Pacific Southwest Tech Corps Networka senior re-employment training and community service placement project

serving California, Arizona and New MexicoAdministered by Visible Light, Inc.

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL(also available online at http://www.rain.org/~camp/scsep/technical.doc)

Agency Background

Visible Light, Inc. is a non-profit education agency that provides employment training to adults and youth

tech corps training to elementary through high school students. Based in Santa Barbara, California,

Visible Light has a training center in the downtown area, hosts trainings at partner agency sites in three

states, and operates a mobile training bus that fosters under-served community technology projects. U.S.

program service area includes California, Arizona and New Mexico. Funded since 1997 to provide

administration and deployment of federal projects, Visible Light has worked under employment training

and technology development grants or contracts for: USDA Distance learning and Telemedicine (five

grants, three years each in three states), US Dept of Education Technology Literacy Challenge Grant (four

years in four counties), DoD Logistics Agency (contract for two years in two states), USDA Children,

Youth and Families at Risk (two grants, one community), National Science Foundation (one grant, three

countries), US Dept of Commerce and Dept of Interior USGS (contract and grant for regional jurisdiction

studies). Visible Light is also an affiliate of the Elderhostel Institute Network.

Visible Light’s programs have historically served low income, limited English speaking adults,

geographically isolated and inner city seniors, adults and youth, and the current USDA grant has provided

support to expand services into remote rural Native American communities. From the bottom of the

Grand Canyon accessible only by horseback, to the inner city streets of Los Angeles, Visible Light assists

underserved communities in need of technology empowerment. Working with adults and seniors to

increase their employable skills, Visible Light provides technology communications training in basic

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computer skills, advanced Internet research and communications, GPS and GIS Mapping and spatial data

management, digital photography, and video web broadcasting. Working with youth program and

community partners, Visible light has established a partnership network across California, Arizona and

New Mexico that includes schools, libraries, afterschool programs and non-profit agencies. This

combination of experience in employment training, technology empowerment and multi-agency

networking combines to place Visible Light in a strong position to administer a new successful Seniors in

Community Service Program for the Department of Labor.

Visible Light’s common responsibility in all of the previously mentioned federally-funded grants and

contracts has been to develop public access to technologies and to empower individuals to leverage

computer communications to improve their earning potential in the workplace. This in turn leads to

improving the quality of life in the community’s served by assisting to develop a higher level of

employable skills in the local community. Building on this training and program expertise, Visible light

proposes to form the PACIFIC SOUTHWEST TECH CORPS NETWORK as an effective training and

placement assistance program for low-income seniors.

I. Program Design for the Tech Corps

Seniors represent a relatively untapped knowledge and experience base of tremendous value to non-profit

education and human service agencies, but they face the challenge of inadequate preparation to serve in

the new information technology-rich environments now prevalent in schools and libraries, and that are

becoming an increasingly important part of afterschool and nonprofit agencies employment and services.

California, Arizona, and New Mexico are states seeing a rising number of seniors in part due to the

demographics of the post World War II ‘Baby Boom’ generation, and also due to having large ‘sunshine

state’ retirement populations. In addition to having a large aging population, the region’s seniors also

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include remote rural Native American, Spanish-speaking ‘Colonia’ border area, and inner city Black and

Asian population. Of the 32,614,341 citizens in the three states, 1,363,575 are over sixty with an average

unemployment rate of 6.38% and many have an increasingly difficult challenge finding available senior-

appropriate employment and face multiple barriers to re-employment. Hispanic and Native American

senior unemployment rates average over 8% up to 23% including Reservation and Colonia border

communities. Using available State Labor Dept statistics, it has been determined that Arizona, with a

population of 5,199,151 has 13.9% living in poverty and a 5.8% state unemployment rate, a work force of

2,514,500 with 264,946 of 805,613 seniors employed (age 55-74), and of those seniors employed, 5,130

are Native American and 27,236 Hispanic with a combined unemployment rate of 8%. New Mexico, with

a population of 1,819,046, statewide poverty level is 18.4% and unemployment of 6.74%, with a

population of 161,460 Native Americans and 765,386 Hispanics with unemployment as high as 23.7% by

county, and a senior population over 55 of 15.2% or 277,551 that are 55-74 years of age. Infioramtion

available on California shows a population of 25,596,144 with 14.2% in poverty, unemployment of 6.6%

statewide and 7.0% for Hispanics statewide, 12.1% unemployment for Hispanics over 65 and 10.5%

unemployment for Native Americans over 65.

Many of these seniors worked full time in the farm labor and hospitality industry workforce through the

late 1990s with little opportunity to receive a college education or computer training. Others have been

chronically under-employed over their lifetime and need assistance to reach economic self-sufficiency. In

the Native American and Spanish-speaking communities there is also a large limited-English speaking

population. The lack of access to higher education, combined with limited English skills, and factoring in

cultural assimilation barriers, has made it very difficult for this segment of the aging workforce to have

gained computer or technology experience and skills when they were working adults. The proposed Tech

Corps can be a solution to this problem and will reap many personal and community benefits for

participants.

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To solve both the problem of overcoming barriers to low-income senior access to computer

communication technology training, and to fill the need for part-time cost-effective staff at partner

agencies, Visible Light proposes to form a PACIFIC SOUTHWEST TECH CORPS NETWORK of

seniors. The participants will receive employment training, be placed in local agencies for part time

employment, and will earn the satisfaction of meaningful employment and increased self-sufficiency as

respected technology mentors in their own local communities.

The Tech Corps program will be divided into three regional project areas managed by three professional

trainers and job development facilitators with their assistants. The first region will be the California

region including urban and rural participants evenly distributed across the state ranging from two

placements in small rural communities to 48 placements in larger urban communities, all working in

schools, libraries, afterschool programs, churches or non-profit agencies. The second project will focus on

inner-city Los Angeles, working closely with in the Los Angeles Unified School District and partner non-

profit agencies. The third project will serve the Arizona-New Mexico region, again with small rural towns

served by two placements and larger urban area by up to 48 placements. This will allow the program to

oversee the 494 placements in California statewide, 400 placements in Los Angeles, and 317 placements

in Arizona and New Mexico by managing the program in three project subdivisions. All existing

positions will have right of first refusal to continue on with the new program activities and training.

The services provided in the local communities will be based on the unified delivery of award-winning

online educational programming developed under USDA, USGS, Dept of Ed and NSF program support.

This online learning content, available in English with Spanish language features, provides an important

FOCUS for the community service work and gives each host agency a turn-key, federally funded,

computer-based learning program that improves English literacy, promotes family learning, develops

communication technology skills in the populations least likely to have technology access, and offers

community-based learning activities that tie global technology tools into local learning discoveries. The

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Tech Corps participants will serve as in-demand technology mentors in the schools, libraries, afterschool

programs, church youth and adult programs, and at non profit agency partner locations.

The Tech Corps Program will:

1) Train seniors in the use of new technologies to increase their employability, including computer,

Internet, GPS – GIS mapping, digital photography, and video streaming.

2) Train seniors to deliver a focused, comprehensive, turnkey distance learning programming that

promotes English literacy in public libraries, local schools, and afterschool programs serving

youth and adult communities.

