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Digital Opportunity for America's youth
While the Internet transforms the nature of
opportunity in the workplace, schools, and society, millions of
low-income young people and their families are not able to benefit from
the digital revolution. The goal of The Children's Partnership's program
is to make sure that digital opportunities extend to young people in
every community, particularly those in underserved families and
communities.
Digital Opportunity Now for America's Children
Our Digital
Opportunity Now for America's Children Agenda can equip all of
America's children with the 21st Century Skills they need to compete in
a global economy, use technology to improve children's health and
enrollment in health insurance programs, enable all children to have
access to digital technology tools at school and at home, and establish
a 21st Century infrastructure to extend the benefits of technology to
all children and their families.
Measuring Digital Opportunity
The Children's Partnership published a
year-long study, Measuring
Digital Opportunity for America's Children, that examines how
the Internet and other digital tools are changing opportunities for
young people. The study also analyzes the disparities among those
children with needed access and skills and those without. The project
launched the Digital Opportunity Measuring Stick, a new tool for
assessing progress, and a digital opportunity for youth agenda,
both available on TechPolicyBank.
Policies to Promote Digital Opportunity
Another aspect of our program is a multi-year information
and education program to promote state and local policies, as well as
private-sector practices, that increase young people's access to the
benefits of the Internet and other information and communications
technology. Our report Helping
Children Succeed: What's Broadband Got to Do With It? offers
ideas for how leaders can make broadband implementation a priority
for children. The video Community
Technology Programs Deliver Opportunities to Youth details why
access to quality technology and training matters for young people.
Download fact
sheets for each state, showing where it stands in improving digital
opportunity for youth.
California Advocacy Program
Since the beginning of our digital opportunity program,
The Children's Partnership joined with community leaders and elected
officials throughout California to deliver the promise
of technology to young people and their families in disadvantaged
communities. As part of a statewide coalition of 200 organizations
called the California Community Technology Policy Group, we
helped build a state-based advocacy model to effect public policy
changes and to accomplish tangible benefits for low-income
communities.
Online Content for Low-Income and Underserved Americans
In 2000, The Children's Partnership launched a new area
of research and advocacy by identifying the online content gap between
what's needed and what's available online for low-income and other
Internet users with limited-literacy and English language skills. As
part of this work, The Children’s Partnership developed a set of
guidelines to encourage both the creation and evaluation of online
content in a way that considers the particular needs of low-income or
other underserved individuals. Learn more about this research, and use our interactive,
online tool to evaluate a Web site to see how well it meets
underserved users' needs.
Parents Guide to Children's Safety Online
The Children's Partnership is committed to helping
parents, regardless of education or income, guide their children safely
on the Internet. In conjunction with the National PTA and the National Urban League, in 1996 we published the
comprehensive Parents
Guide to the Information Superhighway: Rules and Tools for Families
Online. A PowerPoint, titled A Parent's Guide to Online Kids, was also
developed in 2006 to provide additional information for use by
parents.
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AmeriCorps*VISTA Partner Organization