Nonprofit builds a bridge across the digital divide
Tasha Williams, an unemployed single mother living in Roxbury, is beginning to search the Web for a job and child care. But she's not sure where she'll find local day-care slots, and her off-and-on dial-up Internet connection makes searching a frustrating proposition for the former doughnut shop sales clerk.
"You might get a disconnection and you might have to wait to do it all over again," says Williams, who lives in a townhouse with her 7-year-old daughter, 14-year-old son, and a friend's year-old baby that Williams is raising.
Take a peek at Williams's computer screen, with its error messages, pop-up ads, and fragile connections. You're peering into the new digital divide.
We've worked hard as a country wiring libraries, schools, and community centers with computers that are often poorly used or worse, sit untouched. Now federal funding is shrinking for such efforts because the bare numbers look good: 70 percent of children ages 7-17 live in Internet-connected households, and 90 percent use a computer at school.
But drill down and the picture changes. If you're poor or a minority, your kids are less likely to have time at the school computer and you are less likely to have Net access at home, where real skill-building with technology begins. Just 23 percent of households with annual incomes of less than $15,000 have home Internet access, compared with 90 percent of those with incomes of $75,000 or more, according to government data calculated by The Children's Partnership, a non profit.
More alarming, those who get wired are stymied in their technological efforts by lack of training, literacy, and fluency in English. That means they are unable to navigate the daily tasks of work and life that have migrated to the Web and that most of us take for granted -- from applying online for a job to Googling for an affordable summer camp.
``One of the things we're finding is that it's not just about having the computer," says Susan O'Connor , the head of the Timothy Smith Network of technology centers housed in social service agencies in Roxbury. ``What it's all about is how effectively can people use the computer to better their lives."
Enter One Economy, a non profit that's endeavoring to give low-income populations access to advanced technologies and the crucial skills needed to use them. The six-year-old, Washington-based group has helped change policies in 42 states, including Massachusetts, to encourage developers to include high-speed Internet networks and service in new affordable-housing projects. One Economy also works to wire existing projects and teaches teens to provide tech training and support in their communities.
This means that help is on the way for Tasha Williams. This summer, Urban Edge, one of One Economy's local partners, will offer free high-speed Internet access, either via WiFi or wire, to Williams and the other 125 or so people living at Amory Residences. A total of 200 households in Boston will be similarly wired this year.
As well, Boston will get its own version of the Beehive -- One Economy's low-literacy, bilingual website offering locally tailored content to low-income populations in 25 communities from New York to Los Angeles (www.beehive.org).
Empowering people is One Economy's real mission, says David Saunier, vice president of the group's media division, and that ``takes good advice and information and resources for people to truly take action to improve their lives."
Just imagine you're an immigrant with a fifth-grade education, and with much trepidation, you've finally mastered a mouse and clicked on the wondrous Web. What greets you? Impossible jargon on an IRS website or irrelevant clutter on Google.
The Beehive, in contrast, walks you through choosing a school or child-care center, the basics of 401(k) funds, and how to use an ATM -- all in clear English and Spanish written at a sixth-grade reading level. The site is so useful that even PhDs involved in its design have sent Beehive links to friends and family. More than 9 million people have visited the site, and nearly $2 million in Earned Income Tax Credit refunds will be returned to eligible workers who filed their returns via the Beehive this year.
``It's really been a helpful tool," says Lisa Johnson, an administrative assistant in Snowhill, N.C., a rural area with its own Beehive. Since learning she may have leukemia, Johnson has been posting her medical questions each morning to a chat area staffed by local medical professionals. She gets answers in plain English that evening, and can make fewer health-related phone calls while at work. ``That's been the biggest comfort to me, that health chat," she says.
When Tasha Williams quit work in January to care for her friend's baby and to look for a better job, her old computer was dying. She now has a new desktop, her life is more settled, and she wants to get back to work. Having a high-speed connection and the resources of the Beehive will be a boost. ``That would be extremely helpful," says Williams, a pretty, quiet woman with a fatigued air. ``A one-stop shop would be great."
Maggie Jackson's Balancing Acts column appears every other week. She can be reached at maggie.jackson@att.net. 