3) Train seniors to assist nonprofits in improving their Internet-based communication strategies

including use of web sites to tie local resources into the content delivery taking place in the

schools, libraries, and afterschool programs, and thereby increase public access to partner agency

resources.

4) Simultaneously identify host agency sites that will benefit by receiving a turnkey youth and adult

literacy-building learning program delivered by a trained mentor, at no direct out-of-pocket cost

to the agency.

5) Place seniors in host agencies as educational technology aides to assist those agencies – schools,

libraries, afterschool programs, churches, and non-profits agencies - to improve their services to

their local community by serving as technology mentors.

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6) Facilitate and supervise the relationships between participants and host agencies, maintain a focus

on measurable outcomes from the community service that can be documented in a final report.

7) Promote a 20% - 37% placement rate for the participants in extended employment.

8) Make available an online GIS demonstration map noting locations, occupations, and measurable

outcomes of participant employment activities

At Visible light, our experience working with senior, family, and youth populations has shown that it is

the seniors who have the time and motivation to learn new computer skills. If given an opportunity to gain

these skills and then put them to work in local community service settings, the seniors and their

community would receive great benefits – new income for those seniors living at or below the poverty

line, new purpose as valuable members of their larger community, and new skills to enhance their own

family’s communication abilities. In VL’s USDA / Dept of Ed programs, we have observed that once the

grandparents get online and learned to use the Internet to ‘keep up’ with their grandchildren, then the

working parents also were exposed to technology. The senior’s access to technology then openes the door

technology interest and access at all levels of their inter-generational family.

Under DoL ETA support, Visible Light proposes to train 1211 under-employed seniors in the region of

California, Arizona and New Mexico, and to place them in 748 schools, 207 libraries, 110 afterschool

programs, 50 churches and 96 non-profit agencies 2003-2004. As the attached chart shows, 894 will be in

California, 214 in Arizona, and 103 in New Mexico in rural and urban communities. Of the 1211, 250 are

estimated to be speakers of English as a Second Language, 25 will be Native American, 1,000 will be

have lived under the national poverty level for several years, and all will be in need of finding local

training and employment.

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Immediately upon announcement of selectees in May, if funded, Visible Light will offer all existing

participants in the regions to be served the right of first refusal for continued participation, and will

continue to serve any incumbent host agencies that will benefit from the new Tech Corps program. To fill

vacancies, Visible Light will begin working with the local Area Agencies on Aging and Employment

Development Department WIA One-stop Career Centers and statewide databases in each county, town or

city served in June. These agencies will be an important partner in assisting the program to recruit

qualified participants for any open positions. Another arm of the recruitment process will take place by

contacting the potential host agencies directly to announce employment opportunities to their local

patrons who have an informal relationship with the agency (grandparents of school students, volunteers at

the library, etc.). Each applicant will be pre-qualified based on recent income history and aptitudes, and, if

selected or exercising their right-to-continuation, will work with Visible Light to develop an Individual

Employment Plan. Visible Light will pair up seniors in need of employment training and work with

partner education and non profit agencies to form positive host / participant relationships. This will take

place on Indian Reservations, in Colonia communities, in remote geographically isolated rural towns, and

in urban and inner-city neighborhoods. These new positions will not displace other workers at the host

agency and will significantly enhance the services each agency is able to offer. The host agencies will be

offered an entirely new package of services that include the provision of a part time senior aide that in no

way duplicates other position activities on site. The emphasis of the program services is to assist each

host agency to realize a measurable benefit and return on their previous investments in technology, with

the guidance of the Tech Corps senior and support from Visible Light.

Eligibility will be determined and documented through an intake procedure conducted in cooperation with

feeder agencies (Agencies on Aging, EDD, Senior Centers, etc.) using past income tax documents and

employment records, and SCSEP records will be kept on premises at Visible Light. Under SCSEP

direction, maximum income requirements will be met, recognizing that the federal poverty level is $8,690

per individual / $11,940 per couple. As a direct result of participation, the senior participants will gain

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familiarity with basic computer use, will develop more advanced computer skills, and will deliver

educational programming as a classroom, library, computer lab or agency aide. Of the 1211 participants,

242-448 will find extended employment in their local community as a result of their new training and

workplace experience.

II. Community Services

The Senior Tech Corps will be trained to roll out a specific set of services at each host agency. The host

agency will be able to select from a suite of services in advance to tailor the program services to meet

their needs. Online orientation meetings for host agencies will take place beginning in June and will be

coordinated in advance during May. Analysis of available openings for incumbents will take place May

and June with announcements for any non-incumbent open Tech Corps senior positions circulated to Area

Agency on Aging, Once Stop and potential partner agencies by the beginning of June to jumpstart the

recruitment process.

The training program for SCSEP participants will begin in July and run through September. Trainings

will take place in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Flagstaff and Albuquerque. Participants

will be paid for 100 hours of face-to-face and online follow-up training and will begin employment

immediately following their training, averaging 20 hours a week or 1,000 hours a year. Each position is

budgeted for a combined 1,100 hours total.

The advantage of the proposed program is that it is building on an existing educational technology

platform that offers the trainees and the host agencies a turnkey implementation program complete with

supplies and materials. There is no need to invest SCSEP funds in ‘creating’ a program – all funds can go

directly to delivering and administration and delivery of the program. The turn-key educational

technology program has been tested and refined under USDA / Dept of Ed funds for the last five years,

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and is an ideal, comprehensive family English and computer technology literacy format for delivery at the

host agency sites. The name of the learning program is Camp Internet, and it has been delivered to over

500,000 youth, adults and seniors through schools, libraries and afterschool programs in California,

Arizona and New Mexico to date. SCSEP support will enable an additional 693,000 community members

a year in isolated, remote rural to inner city urban communities to benefit from the award-winning Camp

Internet learning program – with the incredible added bonus of having a senior member of their

community trained to provide support and guidance for the project activities locally.

A. Examples of services at the five different types of host agencies follow:

School Positions: Tech Corps participants will be trained to access and guide students and teachers in the

use of an online distance learning program called Camp Internet. The school will have selected which

subject areas will be presented, and the Tech Corps will focus on the delivery of those resources. This

will take place in the classroom, library, or in the computer lab, with occasional field trips, as determined

by the school, 20 hours a week, working with 1-3 classrooms on rotation daily or weekly as best meets

the classroom needs. Visible Light has had parent volunteers perform this service in pilot projects in the

past with excellent returns. The Tech Corps serves as a guide, helping students to focus on and complete

education assignments using the Camp Internet resources. Each classroom will be provided with a hands-

on kit of materials that the Tech Corps will bring and will monitor the effective use of, including printed

learning assignments with incentive stickers for completion, GPS technology, or digital cameras. Once in

the Fall and once in the Spring, the Tech Corps participant will co-host a Community Technology Night

on campus to invite parents and grandparents to see the student technology projects and try out the

technology themselves. In this position, the Tech Corps serves as a technology mentor, guiding class

hour, evening, or afterschool activities as elected by the school principal. The outcome of the service will

be the accomplishment of having assisted 100-500 local residents, youth, adults, and seniors, to better

understand life-long education opportunities provided by telecommunications technologies. In some

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cases, afterschool programs held on the school site will also include adult learning components and those

adults will receive the same community-based services as the regular classroom.

