Targeting at-risk youths

KidsTek after-school labs provide computer training

Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, June 6, 2005

A Colorado nonprofit wants to give more disadvantaged kids a crack at learning the ins and outs of living in the digital age.

The Colorado Technology Community Foundation is launching a technology-education program catering to "at-risk" young people along the Front Range. It's based on a successful program already in use here.

The new venture, KidsTek, will work with after-school programs in targeted neighborhoods that serve young people in kindergarten through 12th grades.

In 2001, CTCF invested in a similar program with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver that has since become a self-sustaining venture.

The program, operating at six area Boys & Girls Clubs, uses instructors and technology labs where kids get hands-on computer experience using desktop and laptop computers.

Some 1,400 young people use the labs each month - with 6-year-olds, for example, becoming skilled at making PowerPoint presentations.

KidsTek will use the Boys & Girls Clubs approach as a model and expand the concept to other after-school programs.

"We are looking to take it to the next level," said Eileen Joseph, CTCF's executive director.

In each case, KidsTek will customize the curriculum to fit the needs of the particular after-school program.

Girls Inc. Metro Denver, which assists girls and young women, is the first to participate in KidsTek.

A KidsTek pilot program is set to launch this month at the Denver affiliate of Girls Inc., which seeks out young females in "high-risk, underserved areas."

"They called us," said Carol Bowar, vice president of program services at Girls Inc. of Metro Denver, referring to CTCF. "They were looking to expand their services with other nonprofits that work with youth."

The KidsTek's program coordinator, Norbert Szolnoky, will work with the Girls Inc. here to get the program off the ground.

Girls Inc. of Metro Denver already offers "computer-literacy" training to young women throughout the year. That program ranges from learning about the basics of a computer keyboard to training in Web design.

"You need to be computer literate to be competitive in this world," Bowar said.

Initially, KidsTek will fund a "technology assessment" for Girls Inc. That study will look at what the nonprofit might need in the way of hardware and software for a computer lab. KidsTek will provide a customized computer-training curriculum.

"The core of the KidsTek program is a customized curriculum to bring about positive academic, social and behavioral outcomes," said Szolnoky, the KidsTek program coordinator.

Szolnoky will work with Girls Inc. of Metro Denver's own computer-training instructor.

Aside from helping get the new program started, he will offer ongoing advice.

Local technology execs founded the Colorado Technology Community Foundation in 2000. The aim: help give underprivileged kids an opportunity to enter the high-tech work force.

The CTCF has raised more than $500,000 to deliver technology programs in metro Denver.

The nonprofit recently completed a study with the Colorado Community-Based Research Network at the University of Denver to identify the "digital divide" between the technology haves and have-nots in Colorado.

The study also looks at the ramifications of that gap.

"The technology gap is a socioeconomic phenomenon created by obstacles to access, training and utilization of computer technology," said Joseph, the CTCF executive director.

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2467