The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

I'm Wade Henderson, the executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nations oldest, largest and most diverse civil and human rights coalition. On behalf of the Digital Empowerment Coalition, comprising over one hundred national and local organizations working to preserve and strengthen the federal government's leadership in expanding opportunities in the digital age, I want to welcome you to the launch of this, the Digital Empowerment Campaign.

Today's event is the first in a series of activities that will take place over the next several months all across the nation in support of continued federal funding of community technology programs. At the outset, I want to stress that expanding opportunity in the digital age, and supporting community technology programs in particular, is not now nor has it ever been a partisan issue but I especially want to thank Senator Max Cleland and Senator Barbara Mikulski for their leadership and for joining us here today and participating in the program.

Now, recognizing that no one should be left behind in the coming information age, both the executive branch and the legislative branch, reflected by our Senate participation today, working in bipartisan fashion have played an important leadership role in bridging the knowledge gap that we generally call the digital divide. This leadership has helped to accelerate the adoption of 21st century literacy skills among economically and geographically distressed and otherwise underserved communities. Today's event and future events will continue building on that bipartisan experience.

Two days from now will mark the 48th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education, the decision that ultimately ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional as a concept and had no place in the United States. In doing so the court removed what at that time was the single greatest legal barrier for all persons in our country, but in particular African Americans and others, to participate fully in our society. Since that time, our nation has made extraordinary progress in breaking down legal and other barriers that have kept individuals out of participating in our society but there is still obviously a lot of work to be done.

Today we stand at the dawn of the new information age and the communication revolution that is transforming every aspect of our society. At its best, this revolution is about expanding opportunities for all whether you live in a rural community or the city, whether you live on the east coast or west coast, it about giving every citizen, every person who is here the opportunity to participate fully.

But all Americans unfortunately are not sharing in that opportunity. Research continues to demonstrate the gaps that continue to exist both in access and in the use of technology. And as more and more interactions and transactions occur using information technology, whether its about e-commerce or e-government, we are at risk of alienating a large part of our society not only from the robust world of information opportunities but also from the goods and services that are beginning to rely on this information technology.

Now, government can and should continue playing an important role, albeit a modest one financially, in helping programs that bridge the digital divide to continue. The Senators who I am about to introduce have been real leaders in that effort. But we know that underserved communities many, for example, in states, be it Georgia, Maryland, Maine or California are not adequately serviced and they need resources and these programs help to provide them. The importance that our nation places on advancing digital opportunity will go long way in determining not only the strength of our communities but the strength of our economy. And that's also one of the messages we want to deliver today.

Now towards that end the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and our sister organization the Leadership Conference Education Fund have joined groups like PolicyNet, CTCNet, and over one hundred national groups to help forge this new digital opportunity alliance. And I just want to acknowledge several of the groups that are here today very briefly standing behind us: the Alliance for Latino Community Technology, the American Bar Association, the AFL-CIO, the Religious Action Center, the Athena Alliance, the Alliance for Public Technology, the Benton Foundation, the United Church of Christ, the National Telecommunication Cooperative, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and PolicyLink just to name a few are all here today to help us launch this new digital campaign.

Now we are particularly concerned about two programs and our most important goal is trying to preserve their continued funding. One is the Technology Opportunities Program administered by the Department of Commerce, the other the Community Technology Service Program administered by the Department of Education. And today our digital empowerment coalition is sending a letter to Congress urging full funding for these important programs and our letter is being delivered this morning.

Over the next several months representatives from this digital empowerment campaign will travel to communities all across the nation to mobilize additional support for community technology programs. We also want to note that we have formed, as part of this campaign, a new website that's located at www.digitalempowerment.org and that will play an important role in our activities.

Now without further ado, I want to introduce the two senators who have really been helping to lead this campaign who along with Senator Olympia Snow, who had been part of this effort, working in conjunction with our two members here today have played such an important role. It is my privilege to introduce Senator Max Cleland from Georgia who in turn will introduce Senator Barbara Milukski from the state of Maryland.

I just have a couple of thoughts here before we really get started. First, I am reminded of when President Franklin Roosevelt came to Georgia in 1938 and he threw the switch that created REA, the Rural Electrification Administration, which made it possible to connect a rural America with the virtues and values of electricity. In many ways it lit up rural America. And we are today to throw the switch again and light up all of America particularly those on the other side of the digital divide and make sure that they have an opportunity to participate not only in this marketplace but the global economy as well.