Library positions: Tech Corps participants will be trained to provide library patrons – adult, youth and

seniors, with online learning resources that inspire a love for reading and lead to checking out classic

American literature, history, and natural sciences reading materials. Operated much like a summer

reading program, patrons will sign-up to participate and will receive a folio of activity projects and

suggested English-literacy building reading materials, and as tasks are completed, will receive incentive

stickers on their printed paper Camp Internet passports. The Tech Corps will provide the library with the

same learning kit the classrooms receive in the schools – it includes display materials to make a visual

display about the program to invite patrons to enroll. The library patrons will write short book reports to

document their literacy accomplishments, and these reports will be published online linked to a project

site map giving other readers a way to learn about suggested reading materials. As with the schools, once

in the Fall and once in the Spring, the Tech Corps will co-host a Community Technology / Literacy Night

at the library to empower families to showcase their learning accomplishments and inspire other families

to join the program. This library aide position will allow the library to introduce a new literacy program

that does not require man-hours from existing staff, and is supplemental to their usual circulation and

reference activities. Parents and children will be encouraged to read to each other, to bring home new

library books, and to complete fun, productive literacy-building reading assignments.

Afterschool positions: Tech Corps participants will host informal learning programs at afterschool sites,

providing after-school-hour support for students interested in learning positive uses for educational

technologies. The online materials provide in-depth learning materials any day of the week and offer live

and interactive featured on specific afternoons of the week. The interactive resources will also be

complimented by local field trips to sites of historic or environmental importance. As with the above two

project sites, students will be invited to post their findings in a safe, secure, online learning environment.

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Each field trip they take, they will gather observations and post that data to interactive GIS maps,

mapping their community as they go, cataloging resources, historic sites, or environmental issues relevant

to them right now, today. The Tech Corps guide will ensure appropriate use of the technology in a

supervised environment, keeping them on topic and focused on clear learning objectives. Again, a Fall

and Spring Community Technology Night will be hosted to get parents and grandparents more aware of

their children’s afterschool learning activities and to encourage more parental participation in their non-

school hour learning opportunities.

Church positions: Churches will provide opportunities for Tech Corps to host special technology

programming for seniors, adults and youth. As with their school, library, and afterschool counterparts,

church members will be invited to enroll in the program and to attend family-strengthening workshops

and events that leverage technology access to help families learn together in a supportive environment.

Field trips will also be arranged for the congregations, with church members encouraged to use a local

Community Technology Center, senior center, or library for Internet access and as a meeting place for the

program’s computer activities. This is an excellent chance to provide cross-generational learning

activities, and could be developed as an afterschool program for youth, a morning program for seniors,

and a Saturday monthly event field trip session for families, enriching the church community programs

considerably. The Church-based Tech Corps participant will bring the same kit of materials to their

community service location, and set up a display in a Sunday School room or meeting hall to encourage

and support participation.

Non-profit agency positions: In communities where there are non-profit agencies with resources that tie

directly into the learning goals also taking place through the Tech Corps Project services in the local

school, library, afterschool center, or churches, positions will be established to place Tech Corps in

agencies who can become important information providers to the other participants in the community. An

example could be a Clean Water agency with a mission to educate the community about waste

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management and clean water goals. The Tech Corps participant will be trained to understand what the

agency provides in the way of public outreach and education, and then will help develop Internet web-

based resources that make those educational and informative resources more readily available to the

public. This Tech Corps representative will then also go out into the community to share news of the host

agency’s mission and resources at local senior centers, schools, libraries, churches, afterschool programs

and festivals. Members of the host agency will be provided with invitations to also participate in the

Camp Internet distance learning activities, pointing them to local library, church, school or afterschool

access sites.

B. Selection of Host Agencies

The host agencies will be contacted in May and June and offered an excellent incentive package for

participation: 1,000 hour position for an educational technology aide at their site, a supply kit the Tech

Corps technology mentor will use at their site, and an award-winning turn-key education program – all at

no out-of-pocket to their site. Given changes in technology funding, the down turn in the economy, and

the difficulty in hiring and retaining technology-proficient education staff, this will be a particular benefit

to public schools, children’s library departments, and afterschool programs now hard hit by the slow

down in education funding. Churches have not in the past been included in this type of educational

outreach program and the incentive for them is to be able to present a popular, family strengthening,

educational technology program that promotes positive social values. The non-profit agencies that will be

host sites will benefit by being provided with outreach staff and web development support to help get

more people aware of their mission, services, and local needs in their own community.

Based on the Counties listed on the SCSEP web site (see attached list), schools, libraries, afterschool

program, churches and appropriate non-profit agencies will receive an invitation to apply to become a

host agency site. From those applicants, Visible light will select the 1211 sites best equipped to make the

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most of the Tech Corps Program, and who can provide the best working environment for the Tech Corps

participants. Each Regional Project Director will then be responsible for notifying the selected host sites

and keep in close contact with them by listserv for weekly and monthly new briefs. All resources needed

from an administrative side for host agencies will be made available online, and should they want to send

someone to the regional trainings from their own staff, this can be arranged and would be welcomed. All

host sites will certify that they are providing a safe working environment that meets health and safety

requirements.

C. Services Provided to Participants

The PACIFIC SOUTHWEST TECH CORPS NETWORK Program will provide employment

development services for the 1211 participants. Whether continuing participants or new to the SCSEP,

each Tech Corps participant will attend an orientation session and training program held at regional

locations. Before the orientation, they will be asked to fax in an assessment survey that will set a baseline

for their training needs, and help group participants in appropriate skill level groups during training. Dates

and locations will be determined upon receipt of the survey form. The requirement to provide access to

optional physical examinations is included in the budget at an estimated cost and this will ideally take

place for those requesting service before employment at their host agency.

Training

At the first day’s orientation, participants will learn about the program’s goals and their place in the

regional project plan, their individual responsibilities, and the responsibilities of their work site hosts and

Visible Light. They will be informed that lobbying activities are not permitted under federal funding, and

receive documentation on the process for grievance resolution. At this orientation they will begin to

develop the intake Individual Employment Plan (using a selected model adapted from a previous SCSEP

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site) and will be matched to a host agency to help them develop realistic employment training goals more

accurately. This same plan will be completed by the end of the workshops session, and then used as a

measure of accomplishments when they submit a final IEP outcome report at the end of their 1,100 hours.

The next three days they will then go into a training workshop to develop the specific skills needed by

their host agency work site. Participants with no previous computer skills (Level One) will learn to

navigate learning resources on the Internet, to use guided research tools in a safe, secure, protected

environment appropriate for students and adult learners, and will be taught to use the hands-on learning

passports with their students. These Level One participants will learn to use email, listservs, chat rooms,

hyper links, search, and navigation tools. They will learn to host Internet sessions that are storytellings, if

appropriate in Spanish and English, and to show video streaming educational resources to their students.

Participants already familiar with the Internet (Level Two) will be trained to use the online program and

then graduate right into training in the use of digital photography, GPS units, and GIS mapping. Level

Two will learn to deliver multiple technologies in an educational setting, and those in Level One the first

year can then opt to advance to Level Two in their second year.

