CTN works to address long-standing social and systemic inequities in order to bridge the digital divide.

We offer both in-person and remote digital skills courses and provide free, internet-ready devices to learners. Our programs and curriculum are designed with our partners and stakeholders in order to meet their unique needs, and we strive to provide volunteers and staff from the learners’ own communities. We also host local pop-up events to provide ongoing technical support for our learners. 

CTN helps individuals acquire home internet as well. We host Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) workshops to help people sign up for the federal government’s discounted broadband services and we train members of other organizations to become ACP Enrollment Training Specialists so they too can help people enroll. 

In order to share the knowledge that we’ve gained over the past 14 years, we offer capacity-building training to other organizations, so that they can effectively integrate digital literacy programming into their daily service delivery. 

Helping Recently-Homeless Individuals Overcome the Digital Divide with HomeRise

CTN is working with the nonprofit HomeRise to bring digital skills to individuals that have recently experienced homelessness.

Says Selena Turner of HomeRise, “We work with a very underserved population. Many of our clients come from low-income backgrounds, are people of color, or are undocumented…On the street, many people still use flip phones. Folks are left behind without resources and may not know how to access them. It’s amazing to be able to bring these devices and digital skill sets to them.”

Bringing Communities Together at Burbank Housing

As part of a grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Burbank Housing partnered with CTN to offer its elderly residents digital literacy courses. CTN’s training marked the first time that Burbank Housing opened its community rooms, which had been closed for two years, since the pandemic. 

Says Burbank Housing’s Mary Lockhart, “[This program] is bringing people back together after COVID. The group is always laughing and joyful. Additionally, many of the seniors’ grandchildren are reaching out to them, like, ‘Hey, grandma, now that you have a tablet, let me show you how to do this and that.’ It allows families to keep in touch. Overall, CTN is not only bringing communities together, but it’s bringing families together as well.”

CTN Reaches New Audiences With EAH Housing

In 2022, CTN continued to expand geographically, both within California and Texas and across the nation. Early in the year, we began offering digital skills training to residents of EAH Housing, an affordable housing nonprofit, in San Francisco and San Jose. However, the partnership has been such a success that EAH asked us to begin training at additional sites in Marin County and Napa Valley. 

Says EAH’s Chris Burger, “We’re so happy to partner with CTN. I would describe CTN with three Ps: professional, profile, and passion. Every time I connect with anyone from CTN, they are always so professional. They’re on time, and they get the job done. Meanwhile, in terms of profile, you just see CTN everywhere. They’re part of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), they participate in a bunch of digital equity calls, and they’re part of the national community working to close the digital divide. Lastly, CTN has passion. This speaks for itself.”

CTN Addresses Local Needs in Santa Clara County’s Public Libraries

According to Kelly McKean from Santa Clara County’s Milpitas Library, “Libraries are all about literacy — not just in terms of books, but in terms of all resources. Today, the tool that people need to succeed is digital literacy.”
In order to provide their patrons with digital literacy tools, Santa Clara County’s Public Libraries teamed up with CTN to offer one-on-one training in multiple languages.

Explains Kelly: “Our computer training lab has 36 computers for adults, but if someone needs help in doing something specific — such as making an email account or applying online for a job — we don’t have the staff capacity to provide everyone with one-on-one assistance. Also, in Milpitas, 67% of residents speak a language other than English. There are diverse language needs here that we couldn’t meet on our own…CTN is providing a really valuable service for the community.”

Texas Blues Legend Acquires Digital Skills with CTN

Matthew Robinson, a 74-year-old from East Austin, Texas, is a living blues legend. He has been playing blues music for over 50 years and has even toured internationally!

After completing digital literacy training through the Senior Connect program, Matthew, a self-taught guitarist, is now taking online guitar lessons to learn official techniques which he originally taught himself. He also frequently uses YouTube to watch videos from his childhood music mentors.

Matthew’s advice for other learners: “Technology is growing every minute, and you don’t want to be left behind. You don’t want to have to depend on others every day. When you’re at my age, you still want to feel useful, like you can do things and be helpful. That’s why I would encourage everyone in my age group to take this program.”

Finding Employment Thanks to New Digital Skills

Laurie Rehaney was living in a Sunnyvale homeless shelter when she first heard about CTN. She knew that getting online was the key to searching for jobs and that it could help her eventually get back on her feet, so she was determined to participate in our digital literacy classes. She remarks, “I don’t have a car, so I walked a long way to get to the first class. That’s how important it was to me to get a computer and a job!”

Along with a small cohort of learners, Laurie learned how to navigate a Chromebook, use Gmail and Google applications, and search and apply for jobs. Thanks to her new skills, Laurie landed a full-time position working in home care! She reflects, “Thank God for this computer; I never would have found my new job without it.”

Learning Digital Skills to Better Serve The Community

Theresa Wallace is an activist. She is creating her own nonprofit and drafting policy proposals for the local government. She is also a patient advocate at the hospital and is involved with community organizations. However, she realized that she needed to learn digital skills in order to more effectively serve her community. 

“During the pandemic, I wanted to be able to communicate, but I couldn’t do it in person. I realized that I needed digital literacy to learn to do things like navigate Zoom and send emails,” Theresa says. “Additionally, as the chief operations officer of my own organization…I need to understand technology so that I understand what my employees are doing. I also want to be able to use tools like Microsoft Word and spreadsheets to maintain records.”

Theresa reflects, “This is a wonderful program, especially for seniors like myself that have been out of school for eons. The version of the digital world that we know no longer exists.”

