Congrats, Digital Connectors!!

On Saturday, July 17, Mi Casa Resource Center and the Comcast Foundation celebrated the graduation of Mi Casa’s inaugural class of Digital Connectors, a group of 12 youth from diverse, low-income backgrounds, who recently completed the 10-month digital literacy program. Mi Casa’s Digital Connectors showcased what they learned about digital media, broadband technology, and putting their knowledge to work for the betterment of their community.

The Comcast Digital Connectors program is an innovative partnership between the Comcast Foundation and One Economy Corporation which has launched in several Comcast markets across the country to involve youth in bridging the digital divide, or the gap – often along socioeconomic and generational lines – between those with access to digital technology and those without.

“The Digital Connectors program is an important initiative for Comcast as we continue to seek out opportunities to educate young people about civic engagement and instill in them the leadership and technology skills that are so essential to their futures,” said Scott Binder, regional senior vice president of Comcast. “We are proud to honor these students for their initiative and commitment.”

The 12 Mi Casa Digital Connectors recognized on July 17 – six received certificates of completion and six received certificates of participation – are local youth ranging in age from 14 to 21. They come from different schools including North High, and P.S.1 Charter School. In exchange for their hard work and time commitment, which averaged six hours per week for 10 months, the Digital Connectors received a desktop computer and a USB drive. In recognition of their graduation, the Comcast Foundation and One Economy Corporation will reward each Digital Connector with a flip camera AND a netbook computer!

“We have encouraged our Digital Connectors to think about the program as a job, complete with important responsibilities, high expectations and tangible rewards,” said Andrea Herrera Moreno, Mi Casa’s Digital Connectors Program Coordinator.

Perla Jimenez, 19, participated in the program with her two younger brothers and will be recognized on July 17. “I’m a Digital Connector because I see myself as a leader to my younger siblings. I know that if I do something good they’ll want to follow in my footsteps,” Perla says.

Perla was named Mi Casa Digital Connector of the month in February 2010 and received the same honor nationally in March. Perla has been an enthusiastic participant in the Digital Connectors classes and service projects even as she gets ready to attend Community College of Denver in the fall. Perla is proud and excited to be the first person in her family to graduate high school - and in four years, she plans to be the first to graduate from college.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Visits Mi Casa

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was in Denver yesterday, where she visited Mi Casa and the Denver Green Jobs Initiative - a DOL-funded project in the 80205 zip code to provide job training, supportive services, and job placement assistance to unemployed and disadvantaged residents.

Secretary Solis blogged about her experience in Denver and at Mi Casa in the White House Blog - check it out!

Secretary Solis praised Mi Casa and its partners on the Denver Green Jobs Initiative for providing low-income workers with the skills needed to start a promising new career - not just a job. Sec. Solis said that she and the Obama Administration are fixated on creating opportunities in the renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) industries - even if jobs in these sectors are not yet abundant.

"It's our future," Sec. Solis said. "We have lost more than one million jobs overseas, but I think green-collar jobs can bring those jobs and more back home to the United States ... The President and I feel strongly that in order to realize our vision to create sustainable energy sources and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we need to invest in our most valuable resource - our people."

That's why the Department of Labor is investing in job-training programs across the country - part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For more information about green jobs training through Mi Casa, visit our website www.MiCasaResourceCenter.org.

MSCD Center for Urban Education Teaches Programming to Mi Casa Youth

Mi Casa volunteer and Metropolitan State College Professor Dr. Don Gilmore is a math whiz.

In fact, he’s so good he teaches math to math teachers. So you might be surprised to meet his sidekicks in the classroom – Rajon and Deon – students at Lake Middle School who attend Mi Casa Neighborhood Center every day after school.

Rajon and Deon didn’t have any experience with computer programming until Dr. Gilmore and his student assistants from the Metro State College Center for Urban Education came to the Mi Casa Neighborhood Center to start a computer gaming program. The volunteers from MSCD taught the Mi Casa kids about Alice, a computer programming teaching tool that makes it easy for students to create 3D animated stories. Rajon and Deon dove into the project and soon were creating not just digital stories, but interactive video games.

Last year, Deon and Rajon had a chance to share what they learned about Alice with a group of math teachers, who were eager to hear their impressions of the program. The teachers asked them questions about the program and the best way of teaching it to students. The kids got a real kick out of tutoring the teachers for once!

Rajon and Deon continue to be Dr. Gilmore’s valued teaching assistants. Just last month they stopped by the Office of Urban Teacher Partnerships at the Center for Urban Education for pizza and pop before heading over to join Dr. Gilmore and his Mathematics of Secondary Curriculum course. Deon and Rajon were there to help Dr. Gilmore teach the students about using Alice in the classroom.

Students from the United States have fallen well behind students from other countries in knowledge of math and science – an issue of great concern to Dr. Gilmore. “Math is part of every science. It’s incredibly important yet the traditional approach to teaching math hasn’t been successful in engaging a broader audience,” he says. “I prefer an approach where students’ learning is focused around their own thinking and ideas. There may be just one right answer to a problem, but often there are different ways to get there, and I’ve found this approach keeps students more engaged.”

Dr. Gilmore is especially concerned that many kids in the public school system – particularly low-income children at inner-city schools like Deon and Rajon – are not being given sufficient opportunities to learn about math, science and technology. That’s why the Center for Urban Education Metro State brings professors and university students into urban schools in high-needs areas like Lake in order to provide low-income children with enriching afterschool programs focused on academic success, as well as math and science learning.

At the Mi Casa Neighborhood Center, Don supplied nine laptop computers equipped with Alice and has dedicated many hours of his own time and that of his team to supporting the children in their introduction to the world of computer science. He hopes it will be the beginning of a lifelong interest in technology that will propel the students to college and into successful careers. In the meantime, Dr. Gilmore will do his part to make sure that all children, no matter their background or socioeconomic status, have opportunities to learn about the technology that underpins our modern world, as well as the math concepts that underpin our technology.