New Program Aims To Put Computers Into Homes Of City Kids

Candace Kelley
NY1 News
Feb 10, 2008

A new initiative aims to put more computers into the homes of kids who need them. NY1's Candace Kelley filed the following report.

When Ashley Thorne goes online, there's no telling where she'll go.

"I might visit maybe China," said Thorne.

Source: NY1 News
Copyright © 2008

And Ajahalae Boney loves being connected.

"There are so many things you can do on the computer. I don't really know what else I would do," said Boney.

They and their families were at the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Children's Storefront's Tech Saturday Program. They spent four hours learning how to navigate online, and then they took a free computer home.

Steve Bergen, the school's CIO & Computer Teacher, teamed up with the Wireless Harlem Initiative on the giveaway idea. He wants to get as many people involved as possible.

"I would say a third of my students at Storefront have a computer with internet access, and there is something horrible about that," said Bergen.

Families are chosen by lottery. After they attend a mandatory four-hour training session, they get connected at home.

"We have low cost and in some cases, free service, where we can connect people using our device," said Michael Lewis of the Wireless Harlem Initiative.

All of the computers are donated by independent schools and the school is looking for more donations. So far, about 75 families have called to learn how to they can a free computer so they can get connected to the Internet.

The Tech Saturday Program is open to Harlem residents and is designed for children fourth grade and up. Bergen says when his students have their own computers at home, it makes it much easier for him to teach them in class.

"They have to learn how to make spreadsheets. They have to learn how to do word processing, graphs," said Bergen.

And parents say this is type of learning their kids look forward to.

"She's very excited," said mother Elaine Lovett-Nedd. "She was up on time and there wasn't two, three or four calls to say let's be here."

For more information, visit The Children's Storefront.