Ivy Au

Ivy decided to volunteer with CTN during the pandemic. “Because of COVID, I recognized the importance of the internet. I was able to stay connected with my doctors and teachers, and every part of my life basically continued. I realized I was fortunate to be able to access technology,” she reflects. 

Wanting to give back, Ivy became a digital coach with CTN. She hosts weekly lessons with Renee, an older adult, and tailors her classes to meet Renee’s needs. So far, Ivy has taught Renee to check out books and movies online through the Free Public Library and to use Youtube and Netflix. She’s also helped her sign up for Facebook to stay in touch with loved ones and to use Zoom for telehealth appointments. 

Says Ivy, “So many seniors lack adequate internet access and skills, and I hope that, by being a digital coach, I am able to improve people’s quality of life, even if in small ways.”

Mary Grace Reich

When Mary was in the Peace Corps in Namibia, she worked at a school that had recently acquired wireless internet and she saw the transformative impact of technology in communities. When she came back to the U.S. she decided to volunteer with CTN and support Home Connect learners as a Digital Coach. While volunteering, she even conducted research among CTN learners about their experiences.

“In the past, a lot of the senior learners had experiences where they were made to feel inadequate or slow,” Mary Grace reflects. “ I think there’s a sense of sort of personal vulnerability for the learners to be like asking for help, yet they all expressed how incredibly patient their digital coaches were and how much the digital coaches created a space where they didn’t have to worry about being slow or forgetting something.”

Helping Individuals Sign Up for the Affordable Connectivity Program

Wilma Chan first heard about CTN through her local library. She immediately signed up for remote digital literacy lessons through our Home Connect Program, and we provided her with an internet-ready tablet. However, we soon realized that Wilma lacked a stable internet connection at home. 

The federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) offers low-income households discounts on their broadband plans. However, the online applications process can prove daunting, particularly for someone who is unfamiliar with the Internet. 

CTN’s Jannette Estrada helped Wilma navigate the process and even conducted phone calls on her behalf. Eventually, Wilma was able to receive the discounted broadband services that she deserves. 

Since many people are still unfamiliar with the ACP and uncertain about how to sign up, Google Fiber gave CTN a $20,000 grant this year to launch an ACP Enrollment Specialist Training Program. As part of this initiative, we will train members of nonprofit organizations, social service providers, and other agencies so that they, like Jannette, are equipped to help their clients register for the ACP.

CTN’s Commitment to Data Collection and Analysis

Maintaining data integrity has always been a priority for CTN. For example, our staff has actively participated in the Metta Fund’s Evaluation and Learning Capacity Building Program to improve our data system and monitoring and evaluation. 

In 2022, we took this commitment even further. First, we participated in the University of Texas at Austin’s CONNECT Program, which paired CTN with Shiyang Zhang, a fourth-year doctoral student. Shiyang supported the data collection, analysis, and reporting processes for our DigitalLIFT program. She developed pre- and post-assessments to analyze the impact of our learning modules, and created a diagnostic assessment, which according to CTN’s Skye Downing, “helps us understand the needs of partner agencies so that we can provide customized recommendations to best serve them.”

Additionally, CTN announced in 2022 that Pat Jew will become the organization’s first data quality and control manager. Says Pat, “Data is extremely important to CTN’s work. It helps us see if our service is impactful and allows us to track our performance so that we can identify the direction in which we want to go. By using data, we can make informed decisions and create strategies for growth.”

2022 Community Partners

California
30th Street Senior Center
Bayanihan Equity Center
Bayview Senior Services
Booker T Washington Community Service Center
Burbank Housing
Center for Elders’ Independence
Centro Latino De San Francisco
Chinatown YMCA
City of Oakland
City of San Leandro
City of Stockton
City of Sunnyvale
Community Living Campaign
Compass Family Services
County of Sonoma
Curry Senior Center
Department of Disability and Aging Services
DISH SF
Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center
EAH Housing

E
Episcopal Community Services (ECS)
Felton Institute
Glide Memorial
Hamilton Family Services
HomeRise
Institute on Aging
IT Bookman Community Center
Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly (LBFE)
Lutheran Social Services (LSS)
Onlok
Piedmont Gardens (HumanGood)
Rosa Parks Senior Center
San Francisco Public Library
Santa Clara County Library
Sequoia Living
Shanti Project
Sourcewise
Stanford Health Care
Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center
Tabernacle (Westside Courts)

New Jersey
South Brunswick Public Library

New York
Capital District Library Council (CDLC)

Texas
ACCEYSS
AGE of Central Texas
Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ)
City of Round Rock
Community Organizations Reaching Neighbors (CORN)
El Buen Samaritano
Goodwill of Central Texas
Martindale Community Library
St. David’s Foundation
Texas Association of Regional Councils (TARC)
Round Rock Public Library

2022 Staff Members and Contractors

Mel Ao
Paolo Banzon
Ben Boone
Josie Boyle
Melissa Bravo
Josh Chan
Qianhua (Ivy) Chen
Lauren Cotter
Skye Downing
Patricia Dwyer
Jannette Estrada
Kari Gray
Kami Griffiths
Jasper Hua
Ryan Huang
Patricia Jew
Erika Jones-Clary
Dima Khoury
Jody Kuang
Xiaolin Li

Stephen Minor
Alexey Morov
Hyewon Park
Jessica Pasquarello
Freddy Piedrahita
Audrey Potts
Patrick Qiu
Valerie Robateau
Phil Schutt
Carol Simmons
Sabrina Tam
Dale Thompson
Vy Toung Vo
Maria Vazquez
Jiabo Wen
Joy Williams
Tom Yang
Nyarie Zhou
Rafael Zuniga