Summer-Fall 2001

The Lowell, MA Telecommunications Corporation (LTC) prides itself on being the first center of its kind to open from the ground up as a combination traditional PEG (Public, Educational, and Government) access television station with a community technology center (CTC). Since 1994, LTC, committed to first-come, first-served telecommunication services to anyone in the community interested in expressing themselves and to providing training and access to the full range of media communication skills of the 21st century—everything from video cameras to computers, from cable channels to the Internet, for community information and content production.

In the Summer of 1998, after four years of providing training and access to thousands of residents and reaffirming its mission to “Build Community Through Technology"—rather than focus on the expansion and growth of a central PEG access facility—LTC chose to emphasize its role as a community media and technology leader and public convener to decentralize its services and work even more actively with the community. The Lowell Community Technology Consortium is the result of those efforts, a city wide collaboration, consisting of 28 community-oriented organizations as of May 2001.

The Consortium came from a train-the-trainer class developed by LTC in the summer of 1999, that in turn built on the spring organizing effort to develop a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education Community Technology Centers program.

Despite not receiving the grant, formal meetings of the Consortium began in October, 1999 (minutes of recent meetings can be found online). Initially holding small monthly meetings concerned with needs assessment, mission statement forging, and setting up a process for regular communication (monthly meetings, a listserv, and an underdeveloped Web site), the group began to find its rhythm. It grew to eight, then to 10 and 12, and on to its present membership.

Meeting regularly with a defined mission helped spread the word. By March, 2000, the Consortium began to identify its core resource needs. Humans with technical skill topped the list along with easier access to knowledge and technical expertise. Faster and better equipment was not far behind. Along with Internet connectivity issues, these have remained top concerns.

The University of Massachusetts broadband backbone and its nodes in Lowell and Boston provide the infrastructural foundation for building a larger university-community partnership throughout the region.

Being able to identify our resource needs in a systematic way made it very easy for LTC to jump at additional partnership and grant opportunities. In the spring of 2000, Peter Miller, a long time CTCNet activist and community organizer, was beginning work on a pilot program grant to the Corporation for National Service. Drawing together a number of CTCs in the Boston Metro region, this Americorps VISTA program would involve human resource development, training and support for CTCs. Understanding that human resources were a key need allowed LTC to jump on this partnership grant opportunity.

About this same time, LTC received word from the U.S. Department of Education CTC Program that its Consortium proposal would be one of 70 projects funded in the 2000 grant round. The grant had been one of the top-rated projects not funded in the previous year. With $826K spread over a three-year period matched one-to-one by additional community resources, it was clear that the beginning efforts of the Consortium were going to get a rocket boost. Having already begun the work of consortium building, the infusion of the U.S. Department of Ed funds in May, 2000, made it easy for LTC to act quickly in the mobilization of the rogrammatic activities detailed in its grant application. The grant also formalized the Consortium and its activities, brought even more CBOs to the table, and infused the project with additional much needed human resources—a project coordinator, technology coordinator, and funding for CTC trainers and site managers.

During the first year of the grant, concluded on April 30, 2001, the Consortium has been able to:

• hire a full-time project director and a full-time community technology coordinator;
• convene and support the technology activities of 28 NPOs engaged in technology education and access;
• purchase equipment and support the creation of five and expansion of eight CTCs;
• provide staffing support for tech coordinators;
• provide basic curricula and skill assessment for those beginning programs;
• work with other community initiatives such as technology planning for NPOs;
• create a foundation for a community database;
• use convening authority to build local support for national endeavors (i.e., CTCNet and America Connects Consortium); and
• bring speakers and funders to the table with a strong collaborative identity.

The forming of the Consortium has also allowed us to draw in additional resources from other sectors as well. For example:

• LTC and the Consortium have been actively involved with the University of Massachusetts/Boston's College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) and the national CTC VISTA project, the partnership that has brought five AmeriCorps VISTA members to Consortium member agencies. This partnership has led to work on a collaborative grant to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program (TOP). Also a vital link with the Center for Family, Work and Community (CFWC) and the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development (RESD) at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell is leading to the development of accredited training opportunities for those looking to work within community media and technology environments. LTC and the Consortium are playing a crucial link between these two UMass campuses. The Consortium has also formed a partnership with the UMass-Lowell Computer Science Department, which has provided training space, student labor, and connections to additional resources.
• The Consortium was also able to present 13 of its member organizations involved in youth-based technology centers to PowerUp as a powerful model of a local/regional partner. Two Consortium member agencies (CFWC and Recruitment Resources Consulting) will become PowerUp sites within the next six months, with additional sites to take root in the next three years.
• The Consortium has been able to leverage additional funds from the Verizon Foundation and the HUD funded Enterprise Community Grant program to support human resource development and training. A partnership with the Cisco Foundation is in the beginning stages and one Consortium member agency, the United Teen Equality Center, has garnered both cash and equipment resources from them.
• The YWCA was able to leverage its membership in the Consortium and its funds through the Department of Ed grant into matching resources for a Department of Justice Seed Tech grant that helped them expand their partnership to work with the local Weed and Seed program.

The collaboration is in the process of trying to codify what goes on in our centers in terms of information, knowledge and training, to create models for ourselves and others to learn and grow from.