Technology Centers Empower Low-Income Hispanic Communities

April 17, 2007 News Report

http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=105003
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The AT&T Foundation and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today unveiled 32 locations that will house new community technology centers in low-income Hispanic communities through LULAC's Empower Hispanic America with Technology initiative. The centers, which are planned to be operational by the end of May, are being supported by a $1.5 million grant that builds upon the success of the AT&T Foundation's $1 million grant to LULAC in 2004.

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Hey, just what libraries are doing! Have you seen Webjunction, http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=10555

More from the article

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.......While a higher percentage of Hispanics are employed compared with any other ethnic group (64 percent employment rate versus 63 percent for the next highest, Current Population Survey, April 2006), Hispanics are far more likely than the average American to be among the working poor. In addition, according to a new study by Pew Hispanic Center, 53 percent of Hispanics who are not online say this is because they do not have access. Empower Hispanic America with Technology is aimed at combating these inequities by giving Hispanics the necessary skills, and access, to compete in today's technology-driven workplaces.
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Economic development, workforce development, and more can be developed by providing computer and internet access. I remember when our bookmobile went to an underprivledged area; some elementary aged children used our laptops from our van. It was like they had never seen a laptop before. In this day and age, the introduction of the computer at a young age is almost as important as introducing reading.

AND

LATINOS ONLINE PEW Internet Study

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Latinos_Online_March_14_2007.pdf
Hispanics with lower levels of education and English proficiency remain largely disconnectd from the internet
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Just one in three Latinos who speak only Spanish go online
78% of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76% of bilingual Latinos use the internet compared with 32% of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults.
76% of US-born Latinos go online, compared with 43% of those born outside the US. Some of this is related to language, but analysis shows that being born outside of the 50 states is an independent factor that is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.
80% of second-generation Latinos, the sons and daughters of immigrants, go online, as do 71% of third-general latinos who did not complete high school go online.
Mexicans are the largest national origin group in the US Latino population and are amont the least likely groups to go online: 52% of Latinos of Mexican descent use the internet. Even when age, income, language, generation or nativity is held constant, being Mexican is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.
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An uphill battle indeed, and I thought literacy programming was hard.