Photo: Cardinal Point student graduates and CTN staff celebrate virtually to commemorate the completion of the digital training of almost 40 Cardinal Point residents.
In May 2020, CTN announced a new partnership to deliver digital training to up to 40 residents at Cardinal Point, a Foundation Communities property in Austin. Made possible through funding from Charter Communications and begun in mid-June, the program recently wrapped up with a virtual “graduation” event.
For the past seven weeks, over 30 Cardinal Point residents participated in the online classes. Despite most of the classes being optional, three families had perfect attendance, meaning they attended the online training all seven weeks. Their eagerness to learn was inspirational for other student learners as well as the trainers.
CTN staff members Carlos Sivira, Josie Boyle, and Sabrina Tam (all living in San Francisco) conducted a total of 25 hours of virtual training for the Austin residents. A new topic was presented each week, with multiple offerings on different days and times of the day designed for both PC and Chromebook devices. Only the first topic, “Internet Safety,” was mandatory. This training topic is intended to ensure that residents both acquire the skills they need to do fun and useful things online and also learn to be a smart and safe internet user. Priority is given to knowing how to avoid scams and prevent identity theft.
Every Monday, Emmanuel Zapata, adult education program manager at Foundation Communities, distributed the handouts for the week to the residents. He also helped set up and preinstall Chrome and Zoom on the computers before giving them to the residents. Emmanuel expressed his gratitude for CTN’s efforts: “Thanks to CTN, we were able to provide 40 of our residents devices for their homes. They also received online courses to help them learn how to best use their own devices. This was an incredible opportunity for our residents, and we are extremely grateful that our partnership with CTN continues.”
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