U Ideas of General Interest — December 2000University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor (217) 333-5491; [email protected]
COMMUNITY COMPUTINGProgram aims to help residents in East St. Louis gain access to Internet
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Just as light-rail stations in East St. Louis, Ill., have helped connect low-income residents to the job market in the St. Louis area, a new program initiated by the University of Illinois and community organizations will help residents get aboard the Internet.
And from there, the tracks run in unlimited directions for participants in the program, according to Varkki George, a professor of urban and regional planning and head of the UI’s East St. Louis Action Research Project. ESLARP was developed a decade ago to help empower community members to participate in the city’s urban renewal and revitalization efforts.
The new program, created to provide East St. Louis residents with training and access to computers and the Internet, is the result of a collaborative effort led by the UI’s department of urban and regional planning and School of Architecture, and Prairienet, a community computing network supported by the university’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. To further sustain the effort and expand its goals, ESLARP and Prairienet have brought in additional partners – including governmental, nonprofit and social service agencies; churches; and businesses – to form a broader coalition known as the DigitalESL Collaborative.
"In the long term, we see digital technology as a means for empowering all East St. Louis citizens to build and sustain a healthy, livable community," George said. "We see a cadre of technology-savvy people who are well-connected to each other, and to different kinds of opportunities in the region and around the world. Through technology, all citizens will have easy access to learning opportunities, economic opportunities and resources for better living."
To get to that point, the project’s collaborators are working on some more immediate, concrete goals – using as their model a 1997 program Prairienet launched to provide greater access to low-income residents of Champaign-Urbana. The first step in implementing the program in East St. Louis is to establish four public-access computing sites, which are expected to open in December. Initially, Prairienet staff members plan to train volunteers from the community, who, in turn are expected to share their skills and knowledge with other community members on an ongoing basis. Beyond that, the program’s ultimate goal is for every household to have at least one computer connected to the Internet.
"We see a system of incentives built into computer ownership: As individuals in households complete further training or contribute to the training of others, they become eligible for more powerful computers and faster connections to the Internet," said Prairienet director Paul Adams. "While our community clubhouses and centers will help enhance a sense of community, household ownership of computers will ensure that technology pervades the community in a meaningful and sustainable way.
For more information, go to www.prairienet.org or www.eslarp.uiuc.edu.
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