MEDA HELPS LATINO FAMILIES ACCESS TECHNOLOGY
San Francisco, a growing city of about 825,000, is known worldwide for its diversity of landscapes, climates and neighborhoods. The city has a long-time history as an entry point for immigrant families, with modern-day importance as a gateway to the innovations of neighboring Silicon Valley . . . and within the city’s own borders. With its ability to remain at the forefront of innovations in technology, finance, engineering, biotech and tourism, San Francisco has generated a robust economy despite the prolonged national economic downturn. With such quick growth, an increasing population and limited geography, the vast majority of San Francisco’s low- and moderate-income (LMI) residents are struggling to make ends meet. One major issue is housing: San Francisco has skyrocketing home prices, averaging $830,000 in 2013, plus record rent prices averaging $3,096 across all unit sizes. While tech industry wealth offers up plenty of stories of overnight millionaires, that is not the case for all. The City’s LMI residents are families with children, immigrants and communities of color residing, most often, in its eastern and southern neighborhoods—areas that are being left behind. LMI workers provide critical services that make San Francisco the culturally diverse, dynamic and welcoming city it is known to be. These services run the gamut from housecleaners and cooks to dishwashers and bus drivers to teachers and small business owners. Many of these LMI families immigrated from Mexico or Central America, China or the Philippines; they are new immigrants in search of the American Dream, or second- or third-generation San Franciscans with a desire to call the city home for their own families. These residents are slowly being displaced from such historically ethnic communities as the Mission District, Chinatown and the Bayview because of home prices and rising rents, coupled with a lack of middle-wage jobs that could allow a sustainable life in the San Francisco. These neighborhoods are home to the city’s most vulnerable residents–those who are elderly, subsisting on public benefits, homeless, in transitional housing, mentally ill or dealing with a physical disability.
Issues of poverty and inequality were part of President Obama’s 2014 “State of the Union Address” in January. The POTUS’ speech definitely rings true in the Mission District of San Francisco. The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) leads the Mission Promise Neighborhood (MPN) grant, serving 2,500 schoolchildren and their families within the four target schools in the Mission District. The vision is to replicate the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which works with families at every stage, from cradle to college to career. Helping families achieve financial stability while supporting their children’s education is the cornerstone for the Mission Promise Neighborhood’s initiative in the Mission District. MPN plans to connect families and students to high-speed broadband and wireless internet in their homes. During his 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama said, “99 percent of students across the country” would receive access to high-speed broadband and wireless internet at their schools within the next five years. According to foxnews.com, on January 14 a federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s “Open Internet Order “pertaining to so-called “net-neutrality.” The decision paves the way for internet-service providers to potentially block any website of their choosing. It would also create tiered pricing, with extra cost for some services, thereby placing an extra burden on the financially challenged.
Richard Abisla, the technology manager at MEDA was quoted in the foxnews.com article, stating the importance of broadband access to low-income areas and how it would not be financially feasible to ask struggling families to pay extra for access.
Take a family like that of Nixon Gonzalez, who had been without income for a year. Nixon attended a technology workshop at his daughters’ school. The MEDA technology program offers workshops at the four target schools for MPN in the Mission. Nixon’s daughters attend one of these schools, Cesar Chavez Elementary. The Gonzalez family had encountered tough fiscal times. Nixon, the only provider, was unemployed for a year. His daughters, Gabriella and Gisela, ages eight and 10 years of age respectively, could do computer assignments only at school, even though teachers required them to research topics on the Internet for homework. The youngsters quickly learned to stay at school as long as possible to finish such assignments. Paying $46 dollars for an internet connection was out of the question for the Gonzalez clan. In 2013, Nixon attended several trainings at MEDA to learn the basics about computers and the Internet. Nixon explains, “It was like day and night for me. Not being connected to the Internet, I felt like I wasn’t able to see my way through life. I couldn’t help my girls with homework. I couldn’t find a job. People would tell me to go to online to find work. How could I? I was embarrassed to say I didn’t have internet access at home. It was like saying that I don’t know how to read or write.”
Nixon eventually found a job driving a taxi in San Francisco. He attributed obtaining employment to his acquiring a broadband connection for only $9.99 instead of $46. How did he do so? MEDA’s technology program helped Nixon obtain low-cost broadband and provided training to use a computer to access the Internet. Soon after the training, Nixon found his taxi driver’s job, seeing the ad online.
Pew Research Center recently found that the digital divide between Latinos and non-Hispanic whites is narrowing, but there is still much to do to close the existing gap. High-speed broadband–and the services that come with it–offers many benefits, from education to economic mobility to access to technology, all of which has the potential to change people’s lives.
Such was the change for Nixon Gonzalez and his family. Research indicates that only 56 percent of Latino households (and only 25 percent of Spanish-speaking households) have a home broadband connection, compared to 74 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 81 percent of Asian Americans.
San Francisco Unified School District: Over the last three years as a result of the implementation of the Bryke Model for school reform, SFUSD schools within its Superintendents Zones have demonstrated impact in turning around results. For example, students in the Superintendent’s Zone schools that received School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding showed nearly double the rate of growth in English Language Arts (ELA) and triple the rate of growth in Math over the past five years when compared to the rate of growth for district schools overall. Schools with SIG had an 18.4 percent gain in ELA proficiency and a 26.9 percent gain in Math since 2008.
The question is: what role does access to technology play in improving the rate of growth in the areas of English Language Arts and Math for schools within the Mission District in the Superintendents Zones in San Francisco?
