Episode 1: Lorum Ipsum Transcript

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

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00:00:00] George Koster: We are opening the archives from when I first launched the show as part of a class at City College of San Francisco's KCSF. Across a decade on air, chronic crises we identified years ago only got worse in the pandemic and continue to plague our communities today as they struggle to address these familiar crises.

Here's co-host and associate producer Eric Estrada with today's guest.

[00:00:30] Eric Estrada: The digital divide is the gap between people who have access to technology and the internet and those who do not. This divide can limit opportunities in education, jobs, communication, and access to important information. Our first voice is Cami Griffith, executive director of Community Tech Network, about how the digital divide is negatively impacting communities that are below the poverty line

[00:00:52] George Koster: This is George Koster with from Voices of the Community.

I'm here today with Kemi Griffiths, the executive director of the Community Technology Network, discussing the digital divide and solutions to address the issue. Kami, welcome to Voices of the Community.

[00:01:05] Kami Griffith: Why, thank you, George.

[00:01:06] George Koster: I wanted to start with a little background on how long you've been engaged in working in what people call the digital divide.

[00:01:12] Kami Griffith: I started doing volunteer work in 2003 for the Parks Department in New York City, and I had previously been a graphic designer working at a nonprofit in San Francisco, and I decided I really liked helping people with their computer skills. Some folks that I worked with were a little challenged by the computer programs they had to use, and I helped them, and I found it very rewarding.

So it was actually in 2002 that I decided I wanted to start a nonprofit and help people imp- improve their computer skills. Did a little research and realized that would be really hard, so maybe I should start by trying to be a computer instructor. So I started volunteering and moved to New York, and through my volunteering for the Parks Department, I got a job with them.

So for two and a half years, I ran weekly computer training programs and helped people who had never used the mouse before. Probably 400 different people I helped over that course of that time, and that's when I realized that people also had a hard time reading and writing, so I became an adult literacy tutor as well.

And the two things together are just super important, to be able to communicate, period, and to be able to communicate using the internet, and to be able to access employment opportunities and research health information and watch cat videos or whatever the thing is that people want to do, I want to help them with the skills.

It was 2003, and then when I moved to the Bay Area, moved back to the Bay Area in 2006, I started working for TechSoup, which is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with their technology, and I did a bunch of webinars and I interviewed a bunch of librarians about how they maintain their public computers and just became much more well-versed in the issue.

TechSoup, where Community Technology Network started as a project. I joined the steering committee and helped get its 501[3], and we became an official nonprofit in 2008. I've been running it since 2008 in some way, shape, or form, and now we are a full-fledged nonprofit with full-time staff, and we have contracts all over the city, and it's a really exciting opportunity for us to bring more training into underserved communities.

[00:03:14] George Koster: Within your work for what appears to be almost a decade, what is the economic impact of people not having digital skills?

[00:03:22] Kami Griffith: Not having skills means you can't apply for a job online, and the only way to apply for most jobs now is by submitting a resume via email or submitting information about yourself in an online form.

So for people who can't do that, they're being excluded from all of those jobs, jobs like janitorial jobs, maintenance, housekeeping, jobs where you don't need to use a computer But you are now expected to use a computer in order to apply for those jobs. They're being left behind. People who are paying more than they should for phone calls.

So think about having family in another country, you're paying a dollar a minute or w- you know, these crazy prices for long distance when you could be basically having free voice and face-to-face conversations. And then there's education. So you could pursue your education for free online, get better credentials, and get a better job.

It won't happen overnight, but it is possible, and it really is, sky's the limit. If you have access to the internet and you know what it has available for you, and you know how to use it, you can really change your life, and you can change your community's life too if you're an activist, if you can use these tools to disseminate information.

It's just an amazing revolution that we're living through, and there are 20% of the overall population being left behind, and that percentage increases as someone is older or lower income. If they're an immigrant, they're all less likely to be using the internet. Pew Internet has some great data to support this.

It's really a problem. I... And it's something that just is getting worse because the more people are expected to be online and they're not online, they're just being left behind. So I think a lot about older adults who are on a fixed income, that if they could make just a few more dollars a month doing something, working via th- through the internet in some way, that can make a huge difference in their lives.

[00:05:15] George Koster: You and I recently sat through that presentation. The numbers were staggering, the amount of people just in, you know, San Francisco alone that basically didn't have a connection, and then those that just had a dial-up connection. For one thinks of San Francisco as the epicenter of technology, as I recall, I think the number was like 100,000 people that didn't have a connection.

[00:05:36] Kami Griffith: Right. 50,000 that have dial-up. About. Like dial-up is just laughable. I can't even imagine. The content-rich websites nowadays are not made for a dial-up connection. So if you just try to go to any page that has two or three pictures on it, you're gonna wait for a few minutes just for those pictures to load on a dial-up connection.

So yeah, 150,000 people in San Francisco, the city where technology is booming and companies are making these amazing tools, and some of them are actually making lots of money. What has happened because of that is the increase in rents and everything else, and having the wealth be shared a little bit more widely would be pretty great in San Francisco.

