Archive for May, 2010
Net Literacy Lobbies the Hill and Addresses Afterschool Alliance Rally in DC
By David Johnson, Student Chair, together with the Student Executive Committee
I had the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C for the Afterschool for All Challenge as the Student Chair of Net Literacy, an afterschool nonprofit where we have increased computer access to over 150,000 Americans. I’m proud that Net Literacy was established by middle school students and high students comprised 50% of our board of directors.
In addition to fellow other nonprofits, our delegation included David Klinkose (President of the Afterschool Coalition of Indianapolis) and Debbie Zipes (Executive Director of the Indiana Afterschool Alliance). Susan Rohwer from the National After School Alliance helped coordinate everything and made certain that our trip was productive by helping maximize the number of Congressional staffers that we visited.
This was my second time in Washington D.C. While I had been part of the Net Literacy team of students serving as the Youth Voice for America’s Promise’s Grad Nation Summit last year, this was no less thrilling. As a 15 year old sophomore that serves as Net Literacy’s Student Chair, I am learning why the past Net Literacy Student Chairs believed that it was important for nonprofit organizations to be engaged at both a local and national level.
While I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with outstanding youths that represented an extraordinary mix of afterschool activity programs from across our country and have read their blogs on this site, I want to focus my blog on what I believe was the most significant component of our trip for me – getting the word out to our Congressmen and Senators about how important funding afterschool programs are to the millions of students that participate in these programs, and the 13 million students that would participate if funding permitted new programs to be established or existing programs to be expanded.
I talked with staffers from Indiana’s Congressman Carson, Senator Bayh, and Senator Lugar. It was great to meet with them – they understand the importance of afterschool programs – in fact, both Senators and the Congressman are members of Net Literacy’s Honorary Board of Directors! But what I learned is that we have to talk to them about helping us youth more and ask them to talk to their colleagues about helping us youth more by increasing funding of afterschool programs. If there were two points that I emphasized to the staff that we met, it was that there is a desperate and immediate need for afterschool programs to receive additional funding, and that traditional academics during our school day would be made more impactful if afterschool type programs could be integrated into them to provide the theory that we learn more context and a real world applications. Simply said, afterschool programs help students succeed and increase our high school graduation rates. That’s good for us students, good for business, and good public policy for keeping our country competitive in this international and competitive global marketplace.
Representing Net Literacy, a student founded nonprofit that’s a member of the Afterschool Alliance, I was one of two students among ten speakers that had the opportunity to talk to the crowd of supporters at the rally in front of our nation’s capital. The Congressmen and Senators were more knowledgeable and spoke more eloquent than I, but I told my story and Net Literacy’s story about how an afterschool program can change students’ lives. The halls in schools throughout Indianapolis, like most other larger urban areas, are seemingly populated by the ghosts of students that dropped out because they didn’t have enough family or other support to continue in school. Some of these are my friends. So from my heart, I talked in a way that said not providing additional funding for afterschool programs not only costs America money in reduced competition, it costs American’s the ability to live rich and productive lives.
I’d also like to say that there are some extraordinary corporations that have an outstanding social conscious and give back to the communities where they serve. Bright House Networks, the organization that took a chance on a bunch of middle school students with big dreams when we asked them to help fund us so that we could increase computer access back in 2004, became our first funders. They believed in us and have supported every year since then. We would not be successful without the support of companies like Bright House Networks, and we’re proud that they’re long time supports of the National Afterschool Alliance. While other companies have generously supported us and other nonprofits that support afterschool programs, we believe that companies must have heart and soul and give of themselves to support afterschool programs. It’s not just about monetary funding, Bright House Networks has a leader that serves as a member of the 50% of our board that are adults.
We need more money for afterschool programs. As a 15 year old, I see how those high school students those are able to take advantage of and participate in afterschool activities are impacted and the cost for those that are unable to participate because there just isn’t enough money to help all of the students that need the help. What’s frustrating is that by not finding additional millions of dollars to fund afterschool alliance programs now, our society will pay billions for those students that are incarcerated or never attain their full potential because they were unable to participate in afterschool activities.
