An Ideal CTC: Strategies for Community Development from Austin Community Technology Centers

Self-Reliance

A community-based organization with diversified funding, ownership of capital, and efficient use of resources is self-reliant. They can sustain their technology program over time and in a particular location, allowing them to develop lasting relationships with the community. Efficiency means more resources to deliver programs. Self-reliance enables a CTC to develop the capacity of participants, staff, and the community.

An ideal CTC would have permanence and control of location.

Assets we observed:

Foundation Communities, Sweet Home, and River City Youth Foundation all own their own land and buildings. This helps them stabilize costs, enables them to make desired changes to the property, and allows them to stay in one place or community with which they have developed a relationship.
Bedichek Community School has operated out of an AISD public school for 22 years. Though it does not control the building, it is an institutionalized part of the location.
Wired for Youth programs at Carver and Terrazas libraries are integrated into government buildings and identified with those locations.

Barriers CTCs face:

Organizations that must rent space may be forced to relocate. Most organizations we worked with had fairly permanent locations, so this was not a significant barrier for them.

An ideal CTC would maintain a diverse mix of funding sources by avoiding dependence on any single source.

Assets we observed:

American YouthWorks has been able to foresee shifts in funding and form new or adjust existing programs to meet new funding requirements. They became a charter school to get state funding for education programs they were already offering.
Foundation Communities maintains funding independence because it receives rent payments from residents. This funding source is stable and allows FC to focus on mission when it seeks other funding.

Barriers CTCs face:

Many CTCs depend on single funding source for the majority of funding for their technology program. CTCs may not have grantwriting expertise in house to pursue funding diversification.

An ideal CTC would attract and retain qualified staff by providing opportunities for professional development and continuing challenges that make the work interesting.

Assets we observed:

ALA offers regular continuing education and professional development opportunities for teachers. They support the career advancement of their staff, even if it takes them beyond ALA. This environment attracts high-quality staff members.
American YouthWorks continually pushes the envelope to incorporate technology into their programs. This gives technical staff a challenge and keeps them interested in staying at YouthWorks.

Barriers CTCs face:

Costs prevent some CTCs from providing the professional development opportunities that staff desire. Emphasis is placed more on the development of the participants than the staff, not realizing that staff attrition and turnover will damage opportunities for participants as well.

The ideal CTC would encourage and develop volunteers as a resource for all areas of operation.

Assets we observed:

Austin Eastside Story requires parents to participate as volunteers and utilizes many of their previous participants as instructors. This lowers costs and helps them sustain relationships with their participants beyond the end of class.
River City Youth Foundation has also recently begun a membership program where parents of participants give three hours of volunteer time a month to the organization.

Barriers CTCs face:

The resources volunteers provide are often unpredictable because they come and go. Recruiting volunteers takes time, training, and follow-up. It can also be difficult to get volunteers to commit to a long-term project.

The ideal CTC would have technology expertise available within the organization for troubleshooting, repairing, and upgrading computer systems.

Assets we observed:

ALA has a staff person on hand who can upgrade hardware and software, fix computer-related problems, and add new technologies.
American YouthWorks has technical staff at the headquarters, and both staff and participants at C-Corps are capable of repairing and upgrading hardware and software.
Reverend Carrington of Sweet Home is a self-taught computer expert who can rebuild and repair machines to maximize the number available in the lab.

Barriers CTCs face:

Many CTCs have uncertain schedules or funding for upgrading hardware and software. Also, many depend on external sources to troubleshoot and repair technology, and that can be expensive and unreliable. Repairs and upgrades that depend on volunteers can be delayed.

Future Research

Questions about funding sources are fairly simple, but organizational use of volunteers and efforts around staff retention are less so. Future research could expand on what we explored by comparing different programs recruitment, management, and retention of volunteers and the impact on each program. Some programs who do not currently use many volunteers may not need them, or they may be missing a valuable resource. Our surveys also focused strongly on professional development opportunities, but not on other aspects of staff retention.

An Ideal CTC: Strategies for Community Development from Austin Community Technology Centers

Self-Reliance

An ideal CTC would have permanence and control of location.

An ideal CTC would maintain a diverse mix of funding sources by avoiding dependence on any single source.

An ideal CTC would attract and retain qualified staff by providing opportunities for professional development and continuing challenges that make the work interesting.

The ideal CTC would encourage and develop volunteers as a resource for all areas of operation.

The ideal CTC would have technology expertise available within the organization for troubleshooting, repairing, and upgrading computer systems.

Future Research

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