December

In December, I spent more time getting to know the services that we offer at CommonBond computer labs. I met with Dave, from the IT department in CommonBond, to talk about the corporate computer resources and information. Jessie trained me in the stats program that CB uses to keep track of residents that participate in the Advantage Services programs. I continued working on the CTC Scan to collect baseline data about my sites, so that I could document the work I do over my year of service. I also started brainstorming ideas for what I could work on this coming year.

CommonBond Trainings
Dec. 14 I went to CommonBond Training at the corporate office, it was overview of CommonBond as an organization. As Minnesota's largest provider of affordable housing, CB is a huge organization! They have over 50 communities, and are constantly working on planning, building, and running services at these sites. Their mission is "To build community by creating affordable housing as steppingstones to success." Their vision is "A community that acts on a common bond of belief in the dignity of all people." After training, we had a potluck. These are my kind of people!

Conferences
Dec. 1 The first ever Digital Junction Conference was held! Catherine Settanni, one of the masterminds behind CTEP, is also a co-chair of the MSNet Fund- the organization that put on the conference.

The conference was very inspiring! It was a coming-together of all kinds of community people bridging the digital divide, and there was a lot of networking. I really enjoyed the snapshots toward the beginning, because they were quick overviews of several really cool programs that were doing some important work.
I volunteered to keep meticulous notes during the breakout session, and I attended the Advocacy and Civic Engagement session (with something in there about land use planning and the environment...). We talked about "knitting" people and technology together- the difference between "access" and "literacy" is people. Someone raised the question of how we can form a paradigm of leading with community, not a technology comprehensive policy agenda. The four parts of the process, he said, were 1. access and training 2. quality of content 3. capacity building and 4. applications for individuals and communities.

The conference was intense and very worthwhile, though I think at the end everyone was exhausted from being fired up the whole day!

CTEP Training
Dec. 10 Our fist training at Minneapolis Urban League! Rae Montgomery came and hooked us up with AccessE.info. We also learned about more useful websites- americorps.org, nationalserviceresources.org, and ctcnet.org. We talked about timesheets and the CTEP book club, our CTEP e-mail accounts and the message board. Finally, we discussed the CTC Scan.

Service Projects
Dec. 17 A few of us CTEP members did a service project sorting clothes at one of the CTEP sites.