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WAITT FAMILY FOUNDATION AND POWERUP BRING TECHNOLOGY
TO MORE THAN 20,000 SAN DIEGO AREA CHILDREN AND
THEIR FAMILIES
San Diego County proclaims May 21, 2002 "Community
Technology Day " in recognition of Waitt Family
Foundation and PowerUP's contributions to bridging
the Digital Divide and the opening of 25 Community
Technology Centers in San Diego this past year.
San Diego, CA- May 21, 2002-- More than
20,000 children and their families in 25 San
Diego County communities now have access to technology
and the Internet because of a vision shared by
Gateway Chairman and CEO Ted Waitt, AOL founder
Steve Case and Colin Powell.
Man Phan, Director of Community Relations for
San Diego County presents a proclamtion from
San Diego County to the San Deigo Community Technology
Group on behalf of Supervisor Ron Roberts. The
City of San Diego also presented a proclamation
on behalf of Mayor Dick Murphy.
Earlier this month, the Waitt Family Foundation
and PowerUP, the leading national nonprofit organization
that is dedicated to helping young people succeed
in the Digital Age, opened their latest community
technology centers at local Boys and Girls Clubs.
This brings the number to 25 sites co-sponsored
by Waitt and PowerUP in San Diego County. The
centers feature 15 to 20 Gateway PCs, and offer
instructional classes on computer use and Internet
surfing.
"We are especially pleased to have completed
our 25th center before the end of the school
year," said Al Panico, Director of Grants for
the Waitt Family Foundation. "Technology is the
great leveler in society, as it can bring to
reality the hopes and dreams of millions of children
and their families. As with other educational
disciplines, it is especially important that
children don't lose touch with technology during
the summer months, so we want to ensure that
they know where they can go to stay connected."
Al Panico, Waitt Family
Foundation Director of Grants, addresses
San Diego PowerUP members
at a breakfast celebrating "Community Technology
Day".
As part of the celebration, the Waitt Family
Foundation will unveil a new on-line tool that
will help San Diego County residents locate their
nearest community technology center, regardless
of whether it is a Waitt, PowerUP or other CTC
site, by entering a ZIP code or city name.
A key driver in this effort was the release,
just more than a year ago, of a report on the
Digital Divide, the line between technology haves
and have-nots, by the San Diego Regional Technology
Alliance. Key findings of the SDRTA study included:
- Asian (81%) and Caucasian (80%) households
are much more likely to own computers as their
African American (59%) and Hispanic (52%) counterparts.
Also, the divide between Caucasians and Hispanics
is greater in San Diego than in the nation
as a whole.
- Education levels are more significant than
ethnicity in determining computer ownership
and access to the Internet. For example, San
Diego County college graduates (67%) are more
than twice as likely to own computers as those
with a high school diploma (31%).
- Single-parent households have the lowest
computer ownership rates at 64.47%, 20 percentage
points lower than ownership levels of two-parent
households.
- Senior citizens are least likely to own a
computer (52%) or have Internet access (47%).
Maisha and Walter Kadumu (left), founders of
Center for Parent Involvement in Education were
presented with a plaque from SDRTA. Susan Myrland,
(above) Director of Interactive Media Management,
addresses the attendees at the celebratory breakfast.
"Clearly, progress has been made in the past
year in San Diego in terms of providing equal
access to technology," said Meridith Dowling,
Director of Community Development for SDRTA. "Thanks
to the efforts of organizations like the Waitt
Family Foundation and PowerUP, we are confident
that we can eventually close the digital divide
and create a completely connected community."
At the time the study was released in February
2001, the Waitt foundation committed to funding
the opening 17 PowerUP sites in San Diego County.
Since that time, PowerUP and Waitt have expanded
their relationship with Boys and Girls Club of
America allowing an additional eight centers
to be opened, bringing the total to 25 in San
Diego County.
About PowerUP
PowerUP is the leading national nonprofit organization
dedicated to helping young people succeed in
the Digital Age. PowerUP promotes the positive
youth development goals of America's Promise
- the Alliance for Youth, the national crusade
founded by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell,
and it is based on a public and private partnership
solution, providing comprehensive programs
in hundreds of community- and education-based
locations nationwide.
PowerUP benefactors provide technology, funding,
trained personnel, innovative interactive programming,
in-kind support and other resources to help close
the digital divide between young people who have
access to computer-based information and technology-related
skills and those who do not. PowerUP's founding
national benefactors include: The Waitt Family
Foundation, the Case Foundation, AOL/Time Warner
Foundation, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems.
PowerUP also partners with the following organizations:
The Corporation for National Service/AmeriCorps*VISTA;
YMCA of the USA; Boys & Girls Clubs of America;
ASPIRA Association, Inc.; Communities in Schools;
National Urban League; Save the Children, U.S.
Department of Education, and many others.
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