And I know some companies are trying really hard and doing some really good work around it. Zendesk and Twitter are two that come to mind because they have distributed money. They have promoted volunteerism to their employees. So if more companies embraced that model, Salesforce is another great leader in this area, I think we could be in a much better situation.

[00:06:38] George Koster: One of the other things I wanted to get your point of view on is- We have all these programs like Google Fiber drops in some community, or the president and the White House puts together HomeConnect. So the idea is that somehow you provide someone a broadband connection, and then all of a sudden, magically, they now have the ability to utilize all of that technology to engage as an e-citizen.

What's wrong with that scenario?

[00:07:04] Kami Griffith: People need to know how to use the tools that keep changing. It's great to have access to the internet. It's essential. And you also need a device, so a laptop, a tablet, a phone, whatever, that is suitable to the needs that you have. So if you're looking for a job, you do really need a laptop or a keyboard.

You can't very easily do a job search on your phone. But regardless of that, people who aren't online currently don't necessarily know how to engage online. They might know how to do Facebook. They might know how to do email. They may not have email etiquette, so you'll get an email in all caps or being yelled at through your email.

You don't know what you don't know. So people simply don't know what's available to them and how they could benefit from all these awesome tools that are changing people's lives. And so I think fr- from my perspective, we need to both raise awareness of what's out there, entice people to come out and get training, or do something to gain the skills, not master the tools, 'cause I don't think any of us master them, but to use them competently and independently and safely.

And those things don't just happen. Like, I wish they could. Like, put your tablet under your pillow at night, and you wake up in the morning and be like, "Ooh, I now know how to do an extensive Google search." That doesn't happen, and I think we're all learning. I'm, I, I'm constantly learning new things. I have to for my job and for my family.

I learn new things from my husband and from my son, who's three, if he breaks something. He bought a 99-cent book on our Kindle last year, and he's only three. So we're constantly learning, and I think of it as being a lifelong learner and learning to learn online and figuring out, like, wow, there's all these amazing TED Talks, or YouTube is full of interesting how-to videos.

My husband has replaced our headlights on our car. He fixed our flat screen television that had stopped working because of YouTube. And a- all these resources are really quite remarkable, and yet this certain population of people who are either, they miss the internet generation, they're, they don't have enough money to afford it, they're being left behind.

The skills are essential. You can't just put the internet out there and expect people to be like, "Yay, now I'm connected," 'cause it doesn't really work that way.

[00:09:25] George Koster: We're sitting in Raphael House. It's one of your partners. Perhaps you can walk us through what kind of a program the Community Technology Network provides for a partner like Raphael House.

[00:09:36] Kami Griffith: Our partnership with Raphael House is pretty informal. They requested a volunteer. We were lucky enough to find Kevin, and they love him, and he has done a great job of getting more learners to come out and engage with him in what they, what their goals are. So for our work here, there's no big goals that we're accomplishing.

We're not saying, "We want you to help 10 people get an email address in this year." We're really responding to needs as best as we can. What we're talking about with them now is coming up with something a little bit more formalized, where people have an intake. We help them assess what their goals are and help them reach their goals through the online tools that are already out there.

And so over the course of a three-month period, perhaps we'll help four people get an email address and a LinkedIn profile and finish their resume and have applied for 10 jobs, or something like that. So that at the end of the three months we can say, "Okay, d- did we collectively as partners meet our goal of helping four people meet their goals?"

And that's the kind of thing I'd like to do in the future with Raphael House, which is somewhat similar to some of the other projects that we're doing at

[00:10:42] George Koster: the other programs. What are some of the other programs that Community Technology Network provides for low income youth, youth of color, seniors?

[00:10:50] Kami Griffith: We have two big programs, and then we also have a fee for service business.

We have the SF Connected program in partnership with the Department of Aging. We're in 26 senior centers around San Francisco, 40 or so volunteers every week going out and giving between two and 10 hours of their time helping seniors and people with disabilities get online, answer questions related to Facebook or search, or, "How do I use my phone?"

A lot of people have- lifeline phones or Obama phones that they've been given, but they don't actually know how to use them to make a phone call. We're helping people make phone calls now. But that's just the way technology is. It is so diverse with so many different languages that it's really a challenge.

So that's the SF Connected program. It's really awesome. We love it. Ready, Set, Connect program is in partnership with the Oakland Public Library. We have 20 young people who are volunteering in the library, helping patrons with their computer questions, and they're working on their own professional development.

Through the course of eight months, they learn how to do social media, some web design, some graphic design, some social media. In the end, they will have a resume, a LinkedIn profile. They'll have gone to two or three different companies and do site visits like at Google and Schoolzilla is one that they're doing in December.

And they have a final project that they have to do. Either they make a website or they do a video or they create some c- curriculum. So it's a really cool program. It's, this is our fourth session. So our fee for service work, we essentially get hired to run training and develop program for other nonprofit.

We're partnering with Compass Family Services and Twitter to deliver some training in their Neighbor Nest. We have a partnership with Saha Homes, which is a affordable housing developer in the East Bay, and we're delivering training at three of their locations over the next year, and a few other in the pipeline.

[00:12:38] George Koster: Is the Saha Homes tied into the California Advanced Service Fund work and working with public h- housing or affordable housing residents?

