Cover Story

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Reaching New Populations

Statewide and national studies show that low-income families, rural populations, Latinos, African Americans, and people with low levels of education have the least amount of access to computers. Data show that these are precisely the people CIOF is reaching. In the first two years of the program, 14,000 people visited the centers more than 50,000 times, and 81 percent were people of color.

Andrea Scorepa is the executive director of Casa Familiar, which operates a CIOF site in San Ysidro, less than one mile from the California-Mexico border.

"These days, teachers expect kids to do everything on the computer. These kids [who come to our center] don't have computers in their homes," she said. "There are some computers available in other places, but you have to be part of a certain group. Here, you don't have to belong to any one group - we're open to anyone for anything they need to work on."

Many of the people who utilize the centers never imagined themselves using computers and were initially afraid of the new technology.

Jose Martinez, CIOF director at Santa Barbara City College, said visitors to his center, the majority of whom are Latino, generally earn minimum wages in jobs that support the tourism industry and previously believed that computers were out of reach.
"We have been able to change the mentality of the people. They thought computers were just for the wealthy and the elite," Martinez said. "When they came here, they were afraid - they were actually sweating. Today they're asking questions like, 'Are you Mac-based or PC-based?'"

At CT Learning in Fresno, most of the participants are also Latino and do not know English, which presents challenges beyond overcoming fears.

"We know English is the language of technology, and we can't translate all of the technological terms into Spanish," said Jesus Padron, CT Learning's CIOF director. "We have taken this opportunity to teach English, and we are breaking down barriers that have been keeping people in our culture away from technology."

Computer Access for Rural Areas

Two of the CIOF sites are in remote areas with great technology needs. The economy of the Karuk Tribe near the California-Oregon border had depended upon the timber industry until it collapsed in the early 1990s.

With the CIOF grant, one-third of the 3,000 people living in the immediate and outlying areas have received computer training. New technology has also allowed residents to take college classes through a downlink satellite site from Chico State University, attend the College of Siskyou through teleconferencing and participate in community college classes over the Internet.

"We are introducing computers and communication technology to the community. They could not have acquired this knowledge anywhere else," said Mike Trombetta, CIOF director in Happy Camp.

The CIOF program administered by Plumas County Health Services has four different sites because the county's population of 22,500 is spread across 2,618 square miles. Plumas County's CIOF Coordinator Louise Steenkamp said technology has not only helped the individuals gain new skills, but has allowed agencies in the county to become more connected.

"CIOF started to get us thinking more collaboratively and created the framework to think through things jointly," Steenkamp said. "We're improving the quality of life in democratic and inclusive ways."

Employment Opportunities

All of the CIOF sites embrace the idea that computer training should lead to quality employment opportunities that will eventually lead to better health. For that reason, each of the sites has created an employment component.

For example, Career Resources Development Center in San Francisco provides job readiness training, on-site internships and employment experiences for homeless, runaway, immigrant and refugee youth in the Tenderloin District. The Bresee Foundation in Los Angeles has an employment coordinator who takes youth on tours to different local employers and provides employment workshops.

Rana Halpern, CIOF program director at Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, said: "Computer training adds a lot to a person's confidence, and it is crucial to getting a job. It's a standard requirement now."

Community Engagement

In addition to training youth and adults for the workforce, each CIOF site serves as a resource for meeting local technology needs. For example, Break Away Technologies in Los Angeles has created the Business and Community Resource Center. In Fresno, CT Learning has reached out not only to small businesses, but also to unions to help them use technology in productive ways.

The CIOF site in Riverside, facilitated by University of California, Riverside, has developed partnerships with several community groups such as the Urban League, Centro de Nińos, Easter Seals and public schools and libraries.

In several areas, the CIOF model is being replicated. Padron of Fresno is working with three churches in rural areas outside of Fresno to provide computer training, and the Karuk Tribe established a computer center in Orleans, modeled after the CIOF site in Happy Camp, 30 miles to the north.