Background
BackgroundCreated in 2005, these instructional workshops, provided free to the public, focus on bridging the digital divide by targeting the socio-economically challenged, those with limited access to computers and people who are novices when it comes to technology.
The camps aim to increase participants’ knowledge of computers, familiarizing them with common terms, computer parts and operations, word processing and programming, simple troubleshooting solutions, using the Internet and more.
The Computer Boot Camp covers a wide array of topics, including word processing basics and formatting, advanced word processing tools and features, writing tools, Excel spreadsheet basics, advanced spreadsheet features and Power Point presentation graphic basics, advanced presentation tools and features, among other topics. The classes are taught by members of Omega Psi Phi whose technological expertise has been gleaned from both professional and entrepreneurial experience.
Partnership
The Uplift Foundation has an opportunity to revive the Computer Boot Camps through a memorandum of understanding with the Nevada Public Computer Centers (NVPCC), which are run by the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League. The Urban League received a $4.68 million Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program grant from the federal stimulus package. There are 31 centers offering free computer classes, free Internet access and various workshops and seminars
Programming
Uplift and Omega have an opportunity to offer one-on-one teaching assistance to users of the computer centers as well as creating classes to teach to participants (those classes would have to be approved by the NVPCC director). Instructors would have to pass background checks to be able to teach. The computer centers service approximately 5,000 people weekly. For assisting the NVPCC, the Urban League has expressed an interest in supporting Uplift and Omega in their initiatives.