What ever the Tech Corps participant’s ability level, there will be a skill-appropriate workshop for them

to attend. Transportation to and from the training program by Amtrak or Greyhound, related meals,

lodging, and training services will paid for through SCSEP support to ensure quality employment skill

development (no funds will be used for entertainment). The workshops will last for 3 days, with an

orientation the previous half-day, departing the end of the third day. Computer lab facilities, partner non-

profit agency, and regional educational resources will be used during the workshop to simulate their home

community setting. By the end of the training they will have honed their IEP and will submit a final

version online to document their intended level and type of effort.

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Participants will leave the orientation and training workshop prepared to implement the program on a

daily basis at their work site. They will also have been briefed on techniques for hosting the Community

Technology Nights, and how to get announcements out in the community to invite the Mayor and City

Council to attend to build community support for continued educational technology programs in their

local area. Each participant who will directly serve a student population (K-12 or adult) will also take

with them the display and hands-on project supplies necessary to operate the program effectively back at

their work site. This may include a GPS unit or Digital Camera, hands-on printed projects, multi-media

supplies, and a project poster to boost public awareness of the Senior Tech Corps program. Follow-up

training will take place online each month for special sessions on implementation and job searching.

Participant Start-up

Once back in their local community, participants will : conduct a community technology survey; identify

an appropriate location to set up display materials; provide explanatory materials to teacher, libraries and

project directors who will be benefiting from their services; and lay the ground work for a successful year

of service. If school is not yet back in session, the participant will be provided with a set of other work

objectives out in the community to ensure they are provided with their base hours of work. As soon as the

school, library, afterschool, church or agency program is ready for them to start, they will begin providing

technology mentor services as the core focus of their 1,000-hour effort.

Online Participant Network

All Tech Corps participants will be able to use the same technologies they are demonstrating to their

community sites to help make their own work environment more personal, friendly, and accountable from

an administrative view point. They will be able to communicate with one another in regionally organized,

private password protected project Network with chat room environments where they can offer

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suggestions, ask for advice, post success stories. They will have direct email communication with their

regional Project Director, will have a live session online with the Project Director weekly on Tuesdays 2-

3pm to maintain close working relationships, and can ask for technical support through an 800-phone

number during regular business hours. Follow-up group-wide online workshops will be offered weekly on

Thursdays 2-3pm in an online environment to support the Corps needs, and monthly project showcases

will be self-published online to demonstrate project effectiveness on an ongoing basis. Each participant

will be required to post monthly reports on project accomplishments, creating regular accountability to

the larger tri-state group, while weekly discussion groups provide regional accountability.

If possible, the regional Project Managers will hire assistants from the applicable pool of SCSEP

participants and the presence of seniors in support staff will be facilitated as best as possible. The average

participant will work a 1,000 hour year at their host site, at the Federal minimum wage or state minimum

wage, which ever is higher (CA $6.75, AZ and NM $5.15), and will work up to 12 months directly in the

community. Participants will be placed in their local communities and use their own local transportation.

Fringe benefits ( 50% of VL’s reg FT) will include 2.5 paid holidays over the 12 months (depending on

the calendar), and 2.5 days of annual sick pay (given their part time schedule, hours lost on sick days not

directly paid can be re-earned by working additional hours in another pay period). As mentioned above,

transportation costs to and from the face-to-face training will be paid. All work sites will be pre-approved

and of a high standard ensuring participant health and safety.

D. Benefits to the Community

Each community will benefit from their Tech Corps services. The provision of award-winning

educational programming in remote rural and underserved inner-city settings has been proven to be an

empowering experience for recipients that have had the opportunity to make use of Visible Light’s

program over the past five years. In these communities, often the last to have access to high-speed

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communication technologies, the digital divide has continued to widen, leaving the low income and

underserved with inadequate access to technologies. This project helps to develop a ‘universal service’

model for Internet access and educational resources access online. Families, students, and seniors who do

not currently have access to computer telecommunications technology will be invited to learn about this

important tool and will be provided with invitations to make use of the technology where it is provided in

their community (at senior centers, afterschool site’s the public library, or public school). More than just

an invitation to roam around online, they will be invited to join in a dynamic, guided, motivating life-long

learning program that their Tech Corps mentors will be pleased to share with them and help them begin

using on their own.

SCHOOLS will have an opportunity to showcase measurable benefits from their investment in

technology and connectivity. They will be given a way for students to become independent learners using

technology as a springboard, and will have the chance to bring the parents and the community to campus

to see the students in action – and to encourage limited-English speaking parents to consider pursuing

English literacy and computer literacy training.

LIBRARIES will find a way to use technology to motivate a hunger for reading – not to replace the

printed book, but to encourage learners of all ages to discover ideas online that lead them to want to

READ MORE!

AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS will be provided with a structured but flexible learning activity that

allows them to put their investment in computers and connectivity to work and focuses students on

socially responsible and productive uses for technology.

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CHURCHES will be able to develop services for their congregation that get the different generations

learning together, developing their own community service projects using technology, and encouraging

seniors, families and youth to visit their local library to get online and become life long learners.

NONPROFIT AGENCIES will find a new way to get the word out about what they do, to deliver their

educational or informational products to more members of their constituency, and to tie their printed

resources into the online information-sharing environment.

The PACIFIC SOUTHWEST TECH CORPS NETWORK will provide a positive demonstration of the

current White House administration’s community service goals and enable Labor funding to build upon,

not have to reinvent, accomplishments and benefits demonstrated under previous USDA and Dept of Ed

investments. In this way Federal dollars will reach over 693,000 Americans in local communities, and

serve to train 1211 individual seniors seeking to improve their employment opportunities. The outcome

will be more Americans prepared to use information technologies to improve their employment

opportunities, and to improve their quality of life, and more seniors able to qualify for more lucrative

employment in the competitive information technology environment.

III. Unsubsidized Placements

The goal of the PACIFIC SOUTHWEST TECH CORPS NETWORK is to reach a minimum 20% level

of placement or 242 positions, up to 448 positions as a top goal. To accomplish this, Visible Light will be

working with potential employers during the program to encourage them to understand the Tech Corps

participant’s accomplishments and new employable skills. One of the motivations behind hosting the

Community Technology Nights is to bring other areas of the public and private sector into the schools,

into the library or afterschool programs, to see the seniors in action and to develop an understanding of

this newly trained potential workforce.

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Likely employers in the public and private sector would be: County Offices of Education, School

Districts, Community Colleges, Adult Education Programs, Local Government and Parks, Regional

Training Centers for vocational education, non-profit agencies, church programs, senior centers, public

libraries, high tech private firms, museum education programs, environmental protection agencies,

County government, telecommuting programs, private schools, and Boys and Girls Clubs.

Visible Light’s regional Project Managers will be in regular contact with potential employers, providing

them with positive examples of how hiring seniors can help them stretch their public service or private

sector dollars and improve the quality of their staffing pool. After initial contact with a potential

employer, the regional Managers will send out fax-back or email-back survey forms to human resource

divisions to locate potential job openings not available through the State Unemployment Department

listings. These job openings will be posted on a web site for Tech Corps participants, organized by region.

Potential employers will be invited to Spring Online Technology Luncheon Events to showcase the Tech

Corps program accomplishments and to invite them to recruit employees from among the Corps’

participants.

