Mission: Tech Goes Home empowers communities to access and use digital tools to overcome barriers and advance lives.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
- A Year in Review at Tech Goes Home
- TGH Welcomes New Staff Members
- Tech Goes Home Co-CEO Receives National Award
- Partnership Spotlight: SharkNinja, Dell Foundation, & NETSCOUT
- Featured Webinar: Chromebook Accessibility
- TGH in the Media
- Digital Inclusion Reading Round-Up
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A YEAR IN REVIEW AT TECH GOES HOME |
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A Tech Goes Home learner joins a Zoom session on his TGH Chromebook |
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As we reflect on this past year, we are deeply grateful for the entire Tech Goes Home community - the learners, instructors, partner sites, volunteers, and supporters - who make our digital inclusion work possible, even through the unprecedented challenges of 2020.
If you haven't seen our latest Impact Report, take a look and read about how, in the face of these unexpected obstacles, Tech Goes Home has continued making strides towards digital equity.
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3,000+ graduates use their technology and skills to communicate with others via email or videochat
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2,400+ have been able to access telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic
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1,150+ students are better able to do schoolwork online
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560+ graduates who were unemployed at the beginning of the TGH course found jobs or became full-time students after taking the course
We couldn't have done it without the dedication and strength of the entire Tech Goes Home community. Thank you for your commitment to digital equity.
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TECH GOES HOME WELCOMES NEW STAFF MEMBERS |
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MarS McCormick, Program Coordinator (left) and Gina Josette Rivera, Assistant Partnerships Manager (right) |
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We are excited to announce that two new staff members are joining the Tech Goes Home team!
In December we welcomed our newest staff member, MarS McCormick, who is a Program Coordinator at TGH. MarS (all pronouns) comes from a Haitian family, with Irish ancestry, in Hyde Park. They've spent half their life working with marginalized youths that are new immigrants, living in group homes, on the spectrum, those with visual impairments and other disabilities. In their free time, MarS serves as a co-circlekeeper for Come thru, Sis - a Healing/Spiritual Circle for Black Afro-Indigenous Womxn and Gender-Queer Folx. They're a Registered Behavioral Technician and are currently finishing up their BA in Management, Operations & Logistics, at Southern New Hampshire University. Quick fact: To keep up with their 16-year-old sibling, MarS taught themself how to drive at 12 years old.
We also have the pleasure of welcoming Gina Josette Rivera (she/they), who will join the organization in January as TGH's first Assistant Manager of Partnerships. Gina is a proud Boricua who is dedicated to racial & gender justice and closing the digital divide. Prior to joining TGH, Gina managed the Young Mothers program at Roca, Inc. in Chelsea, MA where they partnered with TGH to implement the Early Childhood program. They believe that everyone should have equitable access to internet-enabled devices. Gina is also a big mountain adventurer who recognizes that digital health is paramount to their mental health. In their free time, you can find them hiking or backcountry skiing with a backpack full of hand warmers and salty snacks. Quick fact: Gina is planning to hike ALL 67 mountains in New England over 4,000 feet!
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TECH GOES HOME CO-CEO RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD |
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Last month, TGH Co-CEO Dan Noyes was recognized as a 2020 Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Award honoree. The Charles Benton Digital Equity awards celebrate and highlight the tireless efforts of leaders across the country and advocates who are working to close the digital divide.
TGH is grateful to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society for this honor and congratulates fellow awardee and advocate Rebecca Kauma of Long Beach City, CA for her extraordinary work. For more information, click here to view our press release.
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PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT: SHARKNINJA, DELL FOUNDATION, & NETSCOUT |
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Tech Goes Home is grateful to three new lead funders who are supporting our work to expand digital inclusion in Greater Boston.
SharkNinja, a leading provider of high quality, 5-star houseware products, is supporting TGH's family-based digital inclusion programs, which use an intergenerational approach to engage students and their caregivers together in gaining new digital skills and technology.
The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of children living in urban poverty around the world, is partnering with TGH to support our workforce-development-focused digital inclusion programming in Greater Boston.
NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC., a leading provider of service assurance, security, and business analytics, is partnering with TGH to empower Roxbury households with digital devices, internet access, and training. NETSCOUT volunteers have also created new digital skills tutorials and translated our existing tutorials into multiple languages.
Thank you to our dedicated learners, instructors, volunteers, and donors who are coming together to make this work possible!
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FEATURED WEBINAR: CHROMEBOOK ACCESSIBILITY |
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On Tuesday, January 5, join us for a webinar on Chromebook accessibility!
About the webinar:
The Chromebook has built-in accessibility features that enable individuals with different types of disabilities to make full use of their computer. In this webinar, you will learn how to locate and explore some of these features. The following items will be demonstrated and discussed:
- High contrast mode, magnifier, keyboard and mouse settings, and adjusting the Chrome browser zoom level
- Enabling and disabling “sticky keys”
- Enabling and using “select-to-speak”
- An overview of the ChromeVox screen reader
About the facilitator: Heather Thomas is an Accessibility Services Associate at the Carroll Center for the Blind. Prior to joining the Accessibility Services team in 2019, she was an Assistive Technology Instructor at The Carroll Center for over 17 years. She is proficient in the use of screen reading and screen magnification software for Windows, Mac, and Chromebook computers, as well as iOS devices. In her current role, she supports various digital accessibility projects. She has a special interest in document accessibility and training individuals to use screen reading software.
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Jenny Johnson (left) interviews TGH Program Manager Nessie Ruiz (right) on Comcast Newsmakers |
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DIGITAL INCLUSION READING ROUND-UP |
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TGH’s work is only possible with contributions from donors, like you, and municipal, corporate, and foundation grants. Thank you for supporting TGH.
An extra thank you to the following lead donors for their extraordinary support!
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