Mario Bueno is executive director of Progreso Latino in Central Falls, a nonprofit aimed at helping the Latino community gain access to housing, health care, work and technology. Along with three other nonprofits, Cox Communications just awarded the group a $10,000 Tech Boost grant to provide technology tools to the sector it serves.
PBN: Does Progreso Latino intend to use this funding to better equip its office to serve the Latino community?
BUENO: We have a preschool program and an after-school program. This will mainly be used to give youth access, to ensure we have more computer access for our students to do homework and work on activities here throughout the week.
PBN: How many kids are involved in this programming?
BUENO: About 180 during the year, including our summer camp program. They range from kindergarteners to elementary school students. Nationally, data shows that the less access a child has to the internet at home because of income disparity, the more they can fall behind. Right now the equipment we have is too outdated to serve them; with the grant, we’ll have the opportunity to offer a much wider array of technology to use for their benefit. Some [kids] have technology in school, but they can’t take it home. This way, they can catch up [on work] before they get home. Focus on homework first, that is the goal.
PBN: What is the first priority in terms of using these funds?
BUENO: Connectivity here. The network needs updating; we have someone looking at that. It’s a busy building and we’re exhausting our bandwidth. Not everyone can get on it at the same time with 100 people in one space. We need to be sure we can get that done in quick order.
PBN: In addition to that, what tech tools will be purchased for youth programming?
BUENO: We haven’t made any purchases yet; we’re trying to get our head around it. We want to see what other tools we can purchase to help make sure we maximize the resources so they are long lasting, so they support learning beyond this year. We want stuff that is durable.
PBN: How will the funding affect curriculum there?
BUENO: We’re hiring a part-time person to be part of the after-school team at Progreso Latino to work on developing students’ [science, technology, engineering and math] skills. So, we’ll be doing project-based stuff throughout the week with different cohorts coming through.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