In addition to direct outreach to potential employers, Visible Light will work with the Workforce

Investment Board’s One-Stop Centers and Job Placement services to help the participants locate long

term employment opportunities that leverage their new technology skills. Participants will be required to

conduct monthly job searches in 2004 and report their findings in order to qualify for continued

employment in the V.L. / SCSEP. In California there is the excellent CalJobs database that participants

will be shown how to access and search for permanent employment on at http://www.caljobs.ca.gov/.

Arizona has a One-Stop center online at http://www.de.state.az.us/oscc/index.html and New Mexico has

their One-Stop center online at http://www.dol.state.nm.us/nmworks/default.asp including an online State

Job Bank. The online skills gained by participants will empower them to conduct self-directed job

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searches on a regular basis, and Visible light will also post a web site to provide them with instructions as

a refresher.

IV. Program Coordination and Oversight

A. Coordination

Visible Light works with California, Arizona and New Mexico Department of Education divisions, State

and National Library Agencies, national and local afterschool programs including Boys and Girls Clubs

and National 4-H, and the Elderhostel Institute Network in its current programs and has worked with the

California State Employment agencies during previous employment services projects. This new project is

an opportunity to introduce our services to the One-Stop Centers in all three states and to network with

the State Area Agencies on Aging, while leveraging existing relationships with project partners. This

networking will take place immediately upon notification of funding, performed by top-level agency staff

to launch the project May-June.

It has been our experience that schools are an excellent entrée into a community, and where there is not

already a SCSEP participant interested in working with our project, and we will recruit through the

schools into the communities served. We also will be using community web sites to identify potential host

agencies by searching their agency directories to locate additional partners as needed.

This phase of the project will need to take place in advance of the project start date, July 1, in order to

identify host sites before the close of the school year. Contact will be made to over 5000 potential work

sites, and we expect 1500-2000 to return applications requesting consideration as a host agency / project

beneficiary. From that pool, the 1211 will be selected, and the others placed on a waiting list. Given the

attractiveness of being provided with, at no out of pocket cost to the host site, an education aid, a

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materials kit, and year round online programming that could other wise cost them up to $18,000, we

believe the return rate on schools will be the highest, with afterschool programs and libraries also eager to

participate. Recruitment to churches may be most effective one the school program is already in place

locally, and schools will also lead us to the non profit agency partners they find the most appropriate as

school and education partners.

B. Project Oversight

There are three levels of oversight built into the program’s administration design. Accountability is

measured at each level. At the top headquarters level, the Program Administrator manages all day-to-day

operations. At the regional service area level, Project Managers oversee their approximately 400 sites

each. At the local level, an identified Work Site Coordinator will be appointed by each host agency to

serve as a liaison between their agency and the regional Project Manager, and will also verify hours

worked on time sheets for local accountability.

All project administration will be centralized at Visible Light’s Santa Barbara Headquarters, including

time sheets, payroll, overhead expenses, travel costs, and materials costs. The three regional Project

Managers will submit requests for payments for approved program costs and payroll to headquarters, and

the participant’s time sheets will be faxed to each regional P.M. and then faxed to headquarters with P.M.

approval. A Program Administrator will be hired to manage the program, with an Accounts Payable

subcontractor answering to the Chief Administrator to report on activities of the Program Administrator

as a monitoring device.

Visible Light’s Education Development Director and Chief Administrator, Marcy Montgomery, will

oversee the hiring and performance of the SCSEP Program Administrator. Ms Montgomery has been

working for Visible Light since 1980, has been the Chief Administrator for educational technology

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programs since 1991, and has administered all facets of the Visible Light educational technology program

development, delivery, and reporting under USDA, Dept of Ed, and NSF support. She will oversee the

host agency and returning / new participants recruitment that will take place May and June to jumpstart

the project so that it can get right on its feet the first week of July under the supervision of the new Project

Administrator.

The Program Administrator will be hired in June of 2003 with a start date of July 1. The position will be

based in Santa Barbara, California and will be responsible for all facets of program accountability: fiscal,

staff, participant, host agency, and employer relationships. The P.A. will manage the host agency and

SCSEP returnee / new hire recruitment through out the project. S/he will make certain there is a

designated work site coordinator provided by each agency for local oversight, will oversee day-to-day

operations, and will coordinate the regional Project Managers. S/he will also coordinate the outreach to

employers for all locations to standardize that effort, directing the regional managers in campaign

strategies. The P.A. will report weekly to the Education Development Director and Chief Administrator,

and monthly to the Executive Director.

The front line Project Managers will be located in three cities: Santa Barbara, CA, Los Angeles CA, and

Santa Fe, NM. Santa Barbara will be the center for all California statewide (non-Los Angeles) project

administration and will be located at Visible Light’s headquarters. Los Angeles will be the center for

services being delivered directly to 400 classrooms in the huge 700-school Los Angeles Unified School

District that has been a Visible Light partner for three years. Santa Fe will be the hub for services in

Arizona and New Mexico, working with the BIA Office of Indian Education Programs in Albuquerque

and the State Office of Education in Santa Fe. Los Angeles and Santa Fe staff will be located near or with

in the Office of Education Centers to facilitate close working relationships with those agencies.

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The Project Managers will have direct oversight over the Tech Corps participants and will be in daily

contact with them by email, phone and online workshops. The P.M. will travel regularly to visit host

agency sites, to meet with prospective employers, and to provide support to the local Tech Corps. Each

P.M. will be responsible for coordinating the training of participants and submitting their IEP online as

their core intake form when beginning with the program. They will require weekly reports from each

participant, and monitor the weekly required online showcase reports from each participant to ensure

adequate success is being made in the local communities the P.M. manages.

Once the face-to-face training cycle is completed by October, the P.M. will work with the participants

regularly online. They will also begin outreach to respective employers and develop stronger relationships

with the One Stop Center. And thirdly, they will stay in touch with the host agency sites to ensure positive

relationships in the local community. Each P.M. will have a set of listservs they manage – one for SCSEP

participants in their region, one for current host agencies, one for prospective host agencies, and one for

prospective employers. These private discussion lists will enable the P.M. to send out project updates

provided by the Program Administrator, and to develop regional news updates approved by the P.A.

C. Monitoring and Evaluation

The Project Managers will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating project activities in their

assigned region. Given that the unique product being delivered to the host agency sites is an online

learning tool, the majority of monitoring and assessment can be accomplished using cost-effective online

tools. It will be immediately apparent if there is a week a host site has not shown participation online as

the Tech Corps is required to post weekly updates in a public showcase room. Absence from that

showcase posting room will be monitored each Monday for the previous week and follow- up email

contact will be initiated to determine the reason for any absence in the reporting activities. In this way

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there would be no more than a one workday gap between monitors awareness of any absences in

participation and contacting the participant.