[00:12:45] Kami Griffith: It is. It's called AB 1299 is the assembly bill. It's an amazing gift to the state of California, this $25 million statewide, 5 million for digital literacy. So Saha Homes applied, and we were written into the grant, so we are therefore their digital literacy provider.

But we also have been written into two other grants, and so hopefully we'll hear in January if we are also working with Bridge Housing and ECS. What that money pays for is us to deliver digital literacy training in some way, shape, or form, and each location will be a little bit different. In one location, we may be doing basic skills, so helping people use a mouse, all the way up to web design.

We did a needs assessment kind of focus group the other day at a location in Berkeley, and the seniors there, they were all beyond the basics. They're like, "I wanna put my digital photos online," and, "I wanna make sure that I can get my computer to work better." There's this huge range of needs that they have, so the one size fits all solution is just not gonna cut it.

We have to do very customized and possibly even one-on-one tutoring.

[00:13:57] George Koster: I know you're also engaged in the Google Fiber Digital Inclusion Fellowship. Tell us a little bit about that program and how Community Technology Networks and- enabling that

[00:14:06] Kami Griffith: N10 is the nonprofit that's managing the digital inclusion fellowship that Google is funding, and it's two individuals in eight cities that are essentially developing digital literacy programs throughout those cities.

We were involved in the initial training in Mountain View back in July. I delivered a webinar for them just last month on how to do outreach and raise awareness about your digital inclusion program. So that's the extent of our involvement, but I'm a big fan. I think the idea's really, really great.

Thankful that Google is putting the money out there to make this happen because we need more leaders doing this kind of work in their communities all across the country.

[00:14:48] George Koster: You're always in the midst of creating programs, and one of the programs kind of based on your Ready Set Connect programs and, and your fellowship programs is, is the idea of, of digital fellowship and working in public housing because, uh, for the obvious needs that the average public housing resident has about a fifth-grade reading level, falls into the digital have-not.

[00:15:10] Kami Griffith: The Digital Fellows Program is an idea that if we can get it funded, would find roughly two people who live in or around a housing development to be the computer center coordinator/trainer. So if you can imagine having a computer center in a housing development, but it's always locked because no one is there to teach and no one's there to oversee.

That's the situation at most of the housing developments that I know. They all have computers. They might be really old, or they might be new, but they still can't keep the doors open 'cause they have nobody there to oversee the computer center, and we get calls all the time wanting volunteers. Nobody has money.

So getting an investment in a program that will build the capacity of residents who live in the community to both improve their skills and share their skills with the community is just a great idea, especially when there's computer centers sitting there waiting for something to happen. So I envision a program where we have, say, 10 or 20 fellows as part of a cohort, and they're at different housing developments across the city, and each of them are mandated to help 50 people gain basic computer skills.

If they help 50 people, then they've, they've done their job. What that would look like is that those 50 people know how to use the internet independently. They could go to the library and log in and send an email if they wanted to. They would be able to access information independently and safely. Think of the community that's built when you have a computer center that's active and vibrant with actual programming that happens that meets the needs of the residents.

And it's possible, but it takes coordination, it takes leadership, and it takes money. I would see these fellows being part of a 12-month program, getting a monthly stipend. Similar to ReadySet Connect, they would get site visits at companies. They would even maybe get a mentor from a local company, 'cause at the end of it, I would see them having gained incredible technology skills, because when you teach someone how to do something, you learn it much better yourself.

Having started as a volunteer teaching computers, I learned how to use the computer better because I was a teacher. So helping people grow their skills, helping the community grow their skills with the goal of helping people connect at home to the internet. Because if you have a child or if you have children, they need the internet in their homes to do their homework.

If you're a job seeker, you need the internet in order to do your job search. If you're an older adult, you need the internet to stay connected to family and to end isolation. So all these different populations benefit by having the internet in their homes, but they're not gonna get the internet in their homes if they don't know how to use it and they don't see how it's relevant.

So I'd see these fellows serving almost like an ambassador role as well, promoting the internet, being the biggest cheerleader that we could find to say, "Here's why the internet's important. Here's how to use it. I'm gonna be here to show you how to use it. I'm gonna be patient and understanding, and if you have to write it down on a piece of paper to remind you, then that's fine."

And our, our tutors help our learners in such a patient way that the learner doesn't even really know they're learning. They're enjoying themselves, and they're just growing with the skills that they're learning. So the fellowship is a really important program because housing really needs it. We really need people to help other people gain those skills.

And why not choose from the folks who already live there? 'Cause then the commute isn't very far.

[00:18:41] George Koster: What digital skills training does to enable someone to change their life?

[00:18:44] Kami Griffith: Well, I think the possibilities are limitless, and it's really us who know what's possible sharing it with others who don't know. So having people like Kevin who are giving their time and their knowledge and sharing it is really the most remarkable thing anyone can do.

So if someone wants to be a volunteer, if you send an email to volunteer@ctnbayarea.org, you can get more information about becoming a volunteer. We would hope that people would give two hours a week for at least three months, and to really deepen their knowledge about the community that they're serving.

And in three months' time you'll see some pretty remarkable things happen. So get out and volunteer.

