Bridging the Digital Divide through Community
Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Marcos Salazar in Agents of Change
Staff, interns and participants mugging for the camera at our (latest) grand opening event. Photo by Giselle Barker
With technology seemingly so commonplace in virtually every aspect of our lives, it can be easy for many of us to forget that many people still don’t have regular access to a computer or the Internet. In fact, there is still a large digital divide in our community and Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Action Partnership (SNAP) has been working diligently over the years to help remedy this problem.
When you walk by Fort Greene SNAP’s storefront at 324 Myrtle, you will find rows of workstations filled with local residents learning how to use the computer and surf the web, some for the first time ever. “We understand that there are places that provide classes that train you on things you will need to do on the job,” says Deputy Director Henrietta Koffi. “However, there’s not a whole lot of places where you can get classes that teach you the basics such as, ‘This button will turn on the computer’ or ‘This is how you use a mouse. ’ So we try to serve people who have that fear of ‘I should already know this’ because the reality is that many have been in jobs that haven’t used computers. So here at Fort Greene SNAP, they are able to learn things that people assume they should know.”
However, bridging the digital divide is just one of the many valuable services that Fort Greene SNAP brings to the neighborhood. Formed in 1995 as part of a state-directed effort to bring together local residents, organizations, institutions, and businesses to address Fort Greene community service needs, the organization provides low and moderate income residents access to gainful employment, further education, and quality health care by offering programs in technology, entrepreneurship and life skills. The overall mission is to plan, develop, and sustain the revitalization of the community through pro-active collaboration focusing on economic development, life-long learning, civic participation and self-determination.
To help make this vision a reality, the Fort Greene SNAP Computer Literacy Center was established with the goal to serve those left out of the economic mainstream due to the lack of computer/technical and/or literacy skills. This open access center provides participants with the tools to compete for meaningful jobs in today’s increasingly high tech marketplace while also facilitating self-sufficiency and contributing to the community’s economic health. Fort Greene SNAP also provides a number of formal and self-paced technology programs, job training/placement, Grandparent Caregivers support groups, and community organizing and financial literacy projects that continue to play a vital role in the civic, educational and economic preparedness of underserved residents in the community.
One of the more popular programs at Fort Greene SNAP is Resumé Wednesdays where you can come get help with your resumé and cover letter as well as find out more about specific aspects of the job application process. “There really are not many of these types of classes in Brooklyn,” says Henrietta. “Usually they are just two-hour classes that will tell you what do to but at Fort Greene SNAP we continue working with people throughout the entire job process. This includes things like learning how to network and email people to get a job, understanding appropriate types of follow-up, as well as learning about new things such as how to work with LinkedIn and Facebook for finding a job. In the new year we are going to start doing more of this, possibly in seminars as well as potential webinars where people can go on the web and watch.”
Big Plans
There are many more big plans for Fort Greene SNAP in 2010 says Henrietta, “In the next year, we will be doing many financial empowerment workshops and counseling. I want to see if we can get together a kind of a money group where we meet and start thinking about investments to make that will earn you money. There are also plans to start a job club that includes an interview project where we not only teach people how to apply for a job, but also walk them through the whole interview process. What I want to do is take them through various interviews and video tape it to show them how they react to the questions, what their appearance is like, and what they have to work on to make themselves better for an interview.”
Helping small businesses in the area is also a priority for Fort Greene SNAP, “We want to provide local businesses with classes that show them how to use technology to lower costs while at the same time make the business more efficient and reach more people. This will include subjects like email, database management, navigating the web, and using social media.”
Lastly, Fort Greene SNAP is also concerned with helping out people with affordable housing issues in the community this year. “We want to start asking residents what is going on with the housing they are living in, ask if it is working for them, and see if there is something we should advocate. In addition, we want to have people actually sit down with us so we can help them fill out an affordable housing application to make sure everything is done correctly.”
So how does Fort Greene SNAP provide this wide variety of services? “It is surprising that we do so much considering the small staff we have but everyone wears a lot of different hats,” says Henrietta. “But another important thing is that our boss, Dr. Georgianna Glose, is great and she says if you want to do something and have the time to do it, go do it!“ Words to live by.
Fort Greene SNAP is poised to be one of the major organizations in our area that will be creating meaningful and sustainable change in our community for years to come. But they can’t do it without your help, so please consider donating or volunteering to keep this invaluable organization running by visiting www.fortgreenesnap.org.
