It’s a vision that people in West Town still talk about–dozens of video monitors, scattered throughout the Chicago neighborhood, in odd yet symbolic locations. In an empty lot, the monitors are set up like monuments in a graveyard; in an abandoned car, a lone monitor sits in the front seat like a passenger. And on the screens of each monitor, there are videos featuring teens from Wells High School talking about their lives.
This sprawling public art exhibit lasted only a day, during the fall of 1993. But it changed the lives of the five video artists who helped organize the project.
“I had days where I worked 17 hours [at a job], and all I got was a big, fat paycheck,” said Tony Streit, one of those five. “But that project gave us a sense of purpose. At the end … there was an idea that this sort of work should continue in the community.”
Its legacy turned out to be Street-Level Youth Media, a non-profit organization that provides access to video and computer technology to underprivileged youths in the West Town, Edgewater and the Near West Side neighborhoods. Last year, the program served more than 1,000 children. And while Streit and the four other co-directors who started the organization may not be paid nearly as much as they would be in the private sector, the rewards clearly are elsewhere.
“All of what we do here seems like art, even the bookkeeping and mundane activities,” Streit said.
Throughout the city and suburbs, groups like Street-Level Youth Media and tech types like Streit are forsaking the money being offered by private firms to accomplish a more noble task–bridging the gap in the “digital divide,” the technological chasm between the upper- and lower-income communities in America.
“The non-profit sector has been slower than the business community in embracing technology, but it’s catching up quite fast,” said Scott Goldstein, vice president of policy and planning for the Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit group of business and civic leaders working with the City of Chicago and various corporations to provide area community groups with better access to technology.
“The key is how do we utilize this technology,” Goldstein said. “We used to put computer labs in the schools, but clearly that model is not enough.”
So people like Streit are providing much-needed training and assistance at community technology centers. In addition to access to computers and multimedia equipment, the not-for-profits offer free education and counseling on the new technology.
Deborah Strauss, executive director for Chicago’s Information Technology Resource Center, a group that provides computer training and assistance for local community groups, believes that not-for-profit educators make an average of around 20 percent less than what they would be paid in the private sector.
Streit, for instance, said he and his co-directors make between $24,000 and $36,000. And at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, where an online learning division was recently established to work on individual projects with Chicago schools and community centers, instructors start out with a salary in the mid-$20,000 range.
“A primary Web designer would make at least two times that amount,” said Rafael Rosa, manager for the Chicago Academy of Sciences Online Learning Division. “The key is that they’re doing meaningful work for the community.”
Indeed, these educators are focused on creating computer-literate communities that can compete in a new economy driven by the technological revolution. Statistics released last year by the U.S. Department of Commerce show that 60 percent of all U.S. jobs now require technology skills.
At places like Chicago Commons–a non-profit with three sites on the West and South Sides that began offering technology classes in March–instructors say their primary goal is to make sure their communities are able to cope in the 21st Century job field.
“It’s ultimately about social and economic equity,” said Mercedes Soto, project director for community technology centers at Chicago Commons. “The technology is a tool that can create connections and opportunities. Or it can further isolate people who don’t have the access.”
Soto said that working within the lower-income communities is more self-fulfilling than working at a private sector job. “One advantage of working in a center like this is the sense that you’re serving the community,” Soto said. “Here, we’re serving the whole family, from grandparent to parent to child, and the technology is a big part of bringing them all together.”
In addition to giving the disadvantaged much-needed access to computers and the Internet, these educators see the new technology as a way to spark social change within the inner city.
Chicago Commons, for instance, has its students work on group multimedia projects as a way to develop collective problem-solving skills.
“We also had the kids use our word processors to create autobiographical books,” Soto said. “You have to provide access to the technology, but you have to use the technology in a way to broaden their literacy skills.
“We’re not just concerned with building computer skills–we want to build skills in critical thinking. We want to have an impact on the self-esteem and the emotional life of these kids. Then if they want to become a Web designer or work for a television station, then we can guide them in that direction. But, first and foremost, it’s about self-esteem.”
Jen Van Metre knows about the thrill of instilling self-esteem through technology education. Since 1996, Van Metre has been an education specialist with the Chicago Academy of Sciences Online Learning Division.
This summer, despite being eight months pregnant, Van Metre was spending her mornings and afternoons in the Pilsen neighborhood working as an instructor at a “Cyber Navigators Camp” hosted by El Valor, a community organization serving the Pilsen community.
The class–offered free to community kids ages 10 to 12–covered the basics on everything from the Internet to Web design to an introduction to HTML. Van Metre was in charge during the first few weeks of the six-week course, teaching her 20 Hispanic pupils about the basics of computers, from how to sign on to the location of the machine’s motherboard.
Van Metre said she’s honored to have the opportunity to instruct these students. “The opportunity to work with these kids face-to-face is something I wouldn’t have at another job,” Van Metre said. “The most enjoyable part of this is seeing the change, seeing when they’re learning something.”
At El Valor, officials have hosted not only the Cyber Navigators Camp, but also a 15-week music education program. The program, created along with the Merit School of Music, helped students learn the basics of music notation and construction using computers.
“In Pilsen, we had a lot of programs with soccer and baseball and football, but nothing with computers,” said Rolando Madrid, El Valor’s coordinator of school-age programs. “My job is to really get word out to the community that we have a technology center here, and we’re going to be offering quality computer-based programs here for the community.”
Parents in the Pilsen community have been enthusiastic about El Valor’s new technology programs.
“We want to give the community what they want, ” Madrid said. “Our end-goal is to have these kids well-versed in technology, so when they do get to high school and college, they’re competitive with their peers outside this community.”
Street-Level Youth Media has around 30 PCs, along with eight iMac computers, many of which were donated by corporate sponsors like IBM and Comdisco. Some of the equipment, however, is funded by the group members, who use their income from day jobs to help the organization.
Street-Level staff members say they’re not only attempting to create a comfort level with the technology, but also establishing a creative outlet for their mostly low-income students. Students are taught how to use digital video cameras and editing programs to create their own fictional and documentary presentations.
The main venue for teenagers involved with Street-Level Youth Media is the group Web site (http://streetlevel.iit.edu/latest.html). There, viewers can witness Web pages designed solely by the youngsters. The projects range from a look at the legacy of enslaved African-Americans (a page called “CHi-dentified”) to a page for teenage girls (“Chiksite”).
“We encourage them to interact with the technology in whatever way is meaningful to them,” said Street-Level co-director Charlotte Saenz-Boldt. “We try to get the kids immersed in this.”
