79 Devices, 79 Open Doors
AVANCE-Austin and human-I-T are making sure every AVANCE to College participant has the technology to chase the goal they came for.
Ask any parent who has tried to finish a college application on a phone screen, and they will tell you what the digital divide actually feels like. It is not an abstraction. It is a form that will not load, a class you can only half attend, a deadline you miss because the public library closed at six.
AVANCE-Austin decided that no participant in its AVANCE to College (A2C) program should have to work around that. In partnership with human-I-T, a nonprofit that puts refurbished technology and digital training into the hands of families who need it, the chapter provided every A2C participant with a device and the tools to use it. This year that came to 79 devices, one for every person in the program.
Why a laptop counts as a basic need
Bridging the digital divide is one of AVANCE-Austin’s priorities, and the reasoning behind it is straightforward. A device is a basic need, and it is the basic need that unlocks the others. With one, a parent can schedule a medical appointment, apply for benefits, look up a bus route, email a child’s teacher, or sit down and do the coursework in front of them. Without one, every single errand costs more time than a working parent has.
The effect shows up first in the program itself. A2C participants can now take part fully in classes and programming instead of catching up afterward. They can submit assignments on time, join a session from home when a child is sick, and keep moving at the pace they set for themselves rather than the pace a borrowed computer allows.
What it opens up at home
The device does not stay with the parent alone. Once it is in the house, it belongs to the family. Children use it for homework and reading. Parents use it to find educational resources, medical information, and community services for their kids. One laptop quietly becomes the household’s front door to everything that now lives online, which is nearly everything.
That is the part worth sitting with. AVANCE-Austin did not hand out 79 computers. It opened 79 doors, and the families walking through them decide where they lead.
To learn more about AVANCE to College and the programs offered at AVANCE-Austin, visit the AVANCE-Austin website or follow the chapter on Facebook.