Transmission Project

Westside Youth Technical Entrepreneur Center (WYTEC) is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization, located in Chicago’s West Garfield Park community since 1999 and was incorporated in 2001. WYTEC serves as a bridge from the business sector to the youth in the community to let them know that they have choices other than drugs, gangs, and violence by providing quality after school programs. Our mission is to teach entrepreneurship, technology, and life skills that will further community and economic progress within our community and abroad.

WYTEC has partnered with the Boston, MA Museum of Science to create an Intel Computer Clubhouse in 2005 and we are one of over 100 Intel Computer Clubhouses worldwide. We are also a member of the Community Technology Centers Network (CTC Net) which provides computer access and other digital media tools to community residents via open access and computer training classes.

The Timothy Smith Network (TSN) is a member organization established to build the capacity of Greater Roxbury’s Timothy Smith Centers. The mission of the TSN is to increase the capacity of the Greater Roxbury community of Boston to effectively use and access technology by providing technology-related services, educational programs and resources as well as strengthening and supporting the individual TSCs. As of 2008 there are 34 active Timothy Smith Centers.

Timothy Smith Centers provide comprehensive community-based technology services to children, adults, families, adults, and senior citizens. Timothy Smith Centers provide open access to technology and the Internet for many residents. The agencies in which the Timothy Smith Centers are located address a broad range of economic, therapeutic, health, educational, training, human and social services needs of the community.

The TSN will strengthen the Timothy Smith Centers by assisting them to implement strategies for developing and sustaining their operations and for improving the efficiency, scale and quality of their programs.

Mission: To empower under-resourced communities through the tools of technology.

Technology For All (TFA) focuses most of its programs on the support and encouragement of community technology centers (CTCs) across the greater Houston area. In collaboration with the Mision Milby CDC (MMCDC), TFA operates its own CTC and together TFA and MMCDC develop and test programs that can be replicated in other CTCs. TFA is also focused on creating social enterprises that use technology as a tool to solve community problems. As an example, under the umbrella of “TFA-Services,” TFA is developing projects like TFA-Wierless, which is creating new oppertunites for low income communities to reach the internet.

ScienceQuest supports community based organizations and community technology centers in their implementation of after school science inquiry projects for young adolescents (aged 10 to 14). In the first year of ScienceQuest, over 100 kids from ten different community organizations formulated their own queries, developed research plans, investigated science questions, and designed their own web sites to share the results of their investigations.

ScienceQuest has outlined the following goals for participating youth: to promote excitement about science, to provide opportunities to increase content knowledge, to foster technological skills that will be applicable for school and work, and to offer positive experiences working with a peer team in a safe, after school environment.

To set up a ScienceQuest team, community based organizations need guidelines and resource materials; volunteer coaches need training for working with youth and technology; and youth and parents need to understand the value of the program. ScienceQuest staff work with center coordinators to establish the basic structures needed for setting up ScienceQuest teams. ScienceQuest staff organize a full-day, in-person training to present the curriculum adapted specifically for after school environments. Centers can access downloadable templates, online resources, and training materials, and the help desk offers ongoing technical assistance.

The Low Income Housing Institute develops, owns and operates housing for the benefit of low-income, homeless and formerly homeless people in Washington State; advocates for just housing policies at the local and national levels; and administers a range of supportive service programs to assist those we serve in maintaining stable housing and increasing their self-sufficiency.

Founded in 1991, LIHI has grown to be one of the most productive affordable housing developers in the Northwest. LIHI owns and/or manages over 1,700 housing units at 50 sites in six counties throughout the Puget Sound region. Eighty percent of LIHI housing is reserved for households earning less than 30 percent of the area median household income.

LIHI provides a variety of supportive services to help residents maintain their housing and develop self-sufficiency. Our efforts include providing residents with case management, life skills training, technology access and training, financial literacy training and savings programs, and activities for some of the more than 500 children in LIHI housing.

