Access to Action
CTCNet Guide:
Access to Action
The Guide provides resources and tools to help your CTC better articulate and envision your impact at the community level -- and allows you to leave comments and suggest additional resources.
In the spring of 2003, CTCNet was provided a grant to partner with a Technical Assistance team to explore the role of CTCs as catalysts for community change. The goals of the project were to explore how CTCs could 1) affect upward mobility for individuals; 2) encourage social integration in neighborhoods; 3) and serve as public spaces that support community building.
CTCNet renamed the project Access to Action in 2005, and concluded with the production of an online guide and set of tools. The guide was developed to assist community technology programs to better articulate and envision their impact at the community level.
The CTCNet Access to Action Guide was developed to help CTCs benefit from:
- increased community value and recognition
- more relevant programming
- stronger community partners and connections
- new sources of funding, and
- a more dynamic and flexible organization that is able to adapt services to changing constituents’ and community needs.
Project Summary
"The Madison Park Development Corporation (MPDC) held two focus groups for adults, and one for children and youth. MPDC discovered that the adult CTC users wanted a professional place for learning, while the youth wanted a fun space to hang out with friends. The CTC space needed to be re-designed to appeal to both populations."
-- Nyvia Colon, Director of Technology Programs, MPDC
Between 2003 and 2005, CTCNet managed the administration of planning grants to 5 CTCs with direct technical assistance being provided by the Technical Assistance team. In the final year, CTCNet managed all aspects of the project, including the production of the online resource guide and the provision of direct technical assistance to one CTC that received an implementation grant.
Over the three-year period, A2A provided a total of $545,000 in planning and implementation grants to five CTCs. Participating centers included:
- Alamo Mutual Housing Association (TX)
- Columbia Shaw-Heights Family Support Collaborative (DC)
- Eastmont Community Computing Center (CA)
- Madison Park Development Corporation (MA)
- Playing 2 Win (NY)
Technical Assistance Team
The Access to Action project was developed in response to a report prepared for the Ford Foundation titled Community Technology Centers as Catalysts for Community Change. The authors of this paper became members of the Technical Assistance Team that worked with the participating centers during the planning phase:
- Randal Pinkett, BCT Partners (author)
- Lisa Servon of New School University (author)
- Andrew Wiley-Schwartz (author) and Stephen Davies (author), Project for Public Spaces
- Roland Anglin, Executive Director, New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute
Funding
The Access to Action project was made possible through funding from the Ford Foundation.