Transmission Project

Cheryl Jerozal is amazingly skilled and has contributed greatly to the success of the project and to the successes of our organization. Cheryl has been working on our technology planning and assessment work with area nonprofits, helping them identify their key technology priorities and issues. She has basically revamped our entire assessment process including how groups do their initial data collection and how we report back to groups with our recommendations (including a variety of new “Best Practices” materials). Cheryl has significantly cut the time and effort for both groups and our staff to complete the assessment process while increasing the value of the process. Cheryl has also created and conducted several new trainings that have been well received by area nonprofits– trainings we are now able to replicate to other organizations outside of North Carolina as well.

Will assisted with the completion of the Spring 2006 class by helping to organize the graduation screening. Shortly before that screening, Will recruited students and professional filmmaker mentors for the Fall 2006 class, which began in early October 2006. The Fall 2006 class has now graduated (as of March 28, 2007) and again Will assisted with the organization of the graduation screening, our longest and best attended yet. This past winter, Will again recruited students and mentors, from regular partner schools and new partners, for the Spring 2007 class.

The Reel Impact program has been completely overhauled with Will’s input and support into a series of workshops and working meetings on distribution and outreach for graduates of the Lab. He has been in charge of distributing our films over the web at four different partner websites - including Reel Works, ListenUp!, Uth TV, and AOL. Will has been releasing a new film (from our library of over 100 films) every two weeks and last year we had over a million viewers of our work! Our first Master Class, a yearlong advanced film production class, was recruited for and began in the late fall. Will is currently arranging specialty workshops such as screenwriting and lighting for film for the Master Class students.

Our first ever benefit was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 2006, and Will contributed to the creation of the “Labumentary”, a film about Reel Works’ mission, for the benefit screening. He also coordinated our student workers for the evening, who were charged with selling tickets for and running the raffle at the benefit reception.

This spring, we are in the process of strengthening our recruitment efforts with our partners at local schools and non-profit organizations. Will is part of the team who is meeting with these partners, educating them fully about our mission and requirements and developing deeper bonds in order to reach more students who might be interested in our programs.

All of these activities that Will has been in charge of and assisting with are directly affecting the ability of Reel Works to reach more and more of New York City’s teens who are interested in developing critical thinking, media literacy, self-esteem and relationships with professionals in the field of filmmaking.

Over the past six months, Aspiration tracked the increased capacity of grassroots nonprofits to make informed decisions about their software selection through the Social Source Commons project. Our VISTA, Tim Wescott has spent the majority of his time ensuring that grassroots nonprofits know about what tools are available to them and how to find these tools within Social Source Commons.

In addition, Aspiration convened 3 events building nonprofit and NGO collaboration in creating tools that will benefit grassroots communities. These events brought together software users, developers, intermediaries, and investors. Tim participated and worked hands on with these constituents to encourage collaboration, skill and knowledge sharing in the nonprofit software realm.

Tim’s ongoing work is helping Aspiration achieve its mission of connecting nonprofits with software solutions that help them better carry out their work.

Andrea has excelled. She has done a wonderful job coordinating our volunteer resources for our CTCs, ensuring our centers are well staffed and open to the public. She has improved our technical capacity by creating a shared calendar in outlook which enables the organization staff to access CTC hours and volunteer information. In order to better support and recognize our volunteers, Andrea has implemented a monthly newsletter that goes out to the public and also volunteer appreciation week in April. In collaboration with the volunteer coordinator Andrea developed a recruitment plan for youth, LEP adults and seniors, which has greatly increased the number of volunteers at our sites and exceeded our recruiting goals.

Our VISTAs have helped establish the technology center and develop resources for technology access and training programs for the shelter population, as well as other disadvantaged populations utilizing it. They have also laid the groundwork for building a self-sustaining service-learning model where trained members of the homeless community gain work-based learning experiences by performing vital technology repair and training services for local non-profit organizations and government agencies. Because of their work, the program has become famous,. The shelter now has quality computers, internet access and many of the 1300 residents are now getting their own computers. This success has been facilitated by the work of Tony and Larry, who have developed marketing and outreach materials, organized events and developed our list of partners and supporting organizations in the community. They have built the capacity of our organization by helping upgrade our constituent database so that we can better track donors and individuals. In regard to our programs, they have helped develop our curriculum and improve our process for refurbishing and distributing computers to program participants at the homeless shelter.

Tony recruited 5 executive board members (all volunteers and all homeless) to lead the governance of WildTech-CCNV. ed the acquisition of all surplus technology for refurbishing.

Tony single-handedly landed a 200 computer donation from AARP, which will be distributed across the region.

Tony rebuilt two technology access labs in the shelter, providing technology access for 1300 people.

Implemented three sets of 12 week training classes for shelter residents. These included:
1. MS Word
2. MS Excel
3. Introduction to Computers
4. Computer refurbishing

Tony refurbished enough laptop computers to award to every homeless graduate of the 12 week training sessions.