A second thought is that if the wind blows this paper away we're going to have a much shorter press conference than originally intended.

Let me just say thanks to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and we appreciate you bring this issue to our attention.

Let me just talk a little bit about the Technology Opportunity Program, TOP, administered by the Department of Commerce and the Community Technology Center Program, CTC. It's an understatement to say that the Internet has really changed the lives of those who can use it. A study by the Pew Foundation in January of this year revealed that 14 million Americans upgraded their employment skills using the Internet, 11 million Americans sought medical information for themselves and their loved ones using the Internet, 9 million Americans used the Internet for financial planning decisions and the list goes on.

Although a record number of Americans have Internet access, a digital divide still exists between those with different levels of income and education, different racial and ethnic groups, old and young, single and dual parent families, and those with or without disabilities. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that the gap in Internet access rates between African American households and the nation as a whole is now a whopping 18%, 3% more than in December 1998, and that gap is growing. The gap in Internet access between Hispanic households and the national average is about 18% over 4% more than it was just 20 months ago.

The TOP and CTC programs supply critical seed money for technology projects in low-income urban areas, rural areas, and Indian tribal lands. Since its creation in 1994 the TOP program has awarded 530 grants nationwide, totaling about $200 million and leveraging about $300 million in local matching funds that create innovative demonstration projects in the areas of high-tech employment skills, emergency services, telemedicine, disability access, education and so on.

Since its establishment in 1999, the CTC program had delivered will over 200 grants almost $100 million worth to promote the development of model programs that demonstrate the educational effectiveness of technology in urban and rural areas.

These programs have been models of public and private partnership to help deploy high-speed Internet service and I stand here today with my colleague, Senator Mikulski, and the support of 20 other Senators, expressing our support for providing $45 million and $65 million to support TOP and CTC respectively. This funding supports important programs like the Institute for Community and Organizational Development Programs in Athens, Georgia. We have Robert Harrison, the program director, here with us today to certify and testify to the benefits of TOP and the difference its made in the visually impaired community in rural northeastern Georgia. These services would most likely not have been available if not for TOP.

The Internet is changing the way America gathers and processes information, and by excluding certain sections of the population from accessing this information we are not only cheating the people being excluded but also the gains that would be made through the sharing of information and resources.

And now let me just introduce a lady who is a fighter for people and equal justice for all. No surprise she is fighting for broadened access to the Internet services for all our people in this country Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

Good morning everybody, I am so pleased to be here as a part of this digital empowerment campaign kickoff and to be here with my honorable colleague Senator Max Cleland, a real fighter for the people, as well as our colleague Senator Olympus Snow who again has stood up to be sure that there is no digital divide in the United States of America.

I think it is absolutely wonderful that the digital empowerment campaign is being launched and that the 75 organizations here represent a broad coalition of American advocacy groups who have stood for empowerment, because I feel that this issue, related to the digital divide, is one of the single most important issues that will determine the destiny of our American people and even our American country.

Make no mistake-- a digital divide exists. What is a digital divide? Well, on one side are those who have access to technology and access to people who will teach them how to use technology and access to the physical infrastructure to transmit and transfer technology.

If you are on the right side of the divide, meaning that you have this access, your future as a person, a community and even a country is bright. But if you are on the wrong side of the divide, it will take a lifetime to catch up and meaning that your opportunities are indeed glum and dim.

This is why we must stand together on closing the digital divide. What is so important about this issue is that it is a coalition issue,and Wade I want to thank you because the Organization of Civil Rights has been a coalition organization. I have seen poverty in my rural Eastern Shore, whether it's in my mountain counties of western Maryland or in the prosperous Baltimore-Washington corridor. I've seen economic poverty,though what I have not seen is a poverty of spirit. People need a physical infrasructure to transmit technology and access to the technology and this is why we stand together.

Two years ago, I reached out to the Black Caucus and to the Hispanic Caucus to help craft legislation called the Digital Empowerment Act. The purpose of the Digital Empowerment Act was to practice the ABCs.

A was to make sure that every child in the United States of America would have access to technology and access to the ability to learn technology.