[00:19:23] Eric Estrada: Coming up next is Kevin Cohen, a technology trainer for Community Tech Network at Raphael House. I'm

[00:19:29] George Koster: here today with Kevin Cohen, technology t- trainer, who works with Community Technology Network, and please give the audience a little background on when you started to use technology and when it became something that you became passionate about

[00:19:44] Kevin Cohen: I'm a digital native.

I grew up with computers in the house for all of my life. I think if, if I recall back, we had an old Macintosh in the office back in the day, and I thoroughly enjoyed on Saturday mornings sitting on my dad's lap playing Space Invaders or whatever the game was. My comfort level was, uh, imparted at a very young age and carried over obviously into what I was interested in.

Obviously, I work in technology nowadays and help train users now to interact with technology and how to use it.

[00:20:14] George Koster: Was it a, like a tipping point in your youth where you were there playing a game and sharing it with another person? Is that kind of where it started, or did you get the technology bug in hanging out with your dad and playing games, and then in turn spreading that?

[00:20:30] Kevin Cohen: Yeah. I think technology for me was always enthralling because it, it seemed almost limitless, right? I was very young when the internet actually came about, and m- my family was fortunate enough to be able to afford to have internet accessibility. And as, as a young, very curious 13 or 14 young teenager, I realized that the internet and the share of ideas that was capable over the internet was really something that was very powerful, and that it was a real opportunity to learn as much as I could and soak up as much as I could.

At that point, I mean, I was sold, and now I'm fortunate enough to be able to share that experience too with others.

[00:21:13] George Koster: You moved to San Francisco, and you work in the technology space itself, and so what have you come to understand about the proverbial technological divide? I think you had a really good term for it.

[00:21:27] Kevin Cohen: My term for it really, that technology today is a present day apartheid. Really when you think about apartheid, it means a state apart, and when you look at just the San Francisco Bay Area itself, there are so many people that w- you know, are very present in the tech boom, and those that aren't are ... and don't have the technical skills that allows people nowadays to be a part of that workforce, right?

If you think about it today, that is really such a gating factor in, in becoming a part of the workforce. I mean, it is really essential today. And why I say that it's apartheid is because those that do not p- possess those skills are then pushed further and further out and are less and less encouraged to be, to learn those skills and be a part of the working community or the tech community, right?

And so it's somewhat tragic that happens, and I think that's what's really motivated me to get involved, and I really do see, because of the stark contrast in the people that do work in the tech field like myself and those that kind of do make up the have-not group- aren't able to easily cross into the have group.

[00:22:39] George Koster: How did you become aware of Community Technology Network and then become engaged as first a volunteer, it sounds like, and then a trainer?

[00:22:47] Kevin Cohen: Yeah. So I actually fortunately found Community Technology Network online. I was actively looking to get involved in the community in some aspect, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity when I found it, and it turns out it's been more than anything I could have hoped for.

It's so rewarding on an everyday basis.

[00:23:06] George Koster: What's been some of your favorite experiences?

[00:23:09] Kevin Cohen: My favorite experience, and you'll talk with Jose in just a moment, Jose up to this point had never used the internet or even computers in his lifetime up to this point, and with the opportunity he's been afforded with being here at Raphael House, it was amazing to work with him on his first time ever using c- a computer and starting from square one, introducing him to the basics, introducing him to a mouse, which if you think about it, a mouse is a very abstract concept to really anything in real life.

So being very patient with him and seeing how new doors were being opened for him and his life was just an incredible experience for me.

[00:23:51] George Koster: What do you think s- are some of the key technical digital skills that someone should learn, whether it's Jose, who's, you know, young and in youth, all the way up to someone who is a senior?

[00:24:03] Kevin Cohen: I definitely ... I'm biased. I work in the internet space, but I do think that the internet is such a, a haven for the sharing of ideas and communication. It's such a powerful communication tool that I think that's a great place to start actually because with an educational tool such as YouTube, where you can find videos and other information too to train you or teach you on other skills, right?

That's ... The internet becomes a great place to start. You can then start to navigate and find other things that, that you're interested in and also receive training via YouTube or other training sources there so that you can learn other aspects about interacting with the computer, rather than starting with something like Word, I think.

You can learn Word from watching a YouTube video, for example. So I, I definitely think step one, I would encourage internet use.

[00:24:55] George Koster: Are there any just kind of core programs or skills that someone ... Obviously getting on the internet is one thing- Mm-hmm ... right? But using a browser, using

[00:25:04] Kevin Cohen: it safely. Definitely u- us- using a browser and using it safely is a core competency that I think is definitely needed in the workforce today.

Email, Cami was talking about it. Email is really important nowadays because that has really become one of the primary communication mechanisms with which we operate by today. Email, texting has replaced almost face-to-face interaction in some respects. And therefore, that's a- another very critical tool in terms of not only communication, but then finding a job, right?

Most jobs are actually found via the internet, and email presents itself as one of the first opportunities to really introduce yourself, and therefore having the requisite skills and understanding of how to use the tool is critical to really ad- advancing in the workforce. What other digital

[00:25:58] George Koster: skills would you like to learn so that

as the trainer, so that you feel like you could increase your training offering, if you will?