This was an extraordinary learning opportunity. I was the only teen that for the Indiana delegation, and the adults suggested that I be make the introductions and make my comments first. While I didn’t have the global appreciation that other members of the Indiana delegation have, I’ve seen firsthand how student without options, such as afterschool programs, fail at school, and know that many will later go on to fail in life.
Attending the After School Challenge helped put things into context for me. The first thing that was done after my return was to make certain that the rest of Net Literacy’s Executive Student Board was aware of the results of our trip. In accordance with the way things work at Net Literacy, our Student Executive Board contributed to this blog and we collectively wrote it. It’s the wiki-management way that Net Literacy’s student volunteers work together. The second thing that we did is to more fully complete all of the programs that we offer on the Indiana Afterschool Network’s website – as high school and college students, we didn’t fully appreciate how the Afterschool Alliance is impacting us. But it’s not enough for organizations – especially student empowered organizations – not to be social activists, agents of change, and part of the solution. We can’t ask organizations like the Afterschool Alliance to bare all of the responsibilities of lobbying for us. Local nonprofits have to become cognizant and engaged in the awareness campaign ourselves.
Net Literacy is about student engagement and student empowerment – so we brainstormed how we could make a difference to support Afterschool programs beyond the scope of Net Literacy. Our Executive Student Board decided to submit a grant to America’s Promise that will provide a website of “best after school activity practices” that students (educators, and nonprofits) can suggest to make our daily academics more like an afterschool activity.
Respectfully submitted,
David Johnson and the Net Literacy Student Executive Board
Broadband Adoption Summit
All Day “Roadmap to Broadband Adoption” Conference to be held in Washington DC on June 22nd
Broadband for America, Net Literacy and USIIA invite you to join in a special conference to help bring the rest of America online through programs to stimulate broadband adoption.
Aimed at broadband providers, community service agencies, municipal managers, consultants, educators and economic development leaders, this conference is a roadmap to use of federal stimulus grants to build effective and sustainable community programs for broadband adoption and use among the one-third of Americans not currently online. For more information, contact USIIA at [email protected] or click here.
If you have applied for or received a broadband stimulus grant or loan, this is a must-attend event for your company!
Monday, June 21st
4:00 pm Joint meeting of the USIIA Board of Directors
5:30 pm Open Reception (Attendees and Speakers)
7:00 pm USIIA Board of Directions Dinner Invitation Only
Conference Agenda*
8:30 am Continental Breakfast
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9:00 am Conference welcome by Dennis C. Hayes, Chairman, USIIA
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9:05 am Introductory remarks by Harold Ford, Jr., Broadband For America Co-Chair
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9:20am Introductory remarks by Don Kent, Net Literacy Chair
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9:35am Keynote: A legislator’s view of the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act with respect to broadband adoption. What did Congress intend, and where do we go from here? Walter B. McCormick, Jr. (President & CEO of the US Telecom Association)
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10:05 am Break
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10:15 am “The Broadband Adoption Paradox” – An overview of the research indicating that broadband adoption rates remain a problem in the United States, and where efforts need to be made to correct this problem.
Panel Leader: John Horrigan, Consumer Research Director at the FCC (and formerly the Associate Director, Research, with the Pew Internet & American Life Project). Panelist: Rick Herrmann (Intel, Manager, US Public Sector Initiatives, State, Local, Education, and Advocacy) and Robert J Shapiro (Chairman of Sonecon).
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11:00 am The Omnibus Broadband Initiative with Blair Levin. Now a Communications and Society Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Levin was formerly Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the Federal Communications Commission, and will share his insights into the nation’s broadband plans, policies and needs.
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11:45 pm Lunch on your own
11:45 pm Speakers Luncheon – By Invitation Only
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1:00 pm Conference welcome by Daniel Kent, Founder and Student President of Net Literacy
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1:10 pm “Where Will We Get The Computers?” A panel discussion of how to create and implement an effective program for computer re-tasking and distribution.
Panel Leader: David McClure (USIIA President). Panelists: Don Kent (Net Literacy Chair) and Kerry Murray (Dell’s Senior Council for Global Public Policy).
