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Hispanic Federation's CREDIT Project: Fostering Community Economic Development
By Michael Rojas Coordinator, Technology Integration Initiative Hispanic Federation of New York City While making a presentation to this year's Team TECH members, I was asked by one of the young volunteers if I thought technology would end poverty. I appreciated the question and the bright-eyed, optimistic spirit in which it was given. "Technology won’t end poverty," I responded, "but if poverty is to be ended, technology will certainly play a key role." It was no surprise, then, that when Bell Atlantic and the IBM Corporation joined forces to support the Hispanic Federation’s Technology Integration Initiative (TII), both benefactors emphasized interest in using information technology (I/T) as a means of fostering community economic development in the communities we serve. The Federation’s TII was designed to address a number of I/T-related problems facing our member agencies, including technology planning assistance, Internet access, Web site development, and software training. The Initiative also sought to demonstrate the Federation’s belief that technology can play an important role in helping communities develop economically. To this end, the Initiative established the Community Resource for Economic Development and Information Technology (CREDIT). On-Line Database and Three Technology Resource Centers With the development of CREDIT, the Hispanic Federation seeks to address a number of areas where information technology can contribute positively to local community economic development efforts. Specifically, CREDIT will provide access to an on-line database containing a host of compiled institutional and informational resources active in economic development. Included as part of the Hispanic Federation’s new interactive Web site, www.hispanicfederation.org, the CREDIT on-line database will be completed by the end of 1998. The CREDIT project also includes plans to develop three technology resource centers in three different city boroughs by 1999. The first of these centers, called CREDIT Labs, is nearing completion at one of the Hispanic Federation’s member agencies, the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans (Asociación Comunal De Dominicanos Progresistas [ACDP]) located in the Washington Heights section of Northern Manhattan. While all three CREDIT Labs will share similar goals, each Lab’s specific activities and strategies will differ, reflecting the historical expertise of the host agency and the needs of the community it serves. ACDP’s CREDIT Lab ACDP’s CREDIT Lab will offer community residents access to the Internet and, in conjunction with another Federation member agency, the Audubon Partnership for Economic Development (APED), will provide local residents with assistance in job searching. Further, the lab will offer local businesses a variety of services, including training in PC computing and in using the Internet for business-related purposes. Finally, the Lab will offer local entrepreneurs access to its facilities, making available its productivity tools to individuals building their own small businesses. The Information Age has seen vast changes in the way people work, learn and do business. The typesetting and graphic design tools needed in the seventies and early eighties to design even a basic newsletter has been replaced with a single desktop publishing program. Ledgers have been replaced with spreadsheets. We live in an era where complex, detailed graphs and charts can be generated by merely "popping" values into fields. The storehouse of documented human knowledge has moved from dusty file cabinets to databases. And, the rapid diffusion of the Internet and World Wide Web is paving the way for universal access to this unprecedented availability of information. These incredible changes in information technology have given the world new tools to address old problems. Through its CREDIT project, the Hispanic Federation hopes to develop resources that will serve multiple purposes, including integrating existing local community economic development efforts into these new strategies, enlisting the support and patronage of local merchants and nonprofit institutions, generating community programs that are self-sustaining, and giving ordinary individuals opportunities to tap into it all. The Hispanic Federation’s CREDIT project will not likely achieve anything so exalted as the ending of poverty. But with an eye towards developing and supporting engines of local economic activity, the project hopes to make the best uses of evolving information technologies to better empower our communities. For more information on the CREDIT project, or on the Hispanic Federation’s Technology Integration Initiative, please visit the Federation's Web site at http://www.hispanicfederation.org or call (212) 742-0707. About Team Tech New York The Hispanic Federation is one of the five HUB or umbrella organizations participating in Team TECH New York. Team TECH is a National partnership between United Way of America, IBM, Americorps*VISTA and Public Allies. The goal of the project is to develop strong leadership and technical skills among nonprofit organizations. Americorps*VISTA members go into the community to help enhance human service agency competency in technology through different avenues, such as technology planning and installation of donated computer equipment. The project targets community agencies that help young people and their families within low-income communities. For more information contact Brian Joyce, Director, Technology Outreach, United Way of New York City at (212) 251-4104.
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Special Populations.... KidSmart Early Learning Program (November, 2005) Adapting to the Web - Bronx Day Habilitation Service (October, 2004) The MOUSE Squad Supports and Rescues IT in City Schools (June, 2003) Harnessing the Internet: Building Online Communities (June, 2003) Bobby Doesn't Approve of Your Web Presence: Making Your Web Site "Disability-Friendly" (April, 2002) Building a Bridge Across the Digital Divide (November, 2000) The Homeless Information Management System: Making Technology Work for Government (May, 2000) LEGIT: Training Teens for Better Futures (March, 2000) School-Based Technology Volunteer Program Helps the Disadvantaged. . . (August, 1999) Finding Information Online: When it Comes to Rehabilitation and Disabilities try NARIC (June, 1999) Computers for Learning: Empowering America's Children for the 21st Century (April, 1999) Internet-Based System Eases Court Preparation for Domestic Violence Victims (Februry, 1999) Hispanic Federations CREDIT Project (December, 1999) Making Information Technology Accessible for People with Disabilities (October, 1998) Other Articles of Interest.... Searching for Cancer Information on the Internet: A New Project in Harlem (April, 2001) Black Data Processing Associates Offers Training, Performs Community Service (October, 1999) Distance Learning and Training can be Low-Key, Low-Tech, and Low-Budget (October, 1999) Community Voice Mail Comes to New York (August, 1999) New York Cares Launches Partners in Technology Program (April, 1999) It Takes More than Computers. . .Libraries in the Information Age (December, 1998) Fill Your Tech Jobs - Free - and Can We Train Your Displaced Worker Clients? (October, 1998) |
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