[00:26:06] Kevin Cohen: Everybody can get better at this, I think. It's not necessarily a technological tool or anything like that, insomuch as it is just in- interpersonal relationship building and teaching skills that I think so much depends on just being so very patient and being to clearly and cogently describe exactly not only the steps to achieve something, but also the potential in something that really makes what you're saying stick and last.

And I think that's something that everybody can improve on, not just myself.

[00:26:40] George Koster: As a trainer, do you feel like becoming a trainer and sharing your passion for technology and helping others, how has that in turn

[00:26:48] Kevin Cohen: helped you? There's no doubt that it's helped me, not only in a ... not only from a professional standpoint.

What's interesting is I work in product management, and product management is not necessarily well understood, but it marries kind of the concepts of business, design, and engineering. And what's kind of afforded me a really interesting, an interesting concept is that I work with users that interact with different design, and because they don't have experience with it, you can really understand how interaction design makes a ton of difference, right, in usability and interaction when you think about it.

So from a professional standpoint, that's really kind of afforded me an interesting opportunity to really see that, right? It's almost task analysis on a daily basis for me from a professional level. But from a personal level, it's just so incredibly rewarding. There's not many words to really describe, I think, this opportunity, but the op- but in turn the opportunity that I, I feel like affording to others as well and opening up doors is something that I'll always cherish, no doubt.

And some of the looks that I think we get from our learners is just incredibly priceless. I'm getting a little emotional right now in talking about it, but it's something I'm very passionate about and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[00:28:13] George Koster: What's missing? I mean, obviously you're here. We've heard Cami and the Community Technology Network only has so much money.

She's trying to get funding. There is this digital apartheid that you've talked about. What would you like to see happen in a city like San Francisco?

[00:28:28] Kevin Cohen: I think especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the tech boom and the tech bubble that we live in, right, it's very easy to focus on those skills that are cherished, right, and valued in our community, which is technical savviness, right?

And as a result of kind of the valuation of those skills, those that do not possess those skills are again pushed out and silenced in a way. So if we can recognize that and point that out and be vocal about it, it'll draw that much more attention to it, and I think that's what's missing, right? It's the folks that are kind of pushed away into silence that then become invisible, and we need to pull them out of that, right, with encouragement, with patience, with the desire to make a difference, right?

If we can do that, then I think we'll see change start to happen.

[00:29:25] Eric Estrada: Coming up next, we feature the voice of Jose Mutan, a recipient of Community Tech Network's basic tech training workshops at Raphael House.

[00:29:33] George Koster: This is George Koster from Voices of the Community, and I'm here with Jose Mutan. Jose, welcome to Voices of the Community.

[00:29:40] Jose Mutan: Thank you.

[00:29:41] George Koster: I wanna start out with a little background on when you first started using technology, and what was your experience?

[00:29:48] Jose Mutan: Well, I actually started this year coming to Raphael House. And so Kevin is actually the first person that's actually took the time to help me out with it. And I've never worked a computer, so yeah, Kevin opened my eyes to this.

[00:30:02] George Koster: Was it because you didn't have access to the computer, or you were afraid of the technology, or, you know, had some negative experience that made you shy away from using it?

[00:30:12] Jose Mutan: Well, and the reason why I haven't actually got into technology, first of all, I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I started drinking at the age of 10, 11, and I come from an abusive home.

And so that was my escape, and a lot of things I didn't learn. And then I'm five years clean and sober, and so I said, "Now it's a new start." Came here. Raphael gave me the opportunity to learn a lot of more things, and Kevin was the person to help me with this, and it's about time. I held it back because due to my drinking.

[00:30:47] George Koster: Did you come to a realization that you needed to... I mean, what made you come... Obviously, you've got sober and clean. Was there at some point along that pathway that you realized, "Wow, I really need to figure out how to engage in technology"? What was it that happened that perhaps was a trigger?

[00:31:04] Jose Mutan: People have told me, "Get on board."

And I guess, you know, like, I wasn't really caring about it. In, in the state of mind that I was in when I was drinking- I really didn't care much what was going on in my life. But now that I'm sober and a brand-new life for me, it's like, "Hey, let me, let me catch up. Let me get with the rest of the world and see what's going on and learn about this technology."

And so he opened my eyes to this and, you know, I'm learning. I'm seeing what is out there. Uh, it's helped me a lot. And you

[00:31:39] George Koster: came to know Kevin through the Raphael House experience. Let's spend a few moments on how you found Raphael House, what's been your experience here, 'cause it sounds like it's also been instrumental in helping you reinvent

[00:31:53] Jose Mutan: your life.

I came to Raphael House because I've heard a lot about it, and I'm a single father. I have two teenage daughters, and we became homeless this year. And this was a place that came to my life, and I came and got this opportunity to be part of it and come here, and they have helped me a lot. It's an incredible place.

I've been learning a lot. There's so many resources and so much to help you get work if you need that, and just like the computers, classes, and so many different things they got to offer here.

[00:32:26] George Koster: So it's a great place. You came into Raphael House. You started on the pathway of digital skills learning. Are there some experiences that you've struggled with?

