Stone Community Computing Center

CONTACT:

490 Broadway
Somerville, MA 02145
617-629-2933
www.sc3.org

Marlene Archer

DESCRIPTION:

Somerville is a working-class city that has been an immigrant gateway for Irish, Italian, Haitian, Portuguese, Brazilian and Latino newcomers to the Boston area. SCCC was founded in 1987 to make computers available to those in Somerville and surrounding communities who are least likely to gain access to computer technology.

SCCC was the first institution of its kind in the region, and one of the first in the country. It has opened doors of opportunity to over 12,000 users. Today it offers 3 iMacs and 9 PCs to seniors, Headstart children, school students, and adults in ESL, GED, Adult Diploma, job training and basic literacy classes. It has many, many individual success stories. It also accepts donated computers and peripherals and refurbishes them for distribution to nonprofit organizations and low-income people.

SCCC is a national leader in its field. In 1993 it proposed to Americorps VISTA the idea of Community Technology Specialists, which VISTA has supported with two grants as a model disseminated nationally, and featured at the 1995 VISTA 30th Anniversary celebration in Washington. SCCC acts as a first regional flagship center for the Community Technology Centers Network of 250 such centers nationwide.

As technology progresses, the Center's programs must keep pace. Your donations will help develop its "Sites Alive!" program, a sort of "driver's ed" course for the Information Superhighway, teaching proper use of the Internet and training students how to develop Web pages, then helping them use that skill to earn their own income or to serve as SCCC volunteers for the community.

(1997: CULTURE: Education: Formal: School-Related)