Last weekend young adults from Red Hook Initiative (RHI) were featured on NY1 for their efforts to create a community-wide wireless network.
Click here to see their story. These 5 trailblazers are our Digital Stewards and are among 40 youth currently employed with RHI through the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity Work Progress Program.
RHI's Digital Stewards, participants of our Young Adult (YA) Program, are working to create a community-wide WiFi network to enhance accessibility to information for residents of Red Hook's public housing and the neighborhood at large. The need for such communication tools was highlighted in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, after witnessing the importance of social media and other communication outlets to organize aid.
"This [WiFi project] will be great because it allows for people to look for online resources such as housing, legal aid, education and... [M]e helping the community is a good feeling" said Tiwan Burrus, a Digital Steward.
The Digital Stewards are part of RHI's young adult program, which provides comprehensive support for 19 - 24 year olds to meet education and employment goals with a long-term goal of becoming self-sufficient. This program was designed in response to the reality in Red Hook, where the high school graduation rate is less than 50% and the employment rate is only 25% for young adults.
Through their work placements, young adults are not only gaining a job, they're also taking an active role in re-building and strengthening their own community. Other youth enrolled in the program are learning how to organize and mobilize residents as Social Justice Fellows, are fine-tuning their culinary skills by working with local restaurants, and are preparing for future careers in retail at IKEA Brooklyn.
RHI plans to enroll 120 young adults in the program this year. For more information about other RHI programs, please visit us at www.rhicenter.org.