[00:32:37] Jose Mutan: Yeah. Well, it's like actually I'm starting from the beginning. I had no idea how to even turn on a computer. I had to learn right from the beginning, and now it's like they're telling me, "Hey, there's a whole world out there with this." And I've been learning, yes, a lot. And he's right, and I'm just learning every chance I get the opportunity to come to this class, and

[00:33:01] George Koster: we have it every Thursday.

What have been some of your favorite experiences or favorite kind of aha moments that you've discovered in learning how to use technology? Everything

[00:33:10] Jose Mutan: about it. I had no idea what it was like, but it was-- Kevin put, "It's like an ocean out there." There's so much to learn. It's so big. So-- 'cause it's a lot.

I've learned. Finally, sent my first email and received. We learned how to do that, and just even exploring so many different things. I can't even think. In that short period of time, I've learned so much. He's taught me a lot in such a short period of time.

[00:33:36] George Koster: Has the use of technology or learning how to use technology made it easier for you to access services?

Obviously, you're here. It sounds like you, you and your family are at least stabilized in Raphael House. Yes. It's

[00:33:50] Jose Mutan: helped me also how even to look for a permanent place to stay and look for housing, something that's easier now le- learning through computers. I- I've explored that, and I learned how to look at different websites for housing for myself and my kids.

And then job search or any social services, e- et cetera. Everything. You know, there's, I guess all, everything you can even imagine. I, that I had no idea that I was losing all these years, and I'm really grateful for learning after all

[00:34:24] George Koster: these years. Are there goals that you've set for yourself? I mean, is there something that you would like to do through your technology skills training?

[00:34:33] Jose Mutan: Hmm. I'd like to c- continue learning. I know it's like I just had a little bit of taste of learning, but I'd really like to continue and learn more about it, 'cause I know it's, well, not knowing this has kept me at a certain level in my life. I'd like to grow, and I know computers would help me get to a higher level of learning and even in life in general.

Is there

[00:34:56] George Koster: anything that you feel you can't do now that you've at least created this foundation for knowing how to use technology?

[00:35:03] Jose Mutan: No. I mean, there's so many opportunities that it has helped me, and I think by even learning this, there's gonna be so much more I can do by even learning this. It's, uh, something I had no idea what I was missing, and I know I could do so much more in life with learning computers.

Thank you very much, Jose, for being on our show today and sharing your story.

[00:35:24] Eric Estrada: Next on the program is Sophia Selasse, career development manager at Raphael House. This is George Koster from

[00:35:30] George Koster: Voices of the Community, and I'm here today with Sophia Selasse, who is the career development manager. Could you please give us a background on Raphael House?

[00:35:41] Sophia Salassie: Sure. Raphael House, we are the oldest family shelter in the Bay Area. We're also the largest family shelter in San Francisco. We serve families in our residential program as well as in our Bridge program, so once families are stably housed, we still provide the wraparound holistic services that they were able to receive while living at Raphael House.

We also have a rental subsidy program and housing assistance fund program that can bring in community referrals.

[00:36:12] George Koster: How did Raphael House engage working with Community Technology Network?

[00:36:17] Sophia Salassie: Well, digital literacy is extremely important. It's definitely a barrier for some of the families we serve, so when we had the opportunity to partner with CTN and be able to use their resources, their trained volunteers to assist our families, it just seemed like a perfect partnership.

We are both s- interested in the same thing, which is, as Kevin said earlier, really trying to break down that digital apartheid that we live in today.

[00:36:53] George Koster: Digital skills are necessary for accessing resources, so how did Raphael House, is it, did you, how did you come to the understanding that you felt like your residents needed these skills?

[00:37:06] Sophia Salassie: Well, digital skills are needed in almost every compartment in life nowadays. So when we are working with families who are looking for housing, who are looking for employment, who are looking for different services in the community, summer camps, after school programs, schools for their children, they might be moving to a completely different community and they wanna know what's out there.

The best and easiest way to do that is to be able to use a computer, to be able to use the internet, and if you don't have those skills, if they were never taught to you, if they were never a priority, you don't know something until you know it, and that is where CTN comes in, and that's where Kevin comes in and really works with our families, meeting them where they're at, helping them meet their goals through th- this one hour a week digital literacy tutoring class that we have.

[00:37:54] George Koster: What are some of the best experiences that you've seen come out of digital skills training for residents of Raphael House?

[00:38:01] Sophia Salassie: Well, I think I've definitely seen sort of the beginning level of learner who really has little to no knowledge of how computers work, how internet search works, how Craigslist works when looking for employment, when looking for housing, that sort of thing.

And being able to have those basic skills and to be able to take that with them once they leave is something that's really important. It's also been really wonderful because we are very diverse at Raphael House, and people come from different places, and there are some learners who do have pretty strong technology skills and are actually looking to get past just that digital literacy and really into using tech as a platform to build their business or to get into the field that they would like to be in but maybe don't have some of that advanced skills.

