CTC Outreach
Organization:
Community Computer Access Network (C-CAN) VISTA Name:
Jeff Streier
Program Start:
6/2001
Program End:
6/2003
Project Description:
C-CAN is a network of partner CTCs that was designed to provide resources and assistance to each other: Jeff’s job has been to organize these CTCs and provide start-up resources to seed the development of this collaborative. The success of Jeff’s work has resulted in increased activity and the development of formal collaborations between partners, and Jeff will report on this activity in the coming months.
Goal 1: Help local CTCs build capacity and increase usership through increased volunteer recruitment and better staff management of volunteers.
Goal 2: Increase community participation at CTC networking activities and at workshops.
Goal 3: : Ensure that the work of the C-CAN will continue after the AmeriCorps*VISTA members leave.
Project Outcome:
Goal 1: The project has accomplished its major goals for 2002 already, in the recruitment of over 170 local volunteers for CTCs in our network and setting up CompuMentor volunteer management training for CTC staff.
Goal 2: Increased attendance at Quarterly meetings and annual conference from last years’ numbers, signed up 20+ attendees for CompuMentor training.
Goal 3: Working with members from local CTCs to encourage committee work and leadership within the C-CAN.
C-CAN’s AmeriCorps/ VISTA members have finished work on development of our main project: The Volunteer Hub. This project required finalizing the database of local CTCs, contracting them to review their data, and training them in use of the online volunteer database and volunteer opportunities directory
Jeff Streier has concentrated on working with organizations to prepare them for using the Hub, Heidi Marshall has focused on recruitment of volunteers. Both Members staffed a booth at the MN State Fair in late August of 2002 for 10 days.
In addition to work on the volunteer management and recruitment projects, both Members helped to organize the second annual Twin Cities Community Technology Conference, which attracted over 75 participants. The Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Ryback, was on hand to deliver the keynote speech, and was so impressed by what the community is doing in terms of CTC activity that C-CAN was invited to a series of meetings at the Mayors’ Office.
These meetings have resulted in the development of a new Community Technology Task Force, featuring participation by local government, industry, and non-profit technology providers. The focus of this task force is to develop a City agenda for improving “Digital Opportunity” for residents of the City of Minneapolis. Another outcome of this partnership is that C-CAN and the City of Minneapolis have just submitted a proposal for a cluster of 25 new AmeriCorps members to serve in local CTC projects.