Evaluation will also be most easily managed through the linkage of community activities and reports to

the program’s new GIS map that will provide a visual data record of activities in each community. The

GIS map will be available for use by the Department of Labor as a model for project data visualization

and can track activities by community, by type of activity, by type of host agency. For example, all school

sites can be selected to view on the map, or all libraries. Or the viewers can elect to choose all rural

communities, or all inner city communities. Other layers of choice are all K-12 student activities, all

senior activities, all church activities, all afterschool activities, or all non-profit agency activities. Each

layer can be isolated and viewed, or combine with others, at the viewers discretion. When each layer

opens, a click on the icon for activities in a chosen location will open a side bar database that may provide

examples of classroom or afterschool projects, video of the host agency site, or interviews with project

participants. Zooming in on location icons on the community mapping project layer will then open up a

local map showing sites mapped by the participants – historic sites, native trees, or water resources for

example. This is a powerful new type of program evaluation tool, once that will be a model for other

programs through out the Department of Labor.

D. Minimizing Disruptions

All incumbent participants existing in the counties approved for Visible Light to administer will be given

the right of first refusal to continue with SCSEP under Visible Light’s program. As no previous computer

experience is required, we will be able to provide training for all work-ready seniors. When the specific

counties of service are determined by SCSEP, and a contact list is received of incumbents, Visible Light

administration will contact these individual to invite them to enroll in our program and attend a July

training so they can begin work in the community rapidly. The goal would be to notify all incumbents in

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early June with a late June response date required. Upon receiving a positive response, Visible Light

would schedule them for a training session in July. During the hours between the June 30 th closure of their

previous position and their training date, they will be assigned to perform a local community survey as a

paid service to the new program, helping to locate and document schools, libraries and facilities for the

GIS map project. Their work can continue as of July 1st 2003 under this plan, as they will be told.

V. Management Structure and Fiscal Integrity

A. Management Structure

1) Administration at Headquarters

(funded by a portion of the 13.5% administrative overhead costs)

Executive Director

The highest level of program oversight will be provided by Visible Light’s Executive Director, Timothy

Tyndall. He will require weekly feedback and compilation of monthly regional reports to be delivered to

his desk for review. Mr. Tyndall is the Principal Investigator for Visible Light’s NSF, USGS, Dept of Ed,

and USDA projects, and is a regular presenter at professional conferences and is published in professional

training and educational technology journals. He will be a spokesperson for the program on a national

level. The Program Administration staff will report to him directly each month. He will also host monthly

online workshops with participants.

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Chief Administrator

Marcy Montgomery will provide the direct oversight of the Program Administration and the newly hired

Program Administrator will report to her weekly, and she in turn to the Executive Director weekly. She

will participate in the monthly Program Administration review meetings. She also will be managing the

content delivery to the host agency sites on a daily basis to provide a steady, even delivery of learning

activities for the participants to deliver at their work sites.

Administrative Assistant

A senior from the SCSEP pool of applicants will be chosen to serve as the Administrative Assistant and

will serve as the liaison between the regional Project Managers and the program headquarters. This

person will oversee the delivery of all materials, supplies, travel arrangements, reimbursements and other

operational resources. They will field all incoming calls about the program and determine the correct

person to answer any incoming inquiries. They will also perform the outreach coordination functions of

distributing invitations to potential employers,

Technical Team

To make this program work, a team of technical staff will support the development and delivery of the

monitoring, evaluation, and actual front line program delivery tools. This staff is comprised of: an

Internet system administrator, two web engineers, a GIS mapping engineer, an Oracle database

administrator, and a video broadcasting engineer. Their work is essential to the project as all of the

content delivery to the host agency site and the project management tools operate online under their

careful watch.

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Fiscal Administration

As described in more detail under fiscal administration, a team of book keeper / CPAs will be contracted

to provide fiscal accountability services

2) Program Management

(Funded by the 11.5% program costs)

Program Administration (1)

As described above, this position will be filled in June and will be the top level Program Administrator

reporting up the line to headquarters and gathering information daily for weekly reports. The regional

Project Managers will report directly to this person, and this person will oversee the appropriate

expenditures of all program costs. It is this position’s responsibility to maintain the budget, stay on target

with deliverables, and notify the agency management of any deviations so corrections can be made

expeditiously. This position will travel as needed for national meetings and presentations, and will

coordinate all participants training, program delivery, and host agency relationships. They will be the

person primarily responsible for developing employer relations at the top level and ensuring the

placement goals are met.

Project Managers (3)

These are the regional Project Managers working on the front line overseeing the actual participants

directly. They will use online communications to keep daily contact with participants, will host the

weekly review and discussions groups, and will facilitate the monthly online workshops for participants.

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This is the person who has actual face-to-face contact with the host agencies, and how recruits potential

employers at the regional and local level. There will be three Project Managers based in Santa Barbara,

Los Angeles and Santa Fe.

Project Assistants (3)

Each Project Manager will have an assistant who will provide support in managing participant needs, in

collecting their time sheets for approval by the Project Manager, and will perform outreach support

functions in contacting the potential employers. This position will monitor input from participants to

ensure they are arriving at the workplace on time, performing their duties, and will field s many of their

questions as possible to ensure they find they have a direct person for contact on day-to-day deployment

issues. Higher level questions will be referred to the P.M. with in one work day or immediately if urgent.

3) Tech Corps Participants

(Funded by the 75% SCSEP funding)

These are the front line community service workers, 1211 over three states, who will be out in the

schools, libraries afterschool programs, churches and non profit agencies delivering the learning program,

hosting Community Technology and Literacy Nights, and delivering the program on the local level. They

will communicate regularly with their Project Manager’s office, and report weekly online on project

developments. Each pay period they will turn in their time sheet to their site coordinator who will then fax

it to the Project Manager’s office for approval.

B. Program Integrity

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Given the large scale of the project requirements with Visible Light’s proposed services crossing three

states, a system of checks and balances is essential to monitor and evaluate project activities and ensure

appropriate expenditures. From the Visible Light headquarters, these functions will be managed on a

daily basis with local fiscal oversight and by-remote project site observation and management. The design

of the management structure was developed to support the SCSEP to invest 75% of funding in

participants salaries, and to make the nest used of the 25% available for administration and program

delivery.

To make this project a success, the happiness of the Tech Corps participant is a foremost responsibility.

Working out in the filed on the front line could be an isolated experience, but thanks to computer

telecommunications, the on site work can be directly tied into the Tech Corps Network and provide an

online community of fellow participants that helps keep them focused, on track, and motivated to

accomplish great things in their local community that they then share with the entire program in the

online environment. Visible Light has developed techniques for encouraging accountability by using

online reporting and project showcases as a way to both link the Tech Corps front line workers into the

larger Tech Corps Network community, and also to provide project administration with clear indicators of

success – and indicators of where attention is needed.

Each participant will be require to report in and out on a daily basis from their work site using an online

log in tool. On a weekly basis they will be required to attend an online session to share news of their

projects or ask questions. And once a week they will post to a public area news of their student’s

accomplishments, with links to actual student work. In this way, the participant gives of themselves and

their work site each week as a part of a learning community, and on the other side, project administration

can review accomplishments and note any absences that need attention.

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A second important relationship influencing the program’s integrity are the relationships with the host

agencies. As has been described previously, the use of private listservs will help the regional Project

Managers keep in touch with the local host agencies easily and effectively, on a regular basis. Highlights

from different sites will be shared, and program wide updates will be sent out.

Once a month the Program Administrator will also prepare a Newsletter delivered by email and on the

web for all host agencies to read.