And when someone like Kevin, who does work in the tech industry, can come in and share his knowledge, his background with these more intermediate or advanced learners, it really opens up another world for them as well. And really, the internet is just a great way to connect. And homelessness, family homelessness can create feelings of isolation and separation from maybe friends or family members or just other connections, and being able to use the internet to be able to reconnect, it provides a sense of safety, a sense of stability, sense of empowerment to be able to have a little bit of what you had before you came, you found yourself experiencing homelessness So being able to use technology to connect, that's huge

[00:39:46] George Koster: Well, have you seen that the use of technology by r- the residents at Raphael House have enabled those residents to actually, you know, secure long-term housing, for example, or jobs or social services?

[00:39:57] Sophia Salassie: Absolutely. Housing search and employment search is largely online. Yes, you can do some on-the-ground work, and that's great, but if you don't utilize the internet for both of those items to look for housing, to look for employment, you really will not get anywhere. It is an absolute necessity to be able to become stable essentially is to know how to use the internet because it...

Housing searches and employment searches are done online.

[00:40:27] George Koster: Raphael House has a little digital skills training room, right? And all technology costs a lot of money. If a listener was interested in helping Raphael House out, how would they do that?

[00:40:39] Sophia Salassie: They can certainly contact me. We would love to partner with anybody who'd be interested in collaborating with Raphael House on technology.

You can reach me at 415-345-7236, and I'd love to get connected.

[00:40:55] Eric Estrada: Lastly, we're joined by Carla Mays, an advisor and strategist from Mays Civic Innovation.

[00:41:02] George Koster: This is George Koster from Voices of the Community. I'm here with Carla Mays from Mays Civic Innovation. Carla's an advisor and strategist in the civic innovation space.

Technology appears to be something that you really have a passion for. Yes. How do you see technology improving, empowering the economic benefits of some would call the digital have-nots?

[00:41:24] Carla Mays: I really am a fan of Project Fi of Google. It gets rid of the credit. When you're trying to get non-predatory smartphone service, which is the...

Which is not only your talk capability and your text, but really it's the data, 'cause most people that are marginalized are using their phone for the internet. Being able to use Project Fi, you have the handset, which is different. So you... If we're able to work with getting that Google... I mean, sorry, the Nexus 6P phone, get that somehow, get that paid for, and then folks can manage how much data they use.

And so it's, it starts off with $20. As you, and you get two, three gigs of data, and then you... $10 on top of that. And then however much data that if you don't use it, it actually goes back and rolls over to the next month. Where, but there's not a barrier of the credit check. So I'm a re- and it deals with open Wi-Fi networks, and it runs on the Sprint and T-Mobile networks, and I think it's a real option to really close that smartphone divide and the digital divide.

The other thing is we need a center that really responds to all of these micro products. You know, right now you have to go to Mission for some of them. You have to go to San Jose for some of them. You have to go figure out where they are. I was very fortunate in the Capital One Hackathon to work with a team where we developed how to manage all of this paper.

'Cause right now, you, when you go in and you originate one of these small loans, you g- you get a myriad of paper, and sometimes you're doing well, right? You have a small job where you're working, and then you might, the contract might end. Or your y- something might happen, and then you forget about how much money you've actually banked, you know?

And then you're gonna come back to that, and everybody else has forgotten, or that nonprofit's not around or something. And so looking at how do we build solutions, and then how do we build solution centers so that the unbanked and folks that are marginalized are able to fix their credit, get financial services like you would, like we're here in the Financial District.

You can walk into a branch and get person-to-person services, right? Shouldn't you be able to get that if you're a person that, you know, uh, is unbanked and things? You need that.

[00:43:44] George Koster: First and foremost, being able to have a smartphone- Yes ... right? As, as a basic device- Yes ... that allows them to interact with the digital economy with e-citizenship, right?

[00:43:54] Carla Mays: Yes.

[00:43:55] George Koster: Then the second is you've identified that what is unbanked, and we'll talk about that in a second. Sure. But take someone who, you know, a citizen in the Bayview or the Fillmore or a low-income community- Or you're in startups and you're running on,

[00:44:07] Carla Mays: your burn rate is really bad, and you've burned out all of your money.

Right.

[00:44:11] George Koster: So I

[00:44:12] Carla Mays: mean, it goes for everybody. It's kind of an equal opportunity

[00:44:15] George Koster: thing. It's true. Debt is an equal opportunity predator. So what you were talking about is financial services for the financial disenfranchised, right? Yes. And really being able to enable someone who doesn't have a relationship with a bank or doesn't have the ability to have a relationship with a bank to come into one of your centers-

[00:44:31] Carla Mays: Yes and

[00:44:31] George Koster: secure a relationship with a bank.

[00:44:33] Carla Mays: Exactly. And what we're doing is the financial access. You shouldn't feel bad. You know, we've gone through really bad years here recently in the last decade, and people have had to rebuild everything from being foreclosed on To having to move, being kicked out of their places, losing their businesses, losing everything.

And then there's people who have not been able to get back on that horse, even though the economy is robust right now, and in particularly a place like San Francisco, where there's kind of an idea that everybody's equal and that everyone's doing well, and the economy's doing well, and that's just not true.

If you never were online and you were already having problems, then think about how the downturn treated some folks. It, it was even more so. And then we have programs that are for low income, but they become poverty traps, and those poverty traps become... Even though we see people, they're like, "Oh, their housing's fine.

