So much of everything, from correspondence to homework assignments to the news, is conducted online nowadays.
As ubiquitous as the Internet and computers are, schools, nonprofit organizations and governments in Santa Barbara County and beyond have found that a digital divide still exists, not just in wide swaths of the developing world, but pockets of their own communities.
Organizers at EqualiTech, a newly minted Goleta nonprofit organization, found that the South Coast is no different, with one such pocket existing in Goleta’s Old Town neighborhood.
After incorporating nearly a year ago, EqualiTech collaborated with an array of local organizations, companies and individuals to launch the Goleta Valley Tech Center, which opened in April at the Goleta Valley Community Center, at 5679 Hollister Ave. in the heart of Old Town.
In the community center’s Room 5A, visitors can find 10 computers, a laser printer, headsets and wireless Internet access provided by Cox Communications. People are also welcome to connect their own devices to the center’s WiFi.
“I was inspired by just my students, and learning that some of their parents didn’t even have email accounts,” said EqualiTech executive director Danny Fitzgibbons, who teaches at Kellogg School a couple of miles away.
He and his partners, Ashley Switzer, who also teaches at Kellogg, and Julie Nisbet, a software developer, found that the Goleta Valley Branch Library was the only public space where locals could access the kinds of resources most take for granted.
“In this day and age, that wasn’t good enough,” Fitzgibbons said. “I felt like students or any community members should be able to walk less than a mile and find a computer to use.”
The trio conducted some research in conjunction with Computers for Families, a partnership program with the Santa Barbara County Education Office, and found that 92 percent of Old Town residents “would find it helpful to have free access to computers, printers and Wi-Fi in their community.”
Nearly two-thirds of those residents lack access to a personal computer in their home, they found.
About half of the survey respondents said they would use tech center services for educational purposes, about 25 percent of respondents said they would use them for work, and another 25 percent would use them for email.
Among the center’s partners is Padres Unidos, whose co-founder, Salvador Güereña, will be teaching computer literacy classes in Spanish on Tuesday nights for the next couple of months in Room 5A.
With the center up and running, the goal is to grow the facility’s user base and expand community support so the center can extend its hours beyond the current 20 each week, Fitzgibbons said.
From there, EqualiTech wants to introduce educational classes like computer skills and coding, and eventually extend into other communities like Santa Barbara’s Westside neighborhood and Carpinteria.
“I definitely think it’s a model we could expand to other parts of town,” Fitzgibbons said.
The Goleta Valley Tech Center is open from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Click here for more information about EqualiTech. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.