Neighborhood House was awarded Broadband Technology Opportunities Program

Exciting new programs are taking shape in the Neighborhood House Technology Center at High Point. Neighborhood House was awarded Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) funding as part of the EdLab Group’s Communities Connect Network Project, and purchased15 laptop computers for a mobile lab at the new center. With their new equipment, the High Point Center is creating innovating programming and opportunities for High Point residents and community members.

During open lab hours, Technology Coordinator Kat McGhee says that High Point Center staff and volunteers train and encourage lab users in many different ways, including: assisting users to create or update a resume, facilitating an online job search, or helping youth complete online research for school assignments.

In addition to the new open lab hours, the Technology Center increases the capacity for Neighborhood House to partner with community organizations to provide supportive programs. For example, South Seattle Community College uses the mobile lab to host an English Language Learning class, and residents of the Providence Elizabeth House – High Point’s residential senior living complex -- come in on Fridays for computer assistance. Both the High Point Community men’s and women’s groups plan to use the lab for technology training.

An ongoing program, the Youth Access Core, currently uses the mobile lab to increase digital literacy for high school students. In this program, youth learn how to blog, photo-edit, and create videos. They incorporate social justice issues into their creations, and this year will use the computers to create a magazine and video about a topic relevant to their lives.

Kat is happy to report that the lab is open 11 hours a week for open lab use and general technology training, in addition to the time the computers are being used by specific programs like Youth Access Core and English language classes. They have plans to increase hours and programming in the future according to lab users' needs.