Transmission Project

Organized web resource area and assisted in the production of outreach and PR materials.

The first objective, developing the Stories for Change Website was greatly successful in helping distribute digital storytelling videos and curriculum to trainers and participants. The website is now currently live and growing, with many resources collected and uploaded by Jessica, in addition to coordinating a large number of trainers that, until now, were unorganized. In regard to the second objective, making the curriculum more youth friendly, Jessica stepped in a gathered the needed resources to successfully complete the project. She drew on her own experience working with youth. She also brought CDS staff with additional youth and curriculum development experience into ongoing planning meetings.

Misty was instrumental in developing community resources for every county in Washington State from the grassroots up. She has been instrumental in designing the website in order to better organize resources and make them available to our states residents. Misty single handedly developed the quick, one click away to community resources for each county. By July over 43,000 views of needed services were logged on the website, making it the number one resource listings provided to help people. Misty was also very helpful in marketing the website and making sure individuals were aware of the database. She helped design informational brochures and distributed them to state organizations to give out. Lastly Misty was very successful in collecting and distributing valuable resources, of note was a dozen laptops which she not only acquired, but setup up for our programs, increasing the number of people we can help.

Marcia worked during the year to reorganize the task force/coordinating board of the Parsells and Denver Computer Technology Center. She also coordinated with the Academy for Career Development, which provided computer software, support, and long-distance learning classes for neighborhood adults in basic computer skills. Marcia took several classes herself through the Academy to upgrade her skills and improve her ability to find volunteers for the center. Marcia worked throughout the year with neighborhood groups developing a website based on the needs of these groups, preparing a listserv for the community group, and working to improve communication among various committees and services in the community. Marcia attended meetings of the Youth/Adult Partnership grant, a capacity-building youth-serving grant from NY State, which worked to bring neighborhood groups together and work on youth-chosen activities. Marcia recruited, trained, scheduled, monitored, and evaluated volunteers for the CTC lab. Marcia worked with church members and other volunteers to maintain and expand outreach services to neighborhood youth and adults. Marcia worked on One Voice/One Vision.

Marcia worked with the local neighborhood organization, the Beechwood Organization, to set up a website and improve communication between individuals in the organization and members of the community. She sought input from various parts of the neighborhood and communicated effectively with the web designer and the president of the organization. She was always positive and friendly to the youth who attended the CTC lab. She was also encouraging to volunteers and supporters.

David has assisted TSN Coordinator with the procurement, development, distribution and evaluation of instructional materials for member sites.

David has met with eligible sites independently and jointly with TSN coordinator as well as helped procure and disseminate information between sites and the TSN coordinator. Because of David’s technical background and ability to grasp the complete picture he has resolved many problems and questions before they could become issues. Once the financial issues are resolved, David will independently visit the Centers receiving equipment to ensure that its installation is complete and satisfies the Center’s requirements. As a result of the David’s assistance the current round of hardware and furniture upgrades is ahead of last years pace.

David is serving as the Project Manager for the re-design of the website). Davis is coordinating the translation of a portion of the website into Spanish and is keeping the content of the web site up to date. David frequently provides help desk support to members using the site.

David is currently serving as a fifth-grade group leader for the Kinetic City program. Kinetic City is a science-based program aligned with Boston Public School standards for grades 3-6 designed to be offered in out-of school time. David along with key staff from member sites will be trained to both run the program and sites as well as on how to train others to lead the program. David will provide important feedback as we pilot this train-the-trainer program being developed jointly with MIT’s Kavli Institute.

• David has developed and is maintaining two databases for managing the information needed for reporting to our funders—Boston Connects, Inc. and the Timothy Smith Fund. These databases track information for 40 sites, hundreds of classes, and thousands of students.

• David completed a series of classes at BNN TV’s Multimedia Center and used these new skills to video the recent Girls Get Connected Conference. It is anticipated that he will turn this into a CD or DVD which can be used for publicity for upcoming conferences. David will also use these skills to create a CD or DVD of success stories of individuCenter activities.