B was for the best-trained teachers so we could upgrade our teachers so they knew how to make the highest and best use of technology to teach the kids.

Number C, to have a goal that every child in America be computer literate by the time they finish the 8th grade. We passed the legislation, we passed the national goal and now we come to the part of "Show me the money." Well now as we've worked on this, we were making great headway and we had momentum.

Working in the United States Senate, my signature issue was to put the money not only in the federal law book but also in the federal checkbook for community tech centers. Why did I want community tech centers? Children and adults learn often in their own community. There what we saw in community tech centers is that people could either learn technology or upgrade their technology by the day, their kids could be in there for structured after school opportunities in the afternoon and the families could be there in the evenings and on weekends.

We were making headway and last year's budget that passed the United States Congress, I was able to get over $50 million into the federal checkbook for these community tech centers. I thought we were on a roll. I thought we had momentum. I thought we were reaching out to close that digital divide but then, regrettably, I must say, that when I saw President Bush's budget I am deeply, deeply disappointed in the Bush budget. They zero out community tech centers, absolutely zero out the funding.

They zero out the funding for preparing teachers for technology tomorrow, a $62 million cut. It's not about cutting the money; it's about cutting opportunity. Technology is the tool but empowerment is the outcome and that is why we need stand together. We need to work together to get that money in the federal checkbook so that our children and our young people can have opportunity. Let's stand together. Each and every one of the groups up here has made a difference. When we work together we can make a change. Let's change that bottom line. Let's get out there on the front line and make sure that our American people do not face the digital divide. And I look forward to working with all of you.

God bless you and God bless America.

Wade Henderson: The American Council of the Blind has been one of our most important partners in this campaign, and I'd now like to invite Charles Crawford, the Executive Director of the American Council, to come up to the podium.

Charles Crawford: Good morning everybody! Thanks so much for all of you coming, I have a very short message and it comes from two emails this morning that I got.

One was from a member who was really enjoying the fact the he now has access to technology, he told me all about the differences that it made in his life, and I will forward that to the Digital Empowerment Web site so people can see that. It's the naked truth of an individual's life being changed by what we are doing today.

The other email was from the president of our Illinois Affiliate who said tell me what I can do, what we can do to make this happen.

And so I did, the fact of the matter is that all of us here together make the difference for the people back home who really do benefit from this program. So let me sum up what we are all about here.

In the '80s we went on Section 508, we got protection for blind people and disabled people to have access to technology in the federal government. Then we won on the ADA because we wanted access to our nation, and now we face the real issue, how do we make all that happen with the tools that can be given to us through the Technology Opportunities Program and the CTC.

These are real important programs to us, 25,000 blind people stand together today ready to lobby for it, and we will. And with your help, we will all get there. A house divided cannot stand, let's heal it, let's get these programs.

Thank You.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I think you know, having heard Senator Cleland and Senator Mikulski, why the groups assembled here today are going to be effective with the Digital Empowerment Campaign, with their leadership, their passion, their insight on why this issue is important, how it cuts across the variety of communities in our country. We can't help but be successful if we forge the kind of coalition we have here. We can't.

We also are joined today by several organizations that had personal involvement through their own institutions with these programs and speak to their importance. Of course, I gave a list today of some of the groups that we've here. Unbearably, I left off one that has been quite an important ally in our campaign. That is the Children Partnership. I really want to emphasize they were involved as well and they've been so important.

Now, I'd like to invite Dr. William Sprigs, Director of Institute for Opportunity and Equality of National Urban League.

Thank you, Wade. I want to thank Senator Cleland and Senator Mikulski for joining us here today, for taking the leadership on this issue. I want to thank Senator Snowe for her leadership on this issue as well.

The National Urban League is the nation's oldest and largest community-based organization dedicated to move the African-Americans to the economic mainstream. As the description suggests, we are deeply concerned with having access to technology because that is access to the economic mainstream.

Just a minute ago, I did see Larry Irving, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and head of NTIA, we want to thank him for his early leadership on the TOP program.

Many people who are looking at the National Urban League and what we are doing with the technology&em;we have our affiliate here from Baltimore as well as Senator Mikulski who is making a big difference in Maryland with access to computer and high-speed Internet access in Maryland.

