Cristina Tunis clutched a new laptop with three months of free internet access outside of Outreach in Scranton.
"Honestly,” she said, and paused. “I’m very happy”
Tunis was one of 35 participants from Outreach – Center for Community Resources’ program to go home with a surprise laptop from Comcast.
The 55-year-old from Scranton had no idea she’d walk away with the new technology on Wednesday.
The nonprofit celebrated Digital Opportunity Day and the partnership between the organization and Comcast. Outreach, based in Scranton, offers resources for life skills, literacy, employment training, parenting, early childhood education, youth mentoring, behavioral health, wrap-around case management and more.
“We really believe in treating individuals with respect and with the highest quality services. And so to be able to give this to them is really something we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. And so it really is a tangible way for us to meet a need for these families,” Outreach CEO Lori Chaffers said.
Tunis is in recovery and she plans to go back to school. The laptop, she said, will help her a great deal.
“So having this will be extraordinarily wonderful,” she said.
Patrice Feanny, of Peckville, just signed up to go back to school. She also was not expecting to get a laptop.
Feanny moved to the area around the time she had her son. She said she had no support. At the hospital they gave her a pamphlet about Outreach and she decided to call.
“They've been instrumental in my life ever since they came. They go above and beyond, and they are consistent and compassionate, caring, intentional people. It's more than a program for them,” she said.
Feanny is now a member of the Parents as Teachers Program and co-chair of the Parents Advisory Committee.
Outreach offers a variety of support services and programs, including for digital literacy.
More technology, more opportunities
But what is digital literacy?
"Really how to use a computer, how to write a resume in a Word document or a Google Doc, how to upload attachments and applications, how to do online banking in this world now,” Chaffers said. “So much of what we do and the way we interact with work and with finances has to do with your ability to use a phone or a tablet or a computer … digital literacy is critically important in allowing us to remove barriers to participating in the community.”
Comcast shares that mission.
“Who can deny the importance of digital opportunity for all people, whether they are in cities or rural areas, wherever they are, people should have the opportunities that come as a result of being able to be online,” said Broderick Johnson, the media and technology company's executive vice president of public policy and digital opportunity.
He said over the last three years the Philadelphia-based company has contributed nearly $150 million in cash and an in-kind donations to nonprofits in Pennsylvania.
Outreach also received $35,000 from Comcast to provide more than 150 participants with one-on-one digital literacy training and to learn essential skills, like setting up an email account, applying for jobs online and accessing telehealth appointments, Johnson said.
Technology for everyone
Many of the participants who received laptops were young people, like Gustavo Xavier, who just turned 21.
Chaffers said they find that younger generations may know how to use a smartphone but they don’t necessarily know how to sit down and type in a Word document, upload documents or even connect to the internet.
“The technology is intuitive to them in some ways, but only in the platform they're used to. And so you know, teaching them how to be able to utilize all of the technology that's available to them is going to be really important for them to enter the workforce.”
She says technology isn’t going anywhere.
“It's only going to become more a part of our lives, and in some ways make things easier. But you know, if you don't know how to use it, you become excluded, right? And so in order to ensure that we have an inclusive society, we have to make sure that everyone knows how to use the technology available to them,” Chaffers said.