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1:40 pm “Outline for Community Adoption Programs” An outline of a sustainable broadband adoption program, necessary programs at the federal, state and local levels.
Panel Leader: Rick Jones (Cisco Systems, Director, Strategic Relations, US Public Sector). Panelists: Brian David (Federal Communications Commission Adoption and Use Director) and Mamie Bittner (Institute of Museum and Library Services Deputy Director)
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2:30 pm Break
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2:45 pm “Community-Based Adoption Models” A more specific discussion of the models for community programs, including where to conduct them, who should be targeted and how to manage the programs within various county/municipal/township organizations.
Panel Leader: Karen Archer Perry (Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Taskforce ). Panelist: Emy Tseng (National Telecommunications and Information Administration Program Officer, BTOP) and Elisabeth Stock (Computers For Youth President)
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3:30 pm “A Student Empowered Digital Literacy Corps” A discussion of the Net Literacy model for development of a corps of high-school and college student volunteers to implement the community-based training programs.
Speaker: Daniel Kent (Net Literacy Founder and Student President)
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4:00 pm “Promoting Broadband Adoption” A panel discussion of how to better market the value proposition for broadband within communities.
Panel Leader: Marva Johnson (Bright House Networks Networks Corporate Vice President Technology Policy & Industry Affairs). Panelist: Joe Savage (President, Fiber-to-the-Home Council), Laurie Lipper (Children’s Partnership Co-Founder and Co-President) and Narvarrow Wright (President of Maximum Solutions)
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5:00 pm Reception
* Note: Conference agenda is subject to change.
** Accepted pending Agency approval
Net Literacy student volunteers, with the support of ten Orr Fellows – plan to collect computers throughout Hamilton County to increase digital inclusion to over 1,000 Hoosiers!
The five largest municipal governments in Hamilton County are partnering together with Net Literacy, a youth-managed Hamilton County nonprofit, to hold the county’s largest computer drive. The Mayors and Town Manager of Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, and Noblesville together with the County Commissioners are encouraging businesses, individuals, and other organizations to donate “gently used” and working computers that are Pentium IIIs, Pentium IV, or have Windows 2000 or Windows XP as operating system to donate their computers. The computers will be cleaned, data wiped, new software installed, and they will be donated to nonprofits to build or expand computer labs in Hamilton County and throughout the State. Net Literacy (www.netliteracy.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and all contributors will receive a receipt for their donation.
“Net Literacy’s student volunteers have taught senior citizens and provided computers to independent living facilities in Carmel. Carmel has spotlighted Net Literacy’s programs on our Carmel CAN Community Volunteer Initiative on Cable Channel 16, and we support the students that volunteer during their weekends and after school time to help increase digital inclusion throughout Indiana. I encourage Carmel residents to support students and Net Literacy by participating in this computer drive on May 6th and 7th at City Hall (9:00am to 4:00pm). Also, residents can drop off their gently used computers at the Carmel Clay Schools Educational Center on Friday, April 30th (3:00pm-7:00pm) and Saturday, May 1st (10:00am to 2:00pm). The City of Carmel is pleased to continue to support Net Literacy, its students, and its mission for a ninth year.”
- Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard
• Since 2003, Net Literacy has provided or expanded computer facilities serving over 150,000 Hoosiers and its student volunteers have provided almost 200,000 hours of service to Indiana! In 2009, Net Literacy was awarded “The Above and Beyond Award” by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for the State of Indiana. Learn more by visiting www.netliteracy.org.
“In today’s world, it’s extremely important for people of all ages to be computer literate. Not only does it allow people to easily access a wealth of information, but it’s also a great way to keep in touch with family and friends. I applaud Net Literacy and encourage all residents of Noblesville to participate in the computer drive on May 6th and May 7th. The City has issued a Proclamation entitled ‘Net Literacy Computer Drive to Give “Gently Used” Computers a Second Life, to Increase Broadband Adoption, and Reduce the Amount of Computers Discarded in Landfills’ to encourage Noblesville residents to participate in this computer drive. The City of Noblesville has participated in every one of Net Literacy’s computer drives, and is proud to support these student volunteers again in 2010. Please bring your ‘gently used’ computers to our City Hall on May 6th and May 7th.”
– Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear
• Net Literacy is teaching students and parents about how to remain safe on the Internet – learn more by visiting www.safeconnects.org. Over 100,000 Indiana residents have watched Net Literacy’s “The Ten Most Important Things To Know About the Internet” PSA campaign. All Safe Connects content has been reviewed by the IDOE, and is available to schools and nonprofits at no cost.
“The Town of Fishers is proud to support Net Literacy’s computer drive and its mission to increase computer access. We have issued Proclamations in the past supporting Net Literacy and their Senior Connects’ program, and the Town has a long history of directly supporting Net Literacy program of increasing computer access. We encourage all residents to support the computer drive by dropping off computers at the Train Station by Town Hall on May 6th and May 7th between 8:00am and 5:00pm. We also encourage youths, adults, and senior residents of Fishers to be both computer and Internet literate to improve their quality-of-life, and empowering citizens through technology to be better connected with friends and family.”
- Fishers Town Manager Gary Huff
• US Senators Lugar and Bayh have served as Net Literacy’s Honorary Co-Chairs since 2005 and Lt. Governor Skillman joined Net Literacy’s Honorary Board in 2009. In 2009, Net Literacy won the
Governor’s Award and was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service in a Washington DC ceremony by US Senators Lugar and Bayh.
“Westfield is proud to be a part of and support Net Literacy’s computer drive, and the City has issued a proclamation declaring May 6th and May 7th to be “Net Literacy Computer Drive Day to Increase Digital Inclusion and Promote a Green Environment.” Net Literacy has taught senior citizens and repurposed over 1000 computers while working at Sanders Glen. The City encourages all citizens to bring their gently used computers and monitors to the Westfield City Hall on May 6th and 7th between 8:00am and 4:00pm.”
– Andy Cook, Mayor of Westfield
• Hundreds of Hamilton County students have volunteered to teach senior citizens computer and Internet skills and have repurposed thousands of computers since Net Literacy was founded by middle school students in 2003. In the Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan presented to Congress on March 15, 2010, cited three of Net Literacy’s programs as best practice models.
“Hamilton County appreciates Net Literacy’s efforts to increase computer access and its support of Prime Life Enrichment during the last many years. In 2010, all Hamilton County students and adults should be Internet literate to be able to access the ever increasing amount of government resources, news, and information that is available online. The County has issued a Proclamation in support of Net Literacy’s computer drive, and the emphasis it places on recycling and keeping Hamilton County green. The County supports an organization that engages student volunteers and works to support nonprofits build and expand computer labs.”
- Mr. Dan Stevens, Hamilton County
• Net Literacy has recently launched a new program to increase financial literacy among high school and college students. More information is available at www.financialconnects.org. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett said “I am proud that Net Literacy, an organization made of Indiana Students, successfully competed for State Farm’s ($98,000) financial literacy grant. This is the type of service learning project that encourages student success, and I congratulate them on this endeavor.”
“Net Literacy is grateful for the strong support and leadership of Hamilton County, Westfield, Fishers, Noblesville, and Carmel by promoting broadband adoption, encouraging us to have a green environment, and strongly supporting a student run nonprofit where students comprise 50% of the board of directors. We also appreciate that the Orr Fellows that have adopted our ‘gently used computer drive’ as their community service project and will be helping us high school students by working to collect the computers. We want to thank the Carmel Clay School District for holding a separate computer drive for us at the Carmel Clay Schools Educational Center on Friday, April 30th (3:00pm-7:00pm) and Saturday, May 1st (10:00am to 2:00pm), and we appreciate that other school districts will be conducting computer drives for us in September. Finally, thank you, residents of Hamilton County, for helping us to help others. Learn more about Net Literacy by visiting us on the web at www.NetLiteracy.org.”
– Levi Kiser, Net Literacy Student Board Member and high school junior
Net Literacy thanks the Orr Fellows for partnering with us and helping make this computer drive a success!
Orr Fellowship