New York Cares: Bringing Volunteer Technology Expertise to the City's Nonprofits

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New York Cares:
Bringing Volunteer Technology Expertise to the City's Nonprofits
By Grace Kong, Technology Programs Manager

Since 1987, New York Cares has been one of the city's most important volunteering organizations. New York Cares creates opportunities for tens of thousands of busy New Yorkers to give their time each year through fulfilling, flexibly-scheduled volunteer projects. New York Cares responds to the city's most acute needs by reaching out to social service agencies, schools, homeless shelters, and other helping organizations, and mobilizing teams of volunteers to assist them perform their work.

In response to the growing technology-related needs of our nonprofit partners and interest from more and more volunteers seeking to share their technical skills, New York Cares launched a new technology program area in December 1998.

Technology is a rapidly changing industry and, as a result, it is an area of service that is continually evolving as hardware and software products are upgraded and developed to be faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

Since then, we have continued to address the needs of schools, community-based organizations, shelters, and nonprofits in some of New York's most under-resourced neighborhoods through a variety of technology projects. We utilize the skills and expertise of volunteers to increase access to technology for all New Yorkers by enabling our organizational partners to fulfill their program goals.

Today we have over 40 technology "Team Leaders," representing a range of hardware and software expertise. New York Cares' Team Leaders are exceptional volunteers who have been trained to work closely with program staff to help manage and coordinate teams of other volunteers on the nearly 300 New York Cares projects that take place every month. In addition, the technology program taps into the 10,000 plus volunteers who receive our monthly project calendar to leverage a particular skill base or consulting expertise to support our technology projects.

Project Management
New York Cares is able to mobilize volunteers to implement technology-related initiatives through a series of managed projects. All of these projects, with the exception of consulting, follow New York Cares' team-based volunteer model, with a Team Leader managing on-site activities. This structure enables us to offer a great number and variety of managed projects, which are categorized by the following three areas of service:

Hardware/Networking: Projects include computer lab set-up, PC or Mac hardware and network assessment, and trouble-shooting. Activities include setting-up a collection of donated computers, upgrading RAM on PCs and iMacs, installing software upgrades, networking administrative office computers to a central server, performing system diagnostics, and installing anti-virus protection software.

Consulting: Projects are designed to help agencies with their long-term technology needs. Activities include developing an organizational technology plan or an administrative database, creating an organizational Web site, installing a Web server, or developing wiring and networking plans for an office or a computer lab.

Computer Tutorials: Projects range in scope and variety of topics depending on agency needs. Activities include teaching basic computer literacy, instructing agency staff or clients on MS Office software, assisting with the creation of a résumé, Web page, or Excel spreadsheet.

Working With Our Partners
Nazareth Housing, a small transitional family shelter, has worked closely with us to keep pace with the rapid changes in technology. In 1998, New York Cares provided volunteers to develop a technology plan and to implement the installation of a new computer lab. We continue to provide volunteers for children's tutorial projects, periodic computer assessment and hardware upgrades and, more recently, have embarked on consulting projects to create Nazareth's organizational Web site and database development planning. At Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, the oldest and largest social services agency on the Upper East Side, New York Cares has maintained a successful tutorial project for over four years, working with the agency's seniors to embrace technology. We also have a long-standing relationship with Computers for Youth - supporting their "Take IT Home NY" program by placing refurbished computers in the homes of low-income families and partnering with public schools.

New York Cares has been involved in the project development of over 100 different organizations since the inception of technology programs at New York Cares. Last fall we began a partnership with United Way of New York City (UWNYC) and IBM to support its new Teaming for Technology (T4T) graduate internship program through Baruch College's School of Public Affairs. The T4T interns have been trained by New York Cares to work collaboratively with our program staff and volunteers to implement technology initiatives at their respective agencies. Skilled volunteers have already conducted a network assessment and provided IT consulting advice on network security and usage policy. This spring we will launch a pilot program with a few of this year's T4T agencies to provide software training for their administrative staff.

Resource Collaboration for the City's Nonprofits
Given our unique position in New York City, with access to thousands of volunteers and hundred of nonprofits and public schools, New York Cares' technology program has been able to provide support for a variety of technology service providers.

One of New York Cares' first technology collaborations was the establishment of the Technology Resources Consortium (TRC), an informal collaborative network of over 60 organizations with community-based technology concerns. The great benefit of the TRC is being able to connect agencies with local people and organizations working on similar objectives. The TRC also provides access to technology workshops or conferences throughout the city, such as the America Connect Consortium in March 2002, the December 2002 TechFoundation/UWNYC's IT Fundraising Forum (sponsored by IBM), and two technology planning workshops with the Fund for the City of New York.

The New York Cares technology model has even led to the replication of our program in eight other CityCares affiliate organizations, including those in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Miami.

The TRC represents a diverse range of nonprofits, community technology centers, public schools, foundations and corporate-community relations, all of which have demonstrated a commitment to the communities they serve and are actively working to meet the technology needs of their constituencies.

How to Become a New York Cares Partner
As computers and other forms of technology become increasingly more accessible to the communities we serve, New York Cares will continue to expand and incorporate technology-based volunteer projects to meet the changing needs. To become a New York Cares Project Partner, agencies are required to submit a general application. If we are able to meet an agency's need(s), a follow-up informational meeting and site assessment will follow. Once an agency is accepted as a Project Partner, it has access to the services provided by all applicable New York Cares volunteer service program areas.

For more information about technology programs, contact Grace Kong at (212) 228-5000 or e-mail: pitp@nycares.org. For information about all of our programs, visit our Web site at www.nycares.org.

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