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Introduction Welcome to the Highland Addition Community Center. Living in the Highland Addition community presents challenges and opportunities. The challenges come from the fact that our residents must meet the demands of life without many of the basic needs of life that others take for granted. The opportunities come from the fact that we get to work with people to help improve their lives. We try to ignore or work with the challenges and work with the residents to make life better for all. We are very thankful for the computers and other resources that we have received from the Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Howard University Urban Environment Institute. We were very doubtful when the Navy Yard first approached us about working together in their Walls to Bridges program. Every day, we see people coming here making promises and then leave. It happens all the time. We are happy and pleased that when the Walls to Bridges program changed, the Urban Environment Institute, DOE and EPA stuck with us. Our community technology center has made life better for a lot of residents. We have training class of all sorts. We take trips and expose our residents to new experiences. We are forming partnerships with many organizations and agencies to make life better for our residents. This is only the beginning.
Building Community Capacity
The Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to environmental justice and public participation. Meaningful public involvement can lead to better and more just decisions. Some of the decisions that call for the public’s involvement require consideration of matters that are highly technical and complex in nature. It is often where various segments of the population are unfamiliar with the multitude of issues, that there is a need to help build capacity for effective decision-making. During 1998, we worked with Howard University’s Urban Environment Institute to donate computers to communities around the country. The purpose of this effort is to facilitate community access to the necessary tools and information to increase their capacity for participation in agency decision-making. We have donated computers to cities, communities groups, public housing developments and an elementary school. Each donation was for a specific purpose. One of the very first communities we worked with was Highland Addition. The Highland Addition Community Technology Center is a model for communities around the country. We want to work with this community to sustain a center that can improve community capacity for public participation in federal agency decision-making. This is one use of the process that works as follows:
The last two steps above are being developed first at Highland Addition. The youth development program "GolfTech," that mentors youths through golf and academics, first appeared here at Highland Addition. We are proud to be a part of and supporters of GolfTech. In like manner, the economic development activity to make the center financially self-sufficient is being implemented first at Highland Addition. These two efforts distinguish the Highland Addition center from others. We are pleased to play a part in its success. Capacity Building in Federal Facility Communities
The Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee was chartered to consider issues in federal facility cleanups. The Committee released a series of recommendations in its report, "Final Report of the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee." Chapter 6 of the report focuses on capacity building. It states, "the basic premise of this entire report is that federal facility cleanups will be more effective and efficient if there is a working partnership between the regulated agency, the regulating agencies, and the vast number of other stakeholders that are affected by environmental contamination at these sites. However, the effectiveness of most of the recommendations in this report regarding community involvement, advisory boards, and including other stakeholders in the budgeting and priority-setting process are dependent on the various stakeholder groups having the capacity to participate effectively. The Committee believes that the provision of resources for this purpose, particularly if provided in a cost-effective manner, is likely to reduce overall cleanup costs in the long run." While in EPA’s Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse Office (FFRRO), I really appreciated the opportunity to work with DOE and Howard University Urban Environment Institute to help build community capacity in federal facility communities. It was of particular interest to work with Highland Addition, a community located in the Nation’s capital and a community experiencing the effects of environmental restoration projects at the Washington Navy Yard and Bolling Air Force Base. There are numerous opportunities for community participation in the restoration and reuse of federal facility properties. This project affords another opportunity to forge strong working relationships between community groups and federal facilities in the District of Columbia. There are other reasons that make this project exciting. First, the effort to increase environmental justice and public participation through electronic access holds real potential for numerous community residents who would otherwise be unable to participate in environmental decision-making. Discussing local environmental issues at a local community technology center empowers citizens to make informed decisions. Ample community participation in agency decision-making has been, and continues to be, an EPA priority. Second, it is also interesting to learn the non-environmental uses of the Highland Addition Community Technology Center. The GolfTech program and screen printing classes can provide valuable experiences for community residents, and bring new participants to the centers. Both reasons support federal actions to build capacity for meaningful public participation in agency decision-making. For additional information, please visit the FFRRO website at: www.epa.gov/swerffrr. Gone Fishing: The Urban Internet Project is helping public housing residents tap the Internet
THE COMPUTER equipment piled on the coffee table in Gloria Thurman's Highland Addition apartment doesn't look much like fishing tackle, but if the old Chinese proverb is to be believed, that’s exactly what it is. "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day," the proverb says. "Give a man a fishing pole and he eats for life." It is all analogy that John Rosenthall understands as he watches Thurman trying to worm the hook, so to speak, of her new computer. Rosenthall is executive director of the National Urban Internet Project, which is trying to show public housing residents like Thurman how the vast global network of computers can improve their lives—help them learn employment skills, find jobs, complete their education, maybe create thriving small businesses. "If this "Early adopter" Gloria Thurman and National Urban Internet head John Rosenthall is a fishing pole," says Rosenthall, "then the whole world is her ocean." Thurman is one of earliest adopters at Highland Addition, a town house and apartment complex in Southeast Washington. While she sees the huge body of possibilities before her, for now she'd settle for something more modest—like getting her freshly loaded shareware communications package to run. She tweaks as she talks. "For a person in public housing, going on-line means that the means to better yourself aren’t out of reach anymore," she says. "If someone came up to you today, out there in the courtyard, and said, ‘OK, I’ll send you to school for free’—how are you going to do it? You leave your job, who’s going to pay your rent or take care of your baby? But this," she says, patting her monitor, "This is right here. It’s just like I can walk right around the corner and get my education." The corner in this case leads to the Highland apartment unit designated as the computer training center, where, today, six donated and reconditioned AT clone computers have arrived. A group of volunteers is waking them up and installing software. Sure, these old rigs are a far cry from the leading, edge, but they’re only a first step. Before Highland residents do any serious surfing, they must learn the basics: Using a keyboard. Writing a letter on a word processor. Re-booting. "Giving someone a computer is a cruel joke unless you give them training to use it," says Rosenthall. Upgraded computers and Net access are in the master plan, but their arrival depends on the generosity of donors. Rosenthall stresses that the future of the Urban Internet Project—which has the backing of 14 groups, including the in-the-neighborhood Washington Naval District, Howard University’s Urban Environment, the Bureau of Land Management and the Riddick Bowe Foundation—is in the hands of those who will benefit. It’s been an easy sell to partner organizations, but it’s tougher to sell at Highland Addition. "A lot of adults are afraid of computers," says Thurman. "There are some resistant people here who’ve been saying they’re going to hold their kids out of the computer center and all. They’re afraid to get involved and learn because they’re afraid to feel dumber than their kids are." It is a familiar problem with the Internet and computers: Going on-line is intimidating and preposterously complex, and perhaps even more so for those who have had fewer years of schooling. But Thurman remains enthusiastic. "I think if we give the ordinary person access—if we take them to the computer center and show them places they can go, people they can talk to—it’s going to change them, empower them. People have been calling me at home—‘Gloria, when are the computers coming?’ It’s going to open a lot of doors, and there are people here who know that. They do." Baechtel is an FFWD reviewer. To contact NUIP, call 703/922-7653, or e-mail resenthj@rtk.net. Chronology of Events
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