But the League's ability to deliver these services started not in the 1980's when we started writing about a computer device and not when we started talking about digital device but in 1997 through the TOP program, the League finally got funding that allowed us to set up centers throughout the nation that let low-income children and low-income workers get access to the Internet.

This is vital in our after-care programs; it is vital in our job-training program to make sure that those who are looking for job have the skills that they need, to make sure that those who are looking for jobs get to use the new technology to find out about job opportunities, and that children start out with a closed divide, with the ability to know about the technology.

From that initial grant in 1997, we have now built up to 70 campuses throughout the United States and we are building to have one in each of our over one-hundred affiliates throughout the United States.

It is very important that we continue to have funding for this program. It is not the money that closes the deal. It is the money that seeds the deal. It is through a government partnership from federal side, from local community-based organizations, like National Urban League, and local governments that we are able to make these Centers work. So it isn't just a handout but it is the seed money that is turned into a wonderful fruit that is closing the digital device.

Now I would like to introduce Jacqueline Johnson, the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians to present the views of NCAI.

I represent the National Congress of American Indians, the largest and the oldest Native American organization in this nation and we are the representative voice in Washington for all our member tribes. And nowhere is the lack of technology and telecommunications infrastructure more apparent than in Indian country.

In fact, nearly 40% of rural Native Americans lack basic telephone service. And less than 10% have access to the Internet or have personal computers.

In fact, it might be more accurate to say that Indian Country faces a "dial-tone" rather than a "digital" divide. TOP and CTC programs have been invaluable to help us bridge this gap, the technology gap in Indian country and Alaskan Native communities. In fact, in the 2002 fiscal year, $4.2 million dollars went to Indian country and we began to see the creation of programs in some of our communities that have made major differences in dealing with education, medicine, job creation, training, disability issues like many of the other communities.

Let me just touch on my own community, in Alaska, they have a program that connects the Sioux to the University. So, those in the rural villages in Alaska can actually improve their education and their skills for future job training. Cherokee nation, White Mountain Apache and Oglala Sioux have created community technology centers that address things such as issues of the elderly, medicine, telemedicine and other kinds of health care issues and youth programs.

Today, TOP and CTC programs have started to make a dent in our most critical area which is basic access and lack of infrastructure in all areas in Indian country and it would be a shame if we couldn't continue those programs. In fact, we risk falling further behind in our quest for technology equality with out these programs. We appreciate the support of the coalition and the Senators that are here today.

Thank you.

Good Morning everyone, thank you for allowing us to share some information about our Community Technologies Center with you.

We received a grant from the US Department of Education CTC program to provide services to those that do not have a great deal of access to technology.

Our primary population or our focus area has been on families on public and assisted housing, fathers that have youth in the child support system, as well as youth in foster care.

Since May 2000, we have provided online and classroom training, and resources to over 2,000 residents in Baltimore City.

Our training has included instruction, and /or on-site certification in A Plus or computer repair, mouse or office productivity, Cisco or network training, web design, as well as robotic camps for youth.

The impact of our programs have been tremendous. We have been able to find employment for people, to assist people in getting promotions, to help assist people with online funding for college and scholarships, as well as provide internships.

Those have been very important, but we have also had success that aren't as tangible, but are still important to us.

We have allowed grandparents to connect with grandchildren for the first through communication via email. We have improved self-confidence and self-esteem in many people; we have allowed people to have a sense of not being left out.

We haven't been able to do this alone, we have received a lot of support from Verizon, UPS, Proctor and Gamble, the National Urban League, CTC Net, Power Up, and others to name a few.

The need for this is still great. Schools in low-income communities don't have the amount of access and resources available to make a difference.

Colleges and universities aren't accessible to everyone, and they can be intimidating. And the costs of corporate training are still high for our population.

We hope that we can count on programs like CTC and TOP to make a difference in our community.

Thank You.

We have two representatives from states, Senator Mikulski and Senator Cleland, from Georgia and Maryland. But the ones who actually implement and supervise these programs, I thought it would be important to hear from them as well. I would like to invite Robert Harrison, Project Director Center for the Distance Resource Center of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Athens, Georgia, and then we'll hear from Michael Smith, Technology Director at the Baltimore Urban League.

Good morning all, I bring you greetings from the Resource Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I speak on behalf of one of our most able administrators, Peggy Chavous, she is very active with the American Council for the Blind, and she herself lost her vision about 10 years ago.

