California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The California Emerging Technology Fund, CETF and the City of Vernon presented
grant awards of $476,000 and $301,000 respectively to the Southeast Cities Technology
Collaborative for a three-year initiative to close the growing Digital Divide among residents
in the southeast cities of Los Angeles County.

A recent study conducted by the University of California at Berkeley has shown that
residents of the southeast cities, including the communities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy,
Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, Vernon and Walnut Park / Florence-Firestone, are
largely disconnected from the Internet due to the lack of broad public access to computers,
technical assistance and computer literacy education. This reality, referred to as the Digital
Divide, is a concern for California's future global competitiveness.

In order to bridge the Digital Divide, the Southeast Cities Technology Collaborative will conduct
a three-year technology initiative in these communities to develop strong pathways for improving
educational and health outcomes by expanding community broadband access by implementing
a comprehensive computer literacy program and enhancing existing community service programs
throughout the region.

This project is the first of many initiatives beginning statewide that will help underserved
communities and populations get ahead by closing the Digital Divide through the use of
high-speed Internet access and education. CETF's overall goal is to make a substantial
and measurable impact on bridging California's Digital Divide in rural areas, urban
disadvantaged neighborhoods, and among people with disabilities. Achieving this goal
will require both the availability of broadband technology as well as the ability to access
and use it.

The Southeast Cities Technology Collaborative will serve at least 1,700 residents, plus
500 students with the adult education training programs, and 1,000 children/youth over
a three-year period. The Collaborative will develop eight Regional Technology Centers in
eight communities by strategically locating 80 computer workstations in community
facilities, providing space and staff members to enhance early learning skills for children,
math and science skills for youth, career and workforce development and financial literacy
skills for adults. A total of 500 adult students that successfully complete a three-month
computer literacy class will receive a free refurbished computer and two years of free
AT&T DSL service.

A mobile computer lab with 15 laptops and a projector will be established to provide
life-skills, health awareness and job development classes at on-site locations that want
to offer classes yet cannot accommodate a learning center. The Collaborative will partner
with East Los Angeles Community College (South Gate Branch), Southwest Community
College and Huntington Park-Bell Adult School and will refer students for advanced classes.
"By supporting this project, Vernon will be a part of truly transforming and improving the
quality of life for residents in nearby cities," said Leonis Malburg, Mayor of Vernon.
"The mobile lab will mean that people living in the southeast cities will have access to the
Internet and technology like never before."

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.