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Communities Becoming LINCT in New York City
By P. Kenneth Komoski Founder and Director LINCT Coalition Since 1995, the LINCT Coalition (Learning and Information Networking for Community via Technology) has created a mentoring program that has enabled thousands of children and adults in low-income households to learn and earn Internet-ready home computers. LINCT’s community mentors have been active in communities such as Eastern Long Island, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. LINCT in New York City During the last few months, thanks to interested school, faith-based, housing and social service leaders, LINCT’s unique program has begun helping low-income New York communities to bridge the digital divide between computer haves and have-nots. LINCT member organizations in New York City include Non-Profit Computing, Inc. (NPC), Libraries for the Future, Hispanic Federation, Harlem Restoration Project (HRP) and Young Black Minds. Other organizations in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx have contacted LINCT for their communities. In Harlem, HRP is the site introducing LINCT into the community, supported in part by grants from the Bell Atlantic and Hearst Foundations. Software is donated by New Deal Foundation. (The New Deal Company is a sole-source provider to the U.S. government of software that modernizes older computers, similar to those donated to LINCT communities.) How LINCT Communities Work LINCT rewards both learners and those who help them learn. Mentors earn community service credits, called Time Dollars, which can then be used to buy needed services or computers -- one Time Dollar for each hour of learning, teaching or related community-building service. In this way, as community members learn computers, they earn them. In Harlem, 7th and 8th graders at Adam Clayton Powell Academy (PS 43) work after school and on Saturday mornings refurbishing computers donated by the United Nations, corporations, law firms and the financial industry. Nationwide, LINCT’s network of computer donors includes over 400 corporations and 200 law firms, as well as Federal agencies. Student computer refurbishers in Harlem work in space provided by HRP in a housing complex on 134th Street. The students also tutor younger learners. Through this process, they create a steady supply of computers that they and other students -- as well as unemployed and underemployed adults -- earn. Young and old alike are being rewarded for time spent learning, and for time spent helping others to learn. LINCT’s Strategy for Communities While LINCT’s first objective is the learning and earning of home computers by needy families, our long-range goal is to engage the entire community in community-wide computer-driven empowerment, resulting in skilled workers and microenterprises. On Long Island, the Suffolk County Labor Department sponsors LINCT’s welfare-to-work computer training program, which has enabled hundreds of people to meet their 25 hours a week of required workfare. By learning and earning home computers, participants are able to move into jobs that use computers. Another important aspect of LINCT is environmental. The emphasis is on reuse, but also on keeping computers and parts that can’t be reused, out of landfill, by establishing community-based equipment recycling programs. To find out how to implement a LINCT program in your community, contact Ken Komoski, LINCT Coalition, The Hamlet Green, 103-3 West Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays, New York 11946, telephone (516) 728-9100, or on the Web at www.linct.org.
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Community Resources.... Penguin Days Strengthen Technology Use (March, 2005) Collaboration and the Calculator: Increasing Food Stamp Access in NYC (December, 2003) NYC Tech Collaboration Breathes New Life into National Initiative (August, 2002) Teaming for Technology: A Connectionist Approach to Making IT Happen (November, 2001) Searching for Cancer Information on the Internet: A New Project in Harlem (April, 2001) TECH NEWS: Changing of the Guard (November, 2000) Nonprofit Provides Access to Affordable Technology (May, 2000) Lessons from the Life of a Learning and Access Center (December, 1999) Black Data Processing Associates Offers Training, Performs Community Service (October, 1999) Communities Becoming LINCT in New York City (August, 1999) New York Cares Launches Partners in Technology Program (April, 1999) Program Donates Technology to Nonprofits (April, 1999) It Takes More Than Computers. . .Libraries in the Information Age (December, 1998) BrookynX - A Guide to Getting Your Communities on the Net (October, 1998) Other Articles of Interest.... Help is Just Three Digits Away (October, 2001) Intergenerational Technology Initiative Seeks to Bridge the Digital Divide (April, 2001) TECH-U-NET: Providing Technology Guidance to Nonprofits (November, 2000) Harvard Business School Alums Provide Valuable Volunteer Consulting (May, 2000) LEGIT: Training Teens for Better Futures (March, 2000) HUD Neighborhood Network Centers Respond to Need for a Computer-Savvy America (October, 1999) Hispanic Federations CREDIT Project (December, 1998) |
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