According to 2008 Washtenaw County government estimates,
8,000 to 10,000 county residents don't have a computer
because they can't afford one. That affects their ability
to find out about jobs, contact people and obtain information.
The phenomenon is known as the digital divide, and it
creates a built-in disadvantage for those who can least
afford it.
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COMPUTER COLLECTION: Stacks of refurbished
computers are stored in a room in Rackham
Hall. Through Digital Inclusion, a B.Side
of Youth
program, high school-age students are trained
to
clean and troubleshoot old computers. The students
then prepare the retired computers, obtained
through
Washtenaw County. Washtenaw County Employment
Training and Community Services provides low-
income
households with vouchers, which allows
residents
to pick up refurbished computers through
the Digital
Inclusion program.
|
But one group at Eastern Michigan is working with the
county to bridge the divide — and giving local high school
students jobs and technical training in the process.
The B. Side of Youth's Digital Inclusion program trains
teens to clean and troubleshoot computers, before giving
them minimum-wage jobs preparing "retired" computers from
the Washtenaw County system under the supervision of EMU
graduate student Victor Tran.
Washtenaw County Employment Training and Community Services
(ETCS) provides low-income households with vouchers, which
allow residents to pick up refurbished computers from the
Digital Inclusion storage room in Rackham Hall.
"It's really interesting," said Jack Bidlack, program
director for The B.Side. "I think there's a lot of things
we take for granted ... There is definitely a segment of
the population that does not have access to a computer
on a regular basis. People complain that the free computers
are only for low-income (recipients). Well, yeah."
Digital Inclusion is an enterprise of The B.Side, a program
run by EMU's Academic Service Learning office, which
teaches entrepreneurship along with project-specific skills
to youth ages 13-20. Digital Inclusion started in 2008
and has distributed more than 200 computers in two years.
"When I showed up, I was going to do it because I needed
money. And then I started learning stuff I didn't know
about, and it was kind of fun," said Bryan Roberts, a 14-year-old
Ypsilanti High School student who's been working with the
Digital Inclusion program for almost a year. "I came
in knowing nothing about computers except for how to turn
them on. I learned how to troubleshoot and fix it if there's
a problem. I learned about the components inside. My favorite
part is reconstructing them because I've always liked building
things and putting things together."
With grant support from local, state and national foundations,
The B. Side serves motivated young people who have a drive
to learn about entrepreneurship. The core B.Side class
— a free, 10-week experience called B.Side Basics — focuses
on students developing a business plan and finding micro-loans
or sources of funding. The B.Side also connects youth with
business mentors and paid internships, and keeps B.Side
Basics graduates connected through the Young Moguls Club.
This fall, Digital Inclusion brought in another group of
technical trainees as the program continued to grow.
Until just a few months ago, Digital Inclusion's distribution
numbers were hanging around 70 computers. However, that
changed after Bidlack and program assistant Angelina Hamilton
Broderick set up a booth at Washtenaw Community Day, an
Aug. 14 event at the Key Bank building. Within a week,
they were swamped with vouchers as word of mouth about
free computers spread throughout the community.
The program gave away 110 computers in two weeks and had
to create a waiting list because it was running out of
mouse controls and keyboards. The rush reinforced the need
for an expanded student staff to handle orders and pick-ups
as the program grew. Bidlack said the Digital Inclusion
crew would eventually like to put wireless access cards
in the free computers so recipients could take advantage
of the free wireless network established in Ypsilanti by
businessman Steve Pierce.
Through a block grant, Washtenaw County's ETCS pays The
B.Side $75-$80 for each computer that's sent out. When
the program exhausts its current batch of available computers,
it will have distributed 212 in a little more than two
years. That represents about $15,000 in profit — enough
cash to keep the B.Side program going for at least another
year.
Bidlack also has been working with Ypsilanti High School
to establish a branch of the program that would train and
employ special-needs students. He's currently looking for
an instructor — most likely an EMU graduate student or
upper-level undergraduate student — with the technical
savvy to tear down, rebuild and troubleshoot computers,
and the personality to teach those skills to students with
different learning styles.
And he's been looking into other potential sources for
computers, including EMU.
"Our big goal would be get our hands on all of the cycled-out
computers that Eastern handles and be able to provide them
— at least for Eastern Michigan students — at
a very deep discount," Bidlack
said. "We'd love to be able to take that on and be able
to incorporate more students to work with high school students
and be able to provide that service back to campus."
For more information about the Digital Inclusion program,
contact Bidlack at 487-6570 or e-mail him at jbidlac1@emich.edu.