A third important relationship is the facilitation of employment for the participants and this means

strengthening relationships with the One-Stop centers, hosting the job-search workshops online, and

contacting employers directly. Each Project Manager will be responsible for recruiting potential

employers in their service area. The Program Administrator will also host the Employer Lunch Hour

Sessions online where human resources personnel can pull up a lunch at their desk and enjoy learning

about the program, listen to guest speakers live online, and see examples of the great works being

accomplished by the project’s employed seniors in their region.

C. Fiscal Integrity

Visible Light’s Administration sub-contracts a team of CPAs and bookkeepers that provide the required

arms-distance, objective reporting on Visible Light expenditures. As with previous large contracts and

grants, the agency’s computerized book keeping system will create an independent accounting system to

track this specific income source and expenditures, by category, as approved by the SCSEP. A full time

book keeping team will be contracted to provide fiscal management, accounts payable tracking, prepare

payroll, and monitor benefits, under supervision of the Chief Administrator and Executive Director. An

independent CPA performs the internal audit annually, and another CPA firm is contracted to provide the

external audit annually. Payroll is processed through an online payroll processing company that also

handles the payroll taxes and files the quarterly and annual returns.

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Participants will provide their work sites with time sheets that they will fill out, and will have the

appointed work site coordinator sign this form to verify hours at the end of each two-week pay period.

This form will then be faxed to the regional Project Manager’s office by the work site coordinator directly

for security reasons. The P.M. will approve the time sheets and then send them to Headquarters where

they will receive a third level of oversight and approval. Timesheet data will then be sent to the

program’s accounting office that will upload payroll data for all staff and participants to the online payroll

services, and direct deposits or checks will be prepared and issued every two weeks.

The Chief Administrator will monitor all expenditures, with approval given to the Program Administrator

for purchases. Weekly accounting meetings will be held to review expenditures.

Visible Light has passed internal, external, and federal audits and is prepared to also comply with all

regulations required by the SCSEP. The external auditor is: Jim Chambers of Butcher and Chambers, 166

North Ninth Street, Suite A, Grover Beach CA 93433, 805-489-8458.

D. Staff Accountability

Visible Light operates in a virtual office environment using the technology it teaches to also help connect

offices in three or more locations each day. This experience will help knit together the staff working on

the new SCSEP Tech Corps program. Checks and balances are built into the communication structure of

the agency, and time clock software will be used to monitor employee attendance. Program

Administration and Project Management staff will check in every morning and through out the day

online, attend regular staff meetings online, and file weekly progress reports and monthly formal reports.

Every three months a project assessment will take place, convened by the agency’s Executive Director

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and Chief administrator, holding staff accountable for the accomplishments of their regional projects out

in the field. The entire staff will meet face-to-face for an orientation session early in July and again in late

winter for a retreat to review project progress and plan adaptations and change to keep the project on

target.

The greatest strength of a program is its ability to inspire accountability through pride-of-product. The joy

and excitement the online learning program brings to isolated rural and urban learners, thrilled to become

a part of a learning community, is the top reward that motivates the front line Tech corps participants, and

brings the meaningful rewards to the administrative and program staff. Bringing people who have not had

access to technologies a chance to explore and be empowered is such an important services that program

staff and participants will all share in the goal of making this project a lasting success. That will drive

accountability rates to the top, with each member of the team receiving personal, professional, as well as

economic satisfaction.

E. References

Please see www.rain.org and www.campinternet.net for information about Visible Light’s Programs

and delivery to communities. Please also contact any of these excellent references (refer to Visible

Light’s RAIN Network programs, and Camp Internet programs, with which they are personally familiar).

Superintendent of Public Education, State of California, Jack O’Connell 916-319-0800 

Coordinator of Educational Technology, State of New Mexico, Michele Lewis 505/ 827-8070

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Educational Programs, Peter Camp 505- 248-7532

Los Angeles Unified School District, California, Beverley Royster 213-229-4836

Workforce Resource Center and Employment Training Program, Santa Barbara County EDD,

Dixie Love, 805-884-6831

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USDA Rural Utility Services, Ken Chandler SW Director and Regional Mgr, Harry Hutson, 202-720-

0631

Visible Light Senior Corps Plan2003-2004 Partici- State Host Agency Types

pants Totals School Library Afterschl Church NonprofitCALIFORNIA

Alameda 179 24 10 6 2 2 4Alpine 0 2 1 1Amador 10 2 1 1Butte 44 6 3 1 1 1Calaveras 11 2 1 1Colusa 7 2 1 1Contra Costa 83 24 10 6 2 2 4Del Norte 11 2 1 1El Dorado 30 2 1 1Fresno 116 24 10 6 2 2 4Glenn 9 2 1 1Humboldt 55 6 3 1 1 1Imperial 39 6 3 1 1 1Inyo 11 2 1 1Kern 115 24 10 6 2 2 4Kings 18 2 1 1Lake 23 2 1 1Lassen 13 2 1 1Los Angeles 1135 400 370 10 20Madera 25 2 1 1Marin 15 2 1 1Mariposa 5 2 1 1

Mendocino 16 6 3 1 1 1Merced 17 2 1 1Modoc 5 2 1 1Mono 7 2 1 1Monterey 46 6 3 1 1 1Napa 15 2 1 1Nevada 17 2 1 1Orange 156 24 10 6 2 2 4Placer 27 2 1 1Plumas 8 2 1 1Riverside 155 24 10 6 2 2 4

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Sacramento 140 24 10 6 2 2 4

San Benito 7 2 1 1

San Bernardino 187 24 10 6 2 2 4

San Diego 285 24 10 6 2 2 4San Francisco 231 24 10 6 2 2 4San Joaquin 79 12 6 2 2 1 1San Luis Obispo 34 12 6 2 2 1 1

San Mateo 70 12 6 2 2 1 1Santa Barbara 46 24 10 6 2 2 4

Santa Clara 123 24 10 6 2 2 4

Santa Cruz 37 6 3 1 1 1Shasta 39 12 6 2 2 1 1Sierra 2 2 1 1Siskiyou 28 2 1 1Solano 30 2 1 1Sonoma 81 12 6 2 2 1 1

Stanislaus 57 12 6 2 2 1 1Sutter 10 2 1 1Tehama 15 2 1 1Trinity 6 2 1 1Tulare 67 12 6 2 2 1 1Tuolumne 17 2 1 1Ventura 58 24 10 6 2 2 4Yolo 19 2 1 1Yuba 15 2 1 1

Total National Grantee Occupied Positions: 4106 894 894

ARIZONAApache 21 2 1 1Cochise 31 2 1 1Coconino 22 12 6 2 2 1 1Gila 28 2 1 1

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Graham 10 2 1 1Greenlee 5 2 1 1La Paz 8 2 1 1Maricopa 235 100 48 12 12 8 20Mohave 17 2 1 1Navajo 32 12 6 2 2 1 1Pima 146 48 24 10 10 2 2Pinal 26 2 1 1

Santa Cruz 10 2 1 1Yavapai 13 12 6 2 2 1 1Yuma 23 12 6 2 2 1 1

Total National Grantee Occupied Positions: 627 214 214

NEW MEXICOBernalillo 83 48 24 10 10 2 2Catron 11 2 1 1Chaves 0Cibola 7 3 2 1Colfax 0Curry 5 2 1 1DeBaca 0Dona Ana 0Eddy 3 2 1 1Grant 17 2 1 1