Tony began building an eBay ecommerse training class so homeless can start selling on eBay.

Tony began building a city-wide computer recycling program and assisted in writing a proposal that was submitted to federal GSA and the District of Columbia to have homeless people manage their recyclable electronics.

Managed the writing of 5 grants to five agencies. All writing was done by homeless people.

Kevin increased the number of teens participating in after school to 30 and cemented our relationship with Xavier Rozas, the media teacher at the school. We have developed a new curriculum, created a prototype blog and self paced instructional web site, with project and management support for volunteers and have introduced new technologies such as Live Type, into the after school lab space.

We have also initiated a new internship program for our teens which will begin this Fall at the Schattuck Hospital and we have developed internship agreements with Harvard University and Emerson College. Our e newsletter contacts have increased by 1,000 names. Kevin completed a manual for new employees and volunteers at HOME, Inc. to help new volunteers and VISTAs to more easily integrate themselves into the programs at the media labs. Both of our VISTAs have been very dedicated and resourceful in supporting the media lab after school initiatives. They have found themselves being passionate about our mission to help teens develop creative, multidisciplinary media and education projects that foster teamwork and communication skills, community building, insight into critical issues, and ways to express those issues to others.

Girls Get Digital trains women in the use of media; program participants create multimedia resources for local nonprofits and other clients. GGD was able to see the fruits of our labor during our pilot year. As in the first half of her year with the program, Kathy was the keystone of our success, though additionally exciting was watching Kathy truly come into her own in her coordination of the program.

A strong curriculum was created in our pilot year. This is under constant review and reconstruction, but curriculum work (including reflection on what worked and what should be changed) in the first year has created a strong foundation for that.

The GGD application and program evaluation documentation was created prior to the first session and has needed very little revision since. Documentation for the rest of the program was created on as-need basis, and has largely followed guidelines by our summer session funder, which provided a standard set of consents, incident reports, etc.

Kathy did a great job conducting outreach in schools, through local social service organizations and in clubs for participant recruitment. Kathy also did great work with a volunteer and the Multimedia Instructor to identify field trip sites.

Kathy’s excellent research and writing skills were a huge asset to the program and resulted in our funding by AfterSchool Matters (for the summer and now the fall GGD sessions) and for our very first foundation funding.

Kathy developed and circulated press releases. The newsletter was tabled for the time being, and is now being developed by our current VISTA staff.

Initial work on identifying local program and online resources for program participants was completed. In a city as populated and large as Chicago, an exhaustive resource library is a Herculean task. Kathy assisted with the foundations for this library and the task is being carried on with staff at this time.

Laura assisted with preparations for two significant events: the Community Media Summit and the Community Wireless Summit. Both events brought out grassroots community activists and leaders in the field. Public discourse on digital divide issues moved significantly nationwide towards a language of “digital inclusion”. The terminology of digital inclusion is advanced in a top-down and paternalistic manner. The grassroots and more explicitly open discourse on digital excellence has allowed the public to set the bar higher and to explore solutions to local problems that do not presuppose a technology or a topology, and which do not impose a top-down solution. The Chicago grassroots statement on Digital Excellence has been picked up by the City elite in a major public document, in large measure a result of our public education campaign that was facilitated by Laura.

Kristen produced a variety of written materials and marketing collateral for potential partners, funders, and clients. She assumed responsibility for our quarterly newsletter; created and distributed flyers, postcards, and brochures for all three sites; and provided the photography, design, and some of the written content for our annual report. In addition to Kristen’s writing and design work, she organized several events designed to increase public awareness of our offerings, including job fairs and open houses. Finally, Kristen helped NTRC evaluate and improve its community engagement efforts through focus groups and an internal SWOT analysis. Although marketing was the main focus of her VISTA year, Kristen contributed to NTRC’s day-to-day operations by representing the organization at meetings and outreach events; contributing research, editing, and proofreading services; and performing or creating interviews, surveys, and other workforce development tasks. Kristen’s impact on the organization can be seen in three major ways: first, NTRC marketing materials have stepped up several levels because of her efforts; second, NTRC hosted a successful job fair in August 2007 with over 100 participants; and third, NTRC produced a visually impressive and content rich Year 2 Report for our Chicago Housing Authority funded “Make IT a Priority” Training Program Report in the Spring of 2007.

The best story to demonstrate Kristen’s contributions to NTRC is to tell you what we did when Kristen’s year-long commitment was complete. Despite the fact that prior to her arrival, the position that Kristen filled did not exist, NTRC offered her full-time employment at the termination of her VISTA year because during that year, Kristen proved herself to be a vital member of the team and not someone we were willing to give up. Other than that, most of Kristen’s contributions are best viewed, rather than told. The dramatic improvement in our marketing materials, quarterly newsletters, and reports speak for themselves.