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Asbury Park Press
State gives low-income women PC’s
to try to bridge the digital divide
Trying to bridge a digital divide, the state
Labor Department is giving 100 low-income women statewide free
computer’s to help them learn about technology and prepare
for higher paying jobs.
The program is one of the first of its kind
nationwide, and officials hope it will cut through a barrier that
prevents low-income workers from gaining information-age skills.
“They want to have people get off welfare
and do good, but a lot of people don’t have the skills to
get off welfare,” said Diane Bullock, 39, of Asbury Park,
a participant who recently completed the program.
Funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department
of Labor Women’s Bureau, participants are given personal
computers, Internet access and a printer.
With them, the women take online courses, learning
everything from navigating the Internet to creating a Web page.
A help desk is on stand by around the clock to answer questions.
The only requirement that they take 1-½ hours
of courses a week.
JoAnn Hammill, assistant commissioner for Workforce
New Jersey, said the program is designed to teach women making
$12,000 to $15,000 a year enough skills so that they can find a
job paying at least $25,000 a year.
“There is a major issue with the welfare
population that they get into these low-paying jobs and there’s
no career advancement,” Hammill said. “You can educate
and train, but there are children. How do you go to work, take
care of your family and advance yourself?”
In Monmouth County, 38 residents have participated,
and one of them, Brenda Body, 39 of Keyport, knows well the difficulties
of getting ahead.
A single mother of a 5-year old daughter, Body
works in the Meals on Wheels program for Interfaith Neighbors,
a non-profit agency where she earns $7 an hour.
Body always planned to get her GED, the equivalent
of a high school diploma, but the classes were at night, and Body
often didn’t have access to transportation or a baby sitter.
In January 2002, Child Care Services of Monmouth
sent a letter asking if Body was interested in the program. Tempted
by the free computer, she agreed to participate.
Body said the program worked well. She learned
Microsoft Word and Excel – computer applications most office
workers need to know – and she worked at her own pace, taking
about a year to complete the program. She was among 17 students
who graduated in March.
Body still works at her Interfaith Neighbors
job, but now the prospect for advancement is brighter.
“I felt like I was doing something important
that was going to better me,” Body said.
Not having access to a computer and the Internet
can be a barrier for low-income worker’s trying to improve
their careers, experts said.
A computer can help them find job openings,
send resumes electronically and get basic information – from
bus schedules to the earned income tax credit.
And low-income residents are disproportionately
absent from the Internet. People making less than $30,000 a year
comprise 28 percent of the population, but 41 percent of all non-Internet
users, according to a study released last month by the Pew Internet & American
Life project.
“That’s part of closing the digital
divide,” said Barrie Peterson, associate director of Seton
Hall University’s Institute on Work in South Orange, “ but
it won’t happen unless that person is properly trained and
supported.”
Bullock, a single mother of two daughters,
ages 6 and 4, said she has had plenty of technical support both
for using the computer itself and taking distance learning classes.
The next step: Finding a way to make more than
$10.50 an hour she earns as a data entry clerk at Affiliated Collections
Bureau in Asbury Park.
“In the beginning you might go
through the course because you want a free computer,” Bullock
said. “But after you get about half-way through it, you
find it helps your self-esteem. Now you can do something else.”
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