Transmission Project

1. Regional Web portal: our Vista, Pat, and I worked with our teen web programmer, David Wiles, to complete the site’s functionality and design. The site went live in mid-September. Pat issued a press release which resulted in at least three stories and recruited two youth to staff a table at our region’s largest fall festival, which was attended by over 10,000 people. Since then, Meanwhile, Pat and several youth work continue to research, gather and enter content. We have a bevy of volunteers, including a disabled YES alumni, Alan, who works at our wheelchair desk two afternoons every week, gathering web addresses for the 975 business and organization listings in the site’s directory. In November, Pat forged a partnership with two town-specific websites (OrangeTownGreen.com and PetershamCommon.com) to collaborate on soliciting site sponsors from among the region’s business community. Our site now has 22 sponsors, who pay $225/year, which is split between YES and our partners. The funds are helping recoup some of our development costs and in future will create a revenue stream to sustain the site. The site has over 75 registered users and is growing.

2. IC3 & MOS: Pat contacted CertiPort and registered with them to become a training and certification site. She helped our TechVenture! teaching team incorporate IC3 into this 16-hour youth computer training program, which was offered last June. Pat raised over $500 in cash and in- kind contributions from local businesses towards the cost of the program. We also investigated funding through the Verizon foundation and through the state employment and training consortium. Pat also solicited in-kind contributions of computer hardware (two computers, miscellaneous parts, a network switch) and eight task chairs for our classroom. She also helped streamline the operation of our weekday Teen Cyber Cafe by having youth and adults create user accounts (sign an agreement of terms and conditions, etc.), with account settings that protect the computers from viruses, etc. There are now 125 registered users.

We have increased our publicity through our VISTA’s work on designing our annual report, developing a template for our newsletter and designing our website. Dan Chen worked on the design and layout of the annual report which was published in December. The design was significantly more professional than in the past. It is sent out to donors and other interested individuals as part of our year-end donation appeal. This past year, the year end giving exceeded the amount raised in past years. Although we can’t determine if it was due to the design of the annual report, we did receive many comments about how well done it was. The Pui Tak Center has not had a regular newsletter for 7-8 years and has intended to restart it. Dan assisted in developing a design template. The newsletter will be mailed to supporters and donors as well as distributed in local churches. Dan has also begun work in redesigning our website. He has completed the initial design and site map. We are currently working on the content. After that is completed, Dan will work with a programmer to get the site up and running. All of these efforts improves our communication with current and potential supporters (donors, volunteers, etc.).

Karl has proved indespensible in helping our organization understand who our membership is and how we are serving them. With direction, Karl has developed a weekly and monthly statistics aggregation (our dashboard) that illustrates our level of community support and involvement. He has also developed many systems in our database to help us better communicate with our community through direct email and web publishing.

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.

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.

Renae has collaborated with city and county agencies to create strong strategic alliances with the PINK HOUSE. She keeps on top of the changes and new programs that are provided by these agencies and continually keeps in touch with the community leaders to inform them of the programs being implemented.

Though I always come up with the purpose of the event, Renae never ceases to amaze me in the way she plans and prepares for an event. She coordinates, decorates, handles the media, finds the volunteers through programs set forth in her prior years of service from creation to completion of the event.

Through these hard times, Renae still continues to get our local community businesses to commit to the children and the community. She keeps in touch with our partners. She continues to create, implement, and maintain our technological programs for the youth using service projects.

Renae also worked The College of Charleston public relations department and was instrumental in our center receiving a team to create branding for the center as well as a solid volunteer base through the program they created.

The third grade class was in charge of creating the newsletter for the center this term. They had to select the team themselves. She monitored as they elected a editor, decided who would be the photographer, journalist etc.. Each child was given a job. They learned skills in creative writing, photography, making advertisements, team organizing and working together as a team.

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.

In developing OLLIE’s digital distribution strategy, Gariet has achieved three major accomplishments.

First, Gariet brought the OLLIE program and Portland Community Media into the Youth Video Exchange Network (YVXN) as a steering partner. OLLIE’s participation in YVXN has allowed us to share broadcast quality student work with other youth media centers around the country, as well as acquire youth media content to broadcast on our own channels.

In parallel to his work with NYMAP, Gariet also researched and set up a blip.tv site for the OLLIE program. This site allows us to share our videos with others at any time, and in turn allows our visitors to post the videos on their websites and blogs.

Finally, Gariet developed a website for the project using the Drupal content management system. This site provides a comprehensive resource about the program for the communities we serve, and includes a searchable video database. Through his research and work with Drupal and blip.tv for our youth project, Gariet has set a course for the Media Center as a whole. Recently a staff member expressed that Gariet’s ability to explain the benefits and values of these technologies to others led to the media center to develop a digital distribution plan that incorporated the lessons he has learned. Gariet’s work has also had an impact on the larger community, including interesting and attracting a local foundation to provide operational funding for our project.