They're in an SRO or whatever, or they're in some kind of below-market rate apartment or whatever," they actually, they're stuck, and they need to have something where they can work with someone and really feel that they're getting real good customer service, and that they're being heard, and that their issues are validated.

And it shouldn't be they're treated like a child or it's they're getting second-rate financial services.

[00:45:59] George Koster: A cornerstone to any economic mobility is skills training. So can you describe a little bit about how your team and your center would provide skills trainings and what kind of skills training? And

[00:46:11] Carla Mays: we need to stop talking about what the skills are.

There, there's all of us that have been around this. There's plenty of people of color in these communities that are more than educated, more than their counterparts in some of these organizations. I'm not... W- what I'm doing is looking to enable, because what it is, you can graduate like I did from San Francisco State, and there was not a good onboarding to, to even work in a tech company or work at or do any of this work.

I, like I said, I recently went back to Cal, and I saw the differences between the alumni association and what was there. And so my job through when I work with different folks in, as we're thinking about this, we're thinking about how do we onboard to you to what exists? But it's not building the next accelerator.

It's not doing the next training program. It's taking those folks that really haven't had the financial means to be able to onboard to what's next. They can't do the constant conferences like we... Most of us are going to conference after conference, right? We're networking. We're learning more skills 'cause this economy is demanding of us to be at a conference or a symposium.

Um, it's meeting the right people, right? And getting those right connections. So our center is, uh, what we're thinking of is what do you need- You know, if you're at a higher s- if you're, uh, at a higher income level and you're m- and you've gone to Stanford or Cal, your network is providing you most of your Maslow and most of the things you need.

So we're looking at how can the center start with the basic things of access to the basic capital that you're going to need to be a part of this economy and to be able to onboard you to non pr- non-predatory capital, non-por- non-predatory digital services. I would not... I am my business here. I am here because the fact that there are programs We need to do a better job at getting people wired, and we need to make, stop making the assumption that everybody is.

So these programs are all digital, and the reason why we're saying we need a physical capital access center and digital access is because you do have to get one-to-one. When you say one-to-one, meaning? I mean, like we're sitting here having this conversation. One-to-one conversation. Yes. You're not gonna disclose a lot of your personal info when you don't have a good phone or when you don't have access to the internet.

What are you supposed to do? Go to the library, put your personal information on the library computer, and then you know you key... Then you're supposed to respond right back, and then you, you can't be married to your library. No. And we did a lot of silly things with the library in the '90s and early 2000s.

We put restrictions on people using library computers. I didn't have access to the internet- When, when I first got here. And I could go to any library and we didn't have timers. So we would s- we, in the dorms even, we would sit in the computer lab for 20 hours or whatever, and we had a group of people, and that's how we had developed community around that.

You would call it co-working today, but we've done things that when I say civic innovation, we really have to look at what barriers to entry are there for folks to access these internet, to access capital. Y- things we take for granted every day, we have to really pick that apart so that we can actually create that equity for everyone in San Francisco and around the world.

[00:49:44] Eric Estrada: Before we close, let's recognize today's voices. Cami Griffith, executive director of Community Tech Network, spoke about how the digital divide has negatively impacted communities that are below the poverty line. Kevin Cohen, a technology trainer at Community Tech Network in partnership with Raphael House, spoke about how he was able to provide basic tech training to underserved community members.

Jose Mouton, a recipient of Community Tech Network's basic tech training workshops at Raphael House, showed how bridging the digital divide can have a positive impact on someone's life and not only make their life better, but their family's as well. Sophia Selasse, a career development manager at Raphael House, spoke on how digital skills training creates opportunities for underserved communities when looking for employment, housing, and other social services.

And Carla Mayes, an advisor and strategist for Mayes Civic Innovation, spoke about how collaboration with tech companies can help bridge the digital divide and how her organization is bridging online financial access to low-income community members. We produced this archive highlight series to give you context, to show that crises we face today aren't new, and neither are the solutions.

If you wanna go deeper, visit voicesofthecommunity.com and click on the archive series where you'll find full bios for every guest, links to every original episode, and resources from the organizations doing this work on the ground. You can learn more about Community Tech Network in episode 15 and Raphael House in episode 69 of our COVID-19 special series.

And if this show gave you something, put a value on it. Your donation directly funds the next series. Go to voicesofthecommunity.com and click on the donate button to support our work. Now back to George Koster to wrap up our episode.

[00:51:31] George Koster: These shows are only possible because of our dedicated team, associate producer Eric Estrada for his co-hosting and technical wizardry, and designer Kasey Nance of Citron Studios for making the show look exceptional A special thanks to Dr.

Cecil Hale for supporting Voices of the Community at KCSF and to broadcast partners KSFP, LPFM 102.5 FM in San Francisco, and KPCA LPFM 103.3 FM in Petaluma, and of course, to KCSF that you can stream on TuneIn for amplifying these voices. I'm George Koster in San Francisco, and join us for our next episode as we continue lifting the voices that shape and strengthen our communities.

Thank you for listening, supporting, and sharing. Until then, remember, your voice matters.

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