, a SMARTBoard, and 4 laptops. There is also a small conference room, additional tutoring space and a reception area.

Basic computer software and Internet training for adults is the main emphasis at The EDGE. Self-paced tutorials are available for more advanced software training. Subject specific Internet classes and Workforce related courses are also available.

All sessions are free and open to the public. A printed schedule of all classes is available at any Springfield Greene County Library. Our schedule is also available online.

Mission Statement
The mission of The EDGE Community Technology Center is to help close the digital divide by providing a dynamic, safe and inviting environment where members of the community can come to access the newest technology and/or to acquire the training and support needed to help them use information and the power of technology to improve their lives.

The EDGE fulfills the Library’s mission to provide opportunities for lifelong learning, self-improvement and self-expression and to meet the educational, informational and recreation needs of the community.

The board has decided to return CTCNet to its roots. Acting as a point of best practice aggregation, professional development tools, a communication conduit for the CTCs through list serves, an advocacy voice for community technology centers across the country, and an alliance partner for non-profit organizations with adjacent goals. CTCNet will no longer serve as a re-granting organization.

CTCNet Chicago is a coalition of local community technology centers, technology-focused community-based organizations and advocates who share the vision of CTCNet (http://www.ctcnet.org/), our founding organization, of a society in which all people are equitably empowered by technology skills and services.

Our Mission
CTCNet Chicago brings together agencies and communities that provide opportunities whereby people of all ages, who typically lack access and understanding of the relevance of computers and related technologies, can learn to use these technologies in an environment that encourages exploration and discovery. Through this experience, disadvantaged individuals will be able to develop self-confidence, personal and work skills, and to become creators as well as consumers of technology.

Our Vision
CTCNet Chicago will be a leading advocate of equitable access to computers, related technologies, and resource distribution. It will invite, initiate and actively encourage partnerships and collaborations with individuals and organizations that offer resources in support of its mission. And, it will strive, in every arena, to bring about universal technological enfranchisement.

Our Collective Impact
CTCNet Chicago member organizations provide disadvantaged individuals access to technology and technology training through programs and services that aim to:

Build community residents’ computer literacy
Create Internet content and technology-based art
Help at-risk youth disadvantaged and adults build critical thinking skills by enhancing public education programs
Facilitate job-readiness and technology job skills
Afford information access via the Internet
Improve quality of life for residents of low-income communities through active participation in the digital revolution

The board has decided to return CTCNet to its roots. Acting as a point of best practice aggregation, professional development tools, a communication conduit for the CTCs through list serves, an advocacy voice for community technology centers across the country, and an alliance partner for non-profit organizations with adjacent goals.

Community Technology Network creates opportunities for people to learn 21st-century skills.

Despite an overall increase in Internet and computer access in 2009, only about 62% of those with incomes of under $25,000 have a computer at home, and disproportionate numbers of these individuals without access are elderly or Latino. This digital divide impacts a person’s ability to apply for jobs, access valuable community information, network with others and have the skills needed to maintain a job in today’s work places.

Community Technology Network (CTN) works to bridge the digital divide through programs that support and enhance digital literacy in the Bay Area’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

CTN initiates and manages partnerships with organizations that have computer centers to equip low-income San Francisco Bay Area residents with the technological tools and resources they need to explore educational, professional and social opportunities in and beyond their communities.

CTN facilitates interaction and support between community technology leaders and practitioners to leverage, develop, and improve upon curricula and services. In this communal work flow, practitioners develop innovative resources, explore ideas, and disseminate information directly to colleagues. CTN collects this valuable information and shares it with community technology practitioners throughout the world.