LIHI also owns and operates the Urban Rest Stop, a much-needed hygiene facility for homeless individuals and families located in downtown Seattle, serves approximately 5,000 unduplicated individuals each year. The URS is designed to serve a wide range of people including homeless adults, families with children, youth and the elderly. Urban Rest Stop patrons include disabled persons, veterans, non-English-speaking individuals and people of color.

LIHI believes that affordable housing does not mean poor quality housing. We believe that innovative partnerships, creative project development and sustainable design features in affordable housing makes for a healthy, strong, and committed community.

The RECA Foundation has been working to meet the technology needs of the greater Tri-Cities area community since 1992. It has helped to establish over 10 technology centers, built and run The Columbia Free-Net, provided refurbished computer equipment to low income families, and helped to build the technology capacity of our local non-profit organizations.

To use technology in building partnerships with other regional organizations in order to enhance public dialogue about regional issues. Provide access to social and human services resources, consolidate and coordinate those resources in an online environment, and provide information technology support to low income families and other non-profits. The RECA Foundation was the first in the area to offer free e-mail for individuals and free web hosting for other non-profits (Web Hosting). The Foundation started the Columbia Basin Public Information Network (CBPIN.org) in 1994 as a collaborative network of public, private, and government organizations. 2004 – regional management of the www.4people.org Information & Referral database, and an extensive Case Management system.

Pui Tak Center is a church-based community. Each year, we serve over 3000 Chinese immigrants through ESL classes and tutoring for adults, children and youth programs, services for new immigrants, family literacy, school, a music program, computer center and outreach programs.

Playing to Win, a nonprofit organization dedicated to countering inequities in computer access. PTW looked to serve inmates and ex-offenders by teaching them computer skills and offering technical assistance to prisons and rehabilitation agencies. In 1983, Stone and PTW Corporation opened the Harlem Community Computing Center. This center was located in the basement of a Harlem housing project it provided the neighborhood with public access to personal computers. Taking advantage of the success of PTW, Stone created a network of centers known as the PTWNet.

Playing to Win Network went on to form alliances with six other technology access programs in Harlem, some parts of Boston, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, by 1990. In 1992, Playing To Win was given a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in order to provide neighborhood technology access to the northeastern United States. Three years later Stone changed the PTWNet name to the Community Technology Centers’ Network.[1] The newly named network was a national membership organization of community technology centers.

Today, the CTCNet includes more than 600 member sites connected by the Internet. The network is an independent organization that provides services to 1,000 community technology centers around the country. PTW is still working to provide computer literacy programs in Harlem.

We provide free education programs to empower low income families with at-risk youths, unemployed residents, new English speakers, and senior citizens living in Boston’s culturally diverse Fenway community.

The Fenway community is both vibrant and diverse. We empower Fenway residents to become self-sufficient by developing literacy, vocational, and social skills as responsible adults. Our youth programs focus on building study skills, computer training, mentoring, and leadership development. We offer arts, technology, and education programs that help youth develop social skills, improve academic achievement, and learn the importance of teamwork and community contribution. We also offer ESL classes for linguistically-diverse adults and provide enrichment programs for senior citizens so they remain a vital part of our community.

Community Open Access
Our state-of-the-art media center offers Community Open Access hours with a qualified instructor to teach computer training and skill development for our culturally diverse community. Whether it’s children researching the Internet for their homework, Russian and Spanish speakers using computer programs to improve their English skills, unemployed parents learning to email their resumes to prospective employers, or senior citizens getting email accounts for the first time, our Open Access hours offer something for everyone.

The Open Spaces Technology Center (OSTC) is a community technology center which provides several key services in the Ellensburg area. It provides computer infrastructure for Worksource, which is a computer and technical training center for displaced workers in the Ellensburg area. OSTC will team with the Ellensburg Parks and Recreation Department to make computer technology available to the entire community. OSTC will also fund a Mobile Technology Center, which will further increase access to technology and training in rural Kittitas County.