According to MEDA’s Abisla, access to technology for Latino families is key to improving graduation rates for Hispanic youths.
“How can a child do well in school if their family is facing eviction or foreclosure, their parents are unemployed or underemployed, or they don’t have the necessary resources to complete their homework? Increasingly, internet access is an essential tool to addressing these problems. MEDA works everyday to train new users of technology, including parents of children attending schools in the Mission Promise Neighborhood. A typical family in the Promise Neighborhood, with two parents and two children, survives on $28,000 a year. How can this family afford market-rate internet, which currently costs between $25 and $70 a month in our area? This same family is most in need of lower-cost broadband, so that these parents can get training to access higher-paying employment, help their children do their homework, communicate with teachers, and manage their bank account and credit score. Many of these families are new to the country or speak limited English,” explains Abisla.
Over the next five years, the MPN has the goal to ensure that 100% of students living in the Mission, or attending school in the neighborhood, will have access to a computer and broadband internet–in their own home. With the support of the U.S. Department of Education and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), MEDA promotes the benefits of broadband and technology use for the whole family. Increasingly, using technology is necessary to full participation in academic and financial life, as well as civil society.
“It is not enough to provide kids in school with access to technology while the parents remain in the dark about it. MEDA believes that assisting kids and families in the Mission District with access to technology is imperative to create a community where everyone wins. How can San Francisco continue to prosper when the economic success of a city, or of a region or country, is in question because a great majority of our constituents are denied access to technology? This is a time to turn the downward spiral that looms in the distance for our city if we continue to ignore the importance of empowering all families in San Francisco with the knowledge and access to technology in the most basic sense. Broadband in the home is not a luxury–it’s a necessity,” stated Luis Granados, MEDA’s Executive Director.
Home broadband access is important to the long-term success of the United States economy at all levels. MEDA’s programs fight poverty and economic injustice. And that means working hard to ensure that low-income families have access to low-cost broadband. All federal poverty alleviation and education programs should include access to technology and training. |
 MEDA’s Mission Neighborhood Access Point
Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) launched its Workforce Development program in July 2013 with the opening of the Mission Neighborhood Access Point (MNAP), a comprehensive one-stop center offering individual career coaching, guided referral services to workforce partners, support services, workplace readiness training, job placement assistance, retention services and an employer engagement service. One integral component of MNAP is its integration of MEDA’s financial-capability services, which help participants achieve such positive financial results as improving credit scores, increasing savings/income and reducing debt through financial education and one-on-one financial coaching. The goal of MNAP is to increase job retention and financial stability through its combined services.
Continuing along a career path is key to supporting individuals so that they can attain financial self-sufficiency. MNAP creates and integrates the following training programs to assist individuals to achieve their financial goals:
- Mission Techies: a 12-week Information Technology (IT) training program that prepares graduates for work in computer support, wireless networking, IT operations and office management with an IT emphasis.
- Customer Service/Retail: an eight-week training program that prepares participants for retail customer service careers and ensures that they gain digital literacy skills, with an emphasis on placement in the telecommunications sector.
- Bilingual Bank Teller: a 12-week, customer service training program with an emphasis on financial capability.
To date, three Customer Service/Retail training program classes have graduated, and public interest in MNAP and program enrollment are increasing. Below is an example of the way MNAP is impacting lives through its connection to the community and core strategy of facilitating relationships between jobseekers and employers:
Jose Pritz came to MEDA through a personal connection with MNAP staff. Jose serendipitously met Leo Sosa, MEDA’s Technology Training Coordinator, and during their discussion Jose advised Leo that he was looking for work. Leo shared with him that MEDA was offering employment services to Bay Area residents and encouraged Jose to attend a Tuesday morning orientation session. Jose attended the orientation and, based on the assessment, he was job ready. Jose was then connected to Orrian Willis, MEDA’s Job Developer, who met with Jose to identify his skills and experience, thereby learning of Jose’s construction background. Orrian then made a call to Better Earth Construction, where MEDA has contacts, because they are the firm that maintains Plaza Adelante, where MEDA is headquartered. Because of ongoing outreach, MEDA knew that Better Earth Construction was looking for part-time help. Better Earth met with Jose for an interview and he began his part-time job on October 11.
This is just one of many successful stories that the Mission Neighborhood Access Point one-stop center will share in upcoming newsletters! |
 MEDA Launches Nuestra Casa Mobile Lab
In April 2013, MEDA implemented its Nuestra Casa project, a collaboration between MEDA, ACCE and two community-based organizations in Southern California, East Los Angeles Community Corporation (ELACC) and Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire (NHSIE). This collaboration is funded by the California Attorney General’s office. The cornerstone of Nuestra Casa is the Housing+ Model of integrated service delivery of homeownership programs with financial capability services (education, coaching and products).
The services of the Housing+ Model are offered at partners’ offices and by a mobile lab. Building off the popular “taco truck” model in Latino communities, MEDA purchased an RV from Idaho and outfitted it with meeting and consultation rooms, laptop computers, internet access and an outside wrap. In January, MEDA delivered the mobile to ELACC. Partners will alternate hosting the mobile lab over the next 18 months. Services offered at the mobile lab will include pre-purchase homeownership counseling, pre-purchase homeownership workshops, foreclosure intervention counseling, foreclosure intervention workshops, financial coaching, financial education workshops and tax preparation assistance. The mobile lab allows MEDA’s partners to reach remote, hardest hit communities that lack access to housing counseling organizations in Southern California. |