Guadalupe 0Harding 0Hidalgo 0Lea 0Lincoln 1

Los Alamos 0Luna 0McKinley 11 6 3 1 1 1Mora 0Otero 8 2 1 1Quay 4 2 1 1Rio Arriba 22 2 1 1Roosevelt 0San Juan 12 2 1 1

San Miguel 10 2 1 1Sandoval 19 2 1 1Santa Fe 13 12 6 2 2 1 1

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Sierra 5 2 1 1Socorro 4 2 1 1Taos 21 6 3 1 1 1Torrance 5 2 1 1Union 0Valencia 9 2 1 1

Total National Grantee Occupied Positions: 270 103 103

Total Participants 1211Total School Host Agency 748Total Library Host Agency 207Total Afterschool Program Host Agency 110Total Church Host Agency 50Total Non-profit Host Agency 96

693,000 Community members served 374,000 207,000 11,000 5,000 96,000

EXAMPLE OF A PROGRAM GIS MAP – Pacific SW Region

with layers of data options on right, will be used as a program management tool to monitor participant’s work, and to showcase their success stories nationally

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Rural Communities Project (USDA) and Congresswoman Capps’ Support

Camp Internet educational technology program portal –Interface for end users the Tech Corps will be serving – they will work in here every day

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Interface to Southwest Studies area for use in Arizona and New Mexico

Afterschool Program Interface Portalwill be used by Tech Corps at work sites

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Example of the Family Literacy ActivitiesThat will be used in libraries and afterschool

Family Nights with student, adult, and senior participation, lead by the Tech Corps

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Fellow Senior ‘Experts’ from Around the World Come Online to help the Tech Corps Guides host educational live online learning sessions in their own community

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With SCSEP Support, Youth, Parents, Teachers, and Seniors will thank every Tech Corps Participant for their important work helping communities to use this high quality, award winning learning program.Timothy TyndallVisible Light Training and Education Center Executive Director805-686-1647 rain@rain.org

BACKGROUND Mr. Tyndall is the President and founder of Visible Light, Inc.(founded 1980) and is an internationally recognized leader in public Internet development and distance learning programming. While working on a graduate research project under Dr. Harvey Wheeler at the University of Southern California in 1990, Mr. Tyndall began to develop a model of community-based distance learning programming that could be delivered via the Internet. This was a time when the Internet was not publicly accessible and only available through very hard-to-come by arrangements through the Universities. In 1991, Mr. Tyndall and Visible Light, Inc. formed the RAIN Regional Alliance for Information Networking and began pilot testing K-12 and community applications for the Internet through the University of California. RAIN then became one of the first agencies in the world to make the Internet accessible to the public and has become an internationally recognized leader in Internet innovation. Visible Light has since won $3.1 million in grants and contracts to perform innovative distance learning program development and employment training.

AWARDS, GRANTS and CONTRACTS Visible Light’s projects, under Mr. Tyndall’s leadership, have been awarded a Smithsonian Innovation Network medal of honor (1999), two AOL Rural Community Capacity Builder Awards (1999,2000), four USDA distance learning and telemedicine awards (1997-2000), and a four year California Dept of Education facilitated Technology Literacy award (1998-2002). Mr. Tyndall has been the Principal Investigator on community networking and distance learning projects awarded support by the

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National Science Foundation, California Department of Education, USDA Children, Youth and Families At-Risk Project with UC Davis, USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Projects, Albertson’s Best Neighbor program, California Telehealth and Telemedicine Consortium, and special federal contracts under the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Mr. Tyndall has been an invited presenter at national and international conferences and has published papers in conjunction with these conference, including: The Distance Learning University in San Jose, Costa Rica, 1994; Rural Telecon Conference 1997,1999,2000; National Research Council CODATA Conference, 1997; International Internet Society, Geneva Switzerland, 1998; International Telecommunications Society, Stockholm, Sweden, 1998, Seattle 2000; California Dept. of Education Technology Literacy, San Diego CA, 1999; US Dept. of Interior California Islands Symposium, Santa Barbara CA, 1999, Canadian Library Association Get Smart Conference, Montreal, 1999, Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education WebNet 99, Hawaii, 1999; European Telecommunications Conference, Venice, Italy, 2000; International Internet Society Conference, Japan, 2000, SITE Conference, Orlando FL 2001, Tech Ed Conference, Anaheim CA, 2001, International Internet Society Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 2001, ED-MEDIA, Finland 2001, Tech Ed Conference, San Diego, 2002, Access Native America, Gallup, 2002, ESRI Conference, San Diego 2002, SITE, Nashville 2002, GATE Conference Santa Clara 2003, eLearning Conference Honolulu 2003, SITE Albuquerque 2003.

Marcy MontgomeryVisible Light Ed Devel Dir and Chief Administrator805-686-1647 marcy@rain.org

BACKGROUND Ms. Montgomery has been the Treasurer of Visible Light, Inc. since 1980, and has been involved in the development of community-based training and distance learning programming that is delivered via the Internet. In 1991, Ms. Montgomery assisted in forming the RAIN Regional Alliance for Information Networking and began pilot testing K-12 and community applications for the Internet through the University of California. In 1993, Sun Microsystems granted RAIN the equipment to move off campus and begin community-based operations. Published author in newspaper and magazine media, incl. Computer Using Educators. Her graduate work was performed at UCSB as a Rockefeller Fellow, in Florence, Italy, and at the Rhode Island School of Design.

GRANTS and CONTRACTS Visible Light is a member and grants/contracts supported non-profit community service project, with training, online educational programming, connectivity and materials kit services and products. Ms. Montgomery has been the Co - Principal Investigator on community networking and distance learning projects awarded support by the National Science Foundation, California Department of Education, USDA Children, Youth and Families At-Risk Project with UC Davis, USDA Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine Projects, and special federal contracts under the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense. Visible Light’s Camp Internet project is the

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recipient of a Medal of Honor from the Smithsonian and has been included in the Smithsonian Innovation Network and Archives.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Ms. Montgomery has participated as a co-presenter at national and international conferences and has co-published papers in conjunction with these conference, including: The Distance Learning University in San Jose, Costa Rica, 1994; Rural Telecon Conference 1997 and 1999; National Research Council CODATA Conference, 1997; International Internet Society, Geneva Switzerland, 1998; International Telecommunications Society, Stockholm, Sweden, 1998; California Dept. of Education Technology Literacy meeting, San Diego CA, 1999; US Dept. of Interior California Islands Symposium, Santa Barbara CA, 1999, Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education, Webnet 99, 1999. European Telecommunications Conference, Venice, Italy, 2000; International Internet Society Conference, Japan, 2000, SITE Conference, Orlando FL 2001, Tech Ed Conference, Anaheim CA, 2001, International Internet Society Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 2001, ED-MEDIA, Finland 2001, Tech Ed Conference, San Diego, 2002, Access Native America, Gallup, 2002, ESRI Conference, San Diego 2002, SITE, Nashville 2002, GATE Conference Santa Clara 2003, eLearning Conference Honolulu 2003, SITE Albuquerque 2003.

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