Auto news on Youtube Aug 29 2017

Of any city in the United States Charlotte ranked 50th out of 50 in terms

of economic mobility, basically you have more of a chance of actually moving

backwards than going forward and when we look at why they were left out, one of

those reasons that is because they lack the access the technology or the

literacy skills to take advantage of those things.

Digital Charlotte's mission is to empower organizations and help them

deliver Digital Inclusion training to the communities that they serve one of

the most powerful examples is the ReImage Charlotte program that E2D is

running and partnership with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. By employing high

school students to refurbish laptops that were donated by corporations and

now they have helped their fellow classmate gain a skill set that has the

chance of transforming their life. Speaking with teachers over the years

they've said the kids won't tell you they don't have a computer at home they

just won't do the work. 100% of the solution to the digital divide for

Charlotte students is hiding in plain sight. There are tens of thousands of

computers that are being decommissioned annually

by businesses. Back in May we had a distribution of 500 laptops in this

community and the kids at this lab had refurbished 300 of the 500 laptops.

We're not just giving them a laptop we're giving them an opportunity.

There's no more pencil and paper like everything we do is on a phone or a tablet or computer.

What our mission ultimately is is to expose West Charlotte High School to

opportunities in the tech field and what it takes to get there. You know, to

actually say no there really is a path for you to get a job. That is something

that these kids are really gonna pay attention to and get excited about and

motivated to follow.

We know that in order for us to have real impact it is going to take partners coming together

to really amplify that frame of thinking across every activity that happens in Charlotte.

One of the ingenious solutions

that they came up with is the ONE Access program.

ONE Access is a partnership between Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.

With ONE Access all 146,000 Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools

students, their student ID number access their library account number so it's not

necessary for a student to have a separate library card they use the same

number that they use at school every day to log into the computer and use our

resources. We've noticed a huge jump in the use of e-books especially nonfiction

ebooks for that middle grade set which means that if a student is at school or

at home they're really going to the library checking out a book on overdrive

and using it.

What we're seeing is that the initial efforts that we're taking they are

beginning to make an impact; we need to continue to expand capacity,

continue to expand these programs, continue to make our community aware of

these opportunities and in the Charlotte that I hope we see those opportunities

are afforded and created for everyone from corner to corner of this city and

that access to those opportunities is easily available and readily available

to everyone.