Pete has worked extensively with our Learn and Earn Program. Over the past year and a half he has taught 12 classes and distributed over 100 re-deployed computers to underserved youth in the east end of Houston. Pete has also developed a new Learn and Earn Program with graduating seniors at Milby, Chavez and Austin High School. He will be starting our third class this summer. Through these two programs he has been able to increase our overall volunteer hours. This program is well received by the community and a welcome addition to the total program TFA offers.

Pete has managed our computer re-distribution program and completely overhauled the system. All reporting is now done on-line and in real time. He has also involved his student volunteers and our University of Houston Interns in the process. The most unique feature to the re-distribution program is the way Pete transfers knowledge to the recipients. The organization receiving the computers actually works with Pete and the volunteers in preparing their own equipment for their community technology center. In this way they have enough basic knowledge to keep their equipment up and running. To date Pete has re-distributed well over 300 computers and taught over 100 people in this program.

For the past two months Pete has put together an extensive summer youth program. (flyer available). We should be able to reach over 50 unique community youth ranging in age from new 7th graders to graduating seniors. The programs cover a variety of subjects. Pete has developed all the learning objectives for each course, developed a budget and schedule, and is in the process of recruiting students and volunteers. One of his key program partners is NASA. They have offered to put a second session under Pete’s leadership.

Elizabeth’s contribution to the Carlos Rosario School in coordinating the Microsoft data software is a prime example of a VISTA volunteer getting things done in the community. The software will make a great impact on the efficiency of the school and will help it to better serve thousands of students. The finished product will also be utilized by countless organizations which serve communities all over the United States.

Another example is opening the student bookstore. In her role managing the bookstore, Elizabeth interacts daily with many of the hundreds of students who attend the school. She has been the driving force behind a resource which allows students to quickly and easily access supplies essential to their learning. Prior to the opening of the in-house bookstore, students were only able to purchase textbooks during limited on-site visits from the supplier, or had to make a special trip to an off-site store. Many students have limited transportation options, and the availability of on-site resources makes a huge impact in the school community. The bookstore, which held its grand opening last week, has already generated approximately $1500 in net proceeds for the school.

• Built a good rapport with CTC users. Cat has developed a good relationship with many of the CTC users. The users are not afraid to ask her for assistance and she has many community members coming to her on a regular basis.

• Contacted representatives from each county in WA for information to put on new LIHI website. Cat sent an e-mail to people from each county seeking community information to add to a community resource/predatory lending website. She also compiled information for many of the counties through her own research.

• Coordinated the scheduling of Volunteer Monitors. Cat has been working with our volunteer monitors to ensure proper coverage to maintain the hours the lab is available for the community.

• Prepared CTC for Senior Training Seniors Classes. Cat has ensured that computers are running and that the lab is set up for the seniors training seniors’ classes. This had not been being done satisfactorily in the past, Cat has done an excellent job of ensuring that it now is and has received many compliments from the volunteer teachers.

• Posted rules and calendar of lab hours. Cat has developed a calendar to post for lab hours. She has also met with the volunteer monitors to establish rules for the lab. She is currently working with the monitors to ensure the rules are being followed.

Diana has posted over 1,200 services on 4People.org and has been instrumental in helping the database to grow and advance. She has also designed marketing materials, learned to build computers, trained people on computers, written documents, designed web pages, and done lots of editing. With her help, RECA and 4People are advancing at an amazing pace.

At the six month level Diana has completed a great deal of work towards populating the 4people.org database, which includes youth, seniors and family community services. She has developed a web page for another non-profit (Catholic Family and Child Services), and taught a class on beginning web page design. By posting services to 4People and continually improving the database, Diana is helping our online database become a viable community resource. We currently have over 4,300 services listed in Eastern Washington, largely thanks to her efforts and the efforts of the VISTA that preceded her. Diana has been instrumental in helping to design the front end interface of 4People to be first time user friendly. See 4people.tcfn.org.