Most of us take for granted having a laptop or desktop computer to use. These devices are a necessity: It’s no easy task for a student to write an in-depth report on their smartphone, or for a jobseeker to swipe up and fill out a multi-page employment application. And forget about multitasking.
Even those cleverly named “phablets” are not always up to the task, even with their unusually large six-and-a-half-inch displays.
The good news is that two months of in-kind donations from the University of San Francisco (USF) has recently translated to 48 computers now being put to good use, easing the digital divide family by family in the Mission District.
Explains Workforce Technology Coordinator Miguel Velasco, “USF’s donations have quickly generated impact. At MEDA, these devices were offered to low-income families, plus participants of our Mission Techies and Mission Admins free job-training programs. This is a game-changer.”
These computers have also been helping clients of other community-based organizations:
- Department of Homelessness and supportive housing
- Dolores Street Community Center
- El/La Para TransLatinas
- Five Keys Schools and Programs
- Home Green Home
- Mission Cultural Center (photo, Delfilia Montoya, recipient)
- Recovery Survival Network
Plus clients of schools and partner agencies of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, an education initiative for which MEDA is the lead agency:
- Bryant Elementary School
- Cesar Chavez Elementary School
- George Moscone Elementary School
- Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School
- James Lick Middle School
- Felton Institute
- Jamestown Community Center
“Le queremos agradecer las donaciones de las dos computadoras. Las familias están muy contentas de haber recibido las computadoras,” sums up Family Liaison Reyna Vite of George Moscone Elementary School, explaining that the USF donations have made some families very happy.
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Do you have working computers to donate?
Please contact Workforce Technology Coordinator Miguel Velasco at (415) 282-3334 ext. 162; mvelasco@medasf.org.
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