Two Maryland Center Staff Exemplify Profiles in Determination and Success.

01/15/2002

BALTIMORE, MD - Two young staff members of Baltimore Neighborhood Networks centers are on a career path that illustrates the life-changing potential of inner-city computer training programs, as well as the gritty personal determination to succeed that can drive center participants. Stephanie Allen and Mary Sanders met when they both helped to found the "Communities-On-Line" Neighborhood Networks Center at Orchard Mews, a HUD-assisted and insured housing development in Baltimore. They began as many other Neighborhood Networks participants do, with no computer knowledge or skills, but with a strong sense that access to those skills and knowledge was an important key to improving their lives. They saw in the new computer center a tool for improving their own lives as well as their community - and they were right. Today, Allen is Coordinator of the Greenwillow Neighborhood Networks Center at the Greenwillow Apartments, and Sanders is a Facilitator at Pedestal Gardens Neighborhood Networks Center, both in Baltimore. Both Orchard Mews residents are looking for new ways to expand inner-city access to computer services and careers, to give back to their community and to the computer training-and-access program that helped them. Five years ago when Stephanie Allen first walked into the Communities-On-Line computer lab sponsored by the Baltimore Urban League (BUL) she knew nothing about computers. Today, she teaches Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications at the Greenwillow center. After learning about computers at the BUL center, Allen began teaching basic computer skills and troubleshooting tips. She enjoys teaching others the skills to advance their goals and careers. Her students include area residents, new immigrants and children from a local summer day camp. Allen hopes to expand her teaching beyond computer basics to address topics such as what to look for when shopping for a computer. She would also like to provide in-depth instruction on publishing and graphics software. Allen's long-term goals involve providing access to technology to other low- and moderate-income residents. "I'd like to set up my own computer lab someday," she says. Some of her students are already following in Allen's footsteps: Sue Thompson, a student at the Greenwillow Neighborhood Networks Center, who had no computer experience before she took Allen's class, now has a career in the Technology Department at the BUL. Sanders recalls helping to start the center at Orchard Mews. She and other residents went to meetings, and developed business plans and by-laws. The residents set-up and ran the BUL-sponsored center, she says. They first attended pilot computer classes themselves and then turned around to teach the classes to other participants. The program operated successfully for several years, but closed down. By that time, however, Sanders' and Allen's computer and teaching skills had attracted the notice of Interstate Realty Management (the owner of Pedestal Gardens) and Edgewood Management Corporation (which runs Greenwillow Apartments), and both were hired to direct Neighborhood Networks centers at those properties. At the Pedestal Gardens center, Sanders leads five classes a week in computer basics, resume-building and job-hunting. Participants - 25 or more on a typical day - ranging in age from young adults to seniors use their newfound skills and the center's computers for correspondence, email, and resume writing. Some users are referred to the center through the Baltimore Work Matters program of the city's Social Services Department to improve their computer skills and employability. The center, open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., also houses some evening non-computer courses, including a GED-completion class. Future goals include adding more computers to the current 10, and some evening computer classes, Sanders says: "There just isn't enough time in the day." Like (or perhaps with) Allen, Sanders dreams of one day setting up her own computer teaching center. In the meantime, though, she says, "While I'm here I want to see this center grow to its fullest potential. The inner city is where this technology is needed most, but the schools don't have computers. I want to see that the teachers are taught, that they can teach children, and that they then have a place to go." She is currently completing New Horizons "A+ certification" for teaching computer repairs, and planning to pursue "Network Plus" certification for computer network configuration. This will allow her to offer those skills to center users. "What people fail to realize," Sanders says, "is that our children are very bright. They can learn desktop publishing; they can fix computers. I'm not just talking about 'You can write a letter on a computer.' They can have a career." For more information on Neighborhood Networks Centers in Maryland, contact: Mr. Charles S. Wilson U.S. Department of HUD - Baltimore Office 10 South Howard Street, 5th Floor Baltimore, MD 21201 Phone: (410) 962-2520, ext. 3114 E-mail: charles_s._wilson@hud.gov For more information on Greenwillow Neighborhood Networks Center, contact: Ms. Stephanie Allen Greenwillow Resource Center 915 Pennsylvania Avenue Phone: (410) 669-2241 E-Mail: Green.willowapts@Verizon.Net For more information on Pedestal Gardens Neighborhood Networks Center, please contact: Mary Sanders Pedestal Gardens Neighborhood Networks Center 325 McMechen Street Baltimore, MD 21217 (410) 523-4077 E-Mail: pgardens@connext.net

Phone:	1-888-312-2743
Center(s) Highlighted or Profiled:	Pedestal Gardens, Greenwillow Neighborhood Networks Center
Scope:	National

Back to top   U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410 Telephone: (202) 708-1112   TTY: (202) 708-1455 Privacy Statement