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

Social Capital

Community-based organizations that build social capital are more effective at developing community competence. The disruptive effects of poverty, crime, and structural racism manifested in substandard physical resources rob urban centers of the inter-personal and inter-organizational networks that sustain community members. By bringing together people with similar needs and diverse assets, CBOs create interactions and relationships that for the bedrocks of successful community growth and development.
CBOs help individual participants by teaching them specific skills, but the most effective way they can help the entire community is by teaching the value of interconnectedness.

An ideal CTC would be familiar with the other organizations in its area and be able to refer participants in need of different services to other CBOs.

Assets we observed:

Austin Eastside Story has a social worker available to help participants find resources in the area. Most participants are aware of other CBOS in their neighborhoods.
ALA also has a social worker available to help participants connect with resources.

Barriers CTCs face:

Many CTC staff members indicated their wish to know more about other public access programs in Austin, so that they could send participants with specific needs to other programs. CTC operations, though, may consume so much time that it is difficult to network with other organizations.

An ideal CTC would form multiple partnerships with other CBOs.

Assets we observed:

Staff members at different Wired for Youth sites share ideas, resources, and technological expertise.
River City Youth collaborates with over 30 other community organizations in Austin, often sharing professional development opportunities.

Barriers CTCs face:

Many of the centers we evaluated felt that collaborations with other organizations were time consuming and used more resources than simply undertaking the project single-handedly.

An ideal CTC would create bonding between participants by encouraging participants to work collaboratively with each other.

Assets we observed:

Participants at Bedichek frequently help each other by clarifying skills being taught in class.
Participants at ALA return as volunteers, forming bonds with the next generation of participants.
American YouthWorks members can work in teams to teach classes at CTCs, and community projects are performed in groups.
Kids at Foundation Communities after-school programs are encouraged to work and play together on computers.

Barriers CTCs face:

CTCs who try to keep labs orderly by allowing only one person per computer discourage relationship building and helping behavior. Structured curricula that focus on individual projects may also reduce the chance to work collaboratively.

An ideal CTC would encourage participants to be aware of the world outside their community, and to solve problems using resources available outside their normal sphere of activity.

Assets we observed:

Participants at Bedichek, Wired for Youth, and Any Baby Can report an increased ability to find information online and to keep in touch with people far away.
ALA participants interact with published authors online, asking them questions as the students develop their own creative work.
Wired for Youth librarians are developing and implementing programs that take students into other neighborhoods to meet other WFY participants.

Barriers CTCs face:

CTCs that do not provide free time to explore online and restrict activities to class assignments will not broaden participants' community awareness.

An ideal CTC would encourage its participants to form stronger ties to their community.

Assets we observed:

Participants at the Carver and Terrazas libraries are more involved in community events after spending time at the Wired for Youth program.
Participants at Eastside Story also reported being more involved with the community, and expressed the desire for "clubs" where they could explore particular interests with other like-minded people.
American YouthWorks charter school uses service learning projects where students work within their communities to solve problems.

Barriers CTCs face:

Centers that serve participants from wide geographic areas may find it hard to encourage community ties. The concept of "community" is less clear at this center, since participants come from different ones. Community ties are often easier to talk about when everyone has the same community in mind.

Future Research

Presumably, by increasing a population's social capital, that community experiences expanded opportunities. Other factors besides the work of CBOs affects the trajectory of the community, so attempts to identify these and measure those factors should also be made. The most important measure of the opportunity and prospects for an entity (CBO, individual, family, or community) would be its short-term and long-term horizon. Our surveys asked this of the centers, but not of the individuals or communities. This was a good opportunity that we missed in the case of individuals, but probably would require a much larger endeavor to measure at the community level.

Many CTCs that we studied indicated that they have neither the time nor the resources to invest in generating cross-community relationships. The CTCs in our study have been much more effective at generating "bonding capital" among individual participants than they were at "bridging" neighborhoods to one another. Our project hypothesized that CBOs need to create alliances among people with similar needs in order to contribute to disadvantaged communities collective empowerment. While our project has shown that the prospects for CBOs to generate community competence are very positive, questions concerning the difficulties faced by CBOs in creating cohesive, connected communities should be pursued.

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

Social Capital

An ideal CTC would be familiar with the other organizations in its area and be able to refer participants in need of different services to other CBOs.

An ideal CTC would form multiple partnerships with other CBOs.

An ideal CTC would create bonding between participants by encouraging participants to work collaboratively with each other.

An ideal CTC would encourage participants to be aware of the world outside their community, and to solve problems using resources available outside their normal sphere of activity.

An ideal CTC would encourage its participants to form stronger ties to their community.

Future Research

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