East Providence’s Meeting Street recently became GTECH’s 63rd site for its After School Advantage Program.
GTECH began the program in April 1999 to help disadvantaged children in inner city communities gain access to computer technology. The company runs the program in both school and community-based after school programs in communities where it has operations.
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According to Robert Vincent, vice president for corporate communications, the impetus for the After School Program was GTECH’s desire to “focus our charitable giving at something meaningful, instead of just spreading money around.”
GTECH not only donates the computers at a site, but company employees volunteer to install hardware and software, and other equipment, and provide computer training as well. GTECH estimates it donates an average of $20,000 in computers, on-line technology, computer software and volunteer hours per site.
Meeting Street is a 55-year-old organization providing educational, therapeutic and developmental services to children who have developmental delays or disabilities, along with support services for their families.
Shelly Murphy, director of marketing communications at Meeting Street, said GTECH’s donation will serve two of the organization’s programs — the Clubhouse After School program, and the Resource Center.
Compared to organizations GTECH has donated to before, Meeting Street is “a little non-traditional,” Murphy said. Located at 667 Waterman Ave., East Providence, it isn’t entrenched in the inner city. The population Meeting Street serves, however, faces challenges similar to those found in an inner city.
According to Murphy, about 60 percent of the children served at Meeting Street are eligible for Medicaid, and half are minorities. More than 75 percent of Meeting Street’s families reside in the metropolitan Providence area.
“GTECH has been very flexible (with the After School Advantage program) in recognizing what we’re trying to accomplish,” Murphy said. She said the process of applying for a donation took only a few months, with Meeting Street officials writing up a proposal after someone heard about the program.
Meeting Street School, one of the four core components of the organization, has about 145 students, she said. Meeting Street serves more than 2,500 children annually.
GTECH’s donation, Murphy said, will provide Internet access to the room where the Clubhouse After School program is held, and to the Resource Center.
The after school program was developed to provide a place for Meeting Street students who are too severely disabled to be home alone, while the Resource Center is a research facility open to Meeting Street staff and families of the children Meeting Street serves.
GTECH initially committed $3.3 million for the entire After School Advantage program over three years, but Vincent said that doesn’t necessarily mean the program will end when that period is up.
“I’m not sure we envision it ending Once we’ve done the number of sites we’ve intended to do, we may go back to existing sites and upgrade,” he said.