I would like to just highlight the thankfulness we have on behalf of the TOP program. We were able to procure a grant and establish a resource center. We found out through our resource center that we had a population of about 300,000 persons and about 300 counties that at least 20,000 of those persons were blind or had visual impairment.

We have been able to use our use technology to establish voice-activated web access, internet access, email access, a person can check their voicemail, and also access the other popular services like travel and those types of things.

Now the other point that I would like to make to you is about the services that we've been able to use the technology for. We are offering computer literacy, we are offering Braille, we are offering micro enterprise, and we see these particular classes and others leading to more self-sufficiency for persons with visual impairment. We are seeing it leading to micro enterprise, and more important, to workforce development.

We're excited about the TOPs program and would be a shame if the switch was turned off, as Senator Cleland mentioned. And we hope that through your prayers and our collective effort, we will indeed be successful in the next round of funding.

Our final speaker, and one of the real partners in this effort represents CTCNet one of the organizations that has really been most involved with providing leadership on these issues. And it's now my privilege to invite Erroll Reese, the Board Chair of CTCNet, to give our closing comments. Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you Wade. Greetings to Senators Cleland, Mikulski, and Snowe and my colleagues joining me here at the podium and to all of you here assembled. It is a great honor to join the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the more than 100 bipartisan organizations for such a critical and significant event, the launching of the Digital Empowerment Campaign to save two valuable and important technology programs TOP and CTC. Again I'm Erroll Reese Board Chair of Community Technology Center Network, better known as CTCNet, a network of over 700 community technology centers across the country.

Our role, quite frankly, is to connect these centers to people in low-income communities to resources both electronic and in person and to each other. We have a ten-year history basically in providing much needed services to non-profit agencies and to provide access to computers and computer-related technology for communities and connecting these centers across the country. We at CTCNet, we bring the voice of the community technology centers to this campaign. I'll be remiss if I don't mention that we are very excited and elated about this activity.

Well the federal investment has been significant especially for the CTCs. It allowed us to start a campaign to sustain ourselves going forward. We serve on the front line of what you call the digital divide, and I think its essential that we provide these services so that we can continue. The elimination of these funds quite frankly will be significant blow to our efforts in making these programs go forward. We offer things like after-school programs for technology particularly to young people. We represent what we call a very exciting and powerful and revolutionary effort in the digital opportunity and inclusion for communities traditionally ignored.

States and private interest really rely on federal help more than ever. Federal leadership is very critical and we have that here, but we are going to take that to the Hill also as well as ensuring that these events for the centers are sustained and funded. Such an innovative program like the Department of Education's CTC initiative, we talked about before, provide access to and the utilization of information technology for the people of color in low-income, poor, urban and rural communities across the country.

I want to mention a couple as I have a few minutes here or a few seconds, actually. One is that in southeastern Michigan a program by the name of Connect, which is a project with the Boys and Girls Clubs in southeastern Michigan. It provides access to technology to over 8,000 young people ages 6 to 18. These centers are primarily for economically distressed areas in Detroit. They provide valuable resources such as basic computer skills training, career counseling, information sessions hosted in conjunction with other non-profit agencies local to the area. One of the great things about some of the funds we receive is it allows us to create partnerships with local industries such as government, private industry and academia.

The last one I want to mention, we are in the 3rd year of funding this project. It is something that is very important and is based on the leadership of Senators Cleland, Snowe and Mikulski. This particular project was allowed to get the 3rd year funding because it was in the process of being pulled in the 3rd year. It's located in Palmer, Alaska. The name of the project is the Masioux Digital Connection, which is 21 digital cutting edge resource centers for lifelong learning for the Masioux community that insures that services are always available for all Alaskans. If you think about the population it serves, you will see the significance of the project. Population served are Alaskans living in remote, isolated areas, individuals with minimal technology skills, persons living below the poverty line, women in transition, students at risk and high school drop outs.

Those are just some examples that really make it vital that we continue this program.

I'm here today to stand in support of that. Over the last years the federal government has played a phenomenal role in incubating and supporting community technology centers. The work of bridging the digital divide has begun and full funding at the federal level must continue. It will continue. It has to continue. It should continue. Thank you very much.