Newsletter Article Thanks SDFF

The Spring Community Options Newsletter includes an article highlighting SDFF's donation of 15 computers:

As often as you replace your computer, an organization must do the same. San Diego Futures Foundation (SDFF) replaced fifteen of our obsolete machines with gently-used computers. San Diego Futures Foundation provided 15 refurbished Dell Pentium III desktop PC’s, along with 17-inch-monitors, keyboards, mice, and cords. San Diego Futures Foundation’s computers, which have been slowly installed over the last few months, were previously used by the County of San Diego. The donation helped Community Options replace computers, which should be done on a routine basis to decrease lost productivity and inefficiencies. Yet replacing all of Community Options’ computers would be a costly endeavor. San Diego Futures Foundation’s computers will be used to replace staff computers as well as those used by individuals in our site-based programs. A big round of thanks goes out to the SDFF and their generous donation.

We're always pleased to hear back from organizations that have really utilized their computer donation!

Thanks to Community Options for their important work: "We envision a society where having a disability is neither a stigma nor a barrier to opportunity and equality."

AOIT students broaden their horizon

Recently, Academy of Information Technology Interns at SDFF have begun providing technical desktop support to City Heights Community Tech Center. Functions include PC maintenance, troubleshooting, loading and reloading software applications, and installing new hardware as needed. This provides a valuable experience of sharing expertise, providing assistance the community, and improving one's résumé.

SDFF HELPS A NEIGHBOR

SDFF donated 2 computers to the Terralta Neighborhood Association which represent a neighborhood within City Heights. Our full time intern, Jerry, set them up and installed modems so they could connect to the internet. These computers will allow Terralta Neighborhood Association perform their regular day to day operations.

Blogging for Nonprofits

There is a good post at NetSquared on how nonprofit organizations can use blogging - click here.

SDFF has been asked by a number of organizations about how to use blogs. The best way is to determine why and how you want to use it. Who is the audience? Then just start. Blogging is more informal that a press release. SDFF uses it to give people unfamiliar with us a "snapshot" of what we do.

SDFF Supports County's Strategic Initiatives

SDFF is supporting the County of San Diego’s Strategic Initiatives, which are to improve opportunities for children, to promote safe and livable communities, and to ensure environmental preservation, quality of life, and economic development. A recent example is SDFF's donation of 50 computers to San Diego Youth and Community Services. San Diego Youth and Community Services mission is to help at-risk youth become self-sufficient and reach their highest potential by investing in them, strengthening their families, and building their communities.

If your organization provides such services or related programs, or in need of technology support, please complete our online application.

Former Intern Wins Film Competition

Angel Munoz, The SDFF Intern of the Year, is a member of a Hoover High School team that won the grand pize in the My City Now Future Filmmaker National Contest. Entitled "The Painting of a Culture", their video represents Chicano Park in San Diego and it's amazing murals plus the rise of a hardworking culture. Angel and his team did part of their film editing at the SDFF Tech Center using a digital video editing workstation donated by Dell Computer.

Congratulations to Angel and his team members.

Digital Divide Network article features SDFF

SDFF is featured in an article on the Digital Divide Network (DDN) website. DDN describes itself as the Internet's largest community for educators, activists, policy makers and concerned citizens working to bridge the digital divide. The article describes SDFF programs and includes quotes from several people helped by us.

Click here for the full article.

Our Outdoor Wireless Network

With a generous donation of equipment from Avaya and bandwidth from Cox, we were able to build a wireless network in City Heights. The network serves three sites, two of which are low income housing projects.

You can view a map of the area covered south of our offices here. Price Charities was also generous enough to donate roof space on the highest building in City Heights (pictured above) for our antenna placement. The network has access to our content filtering device so the connected computer labs are protected from questionable browsing habits.

With the exception of a few windy days and maintenance, the network has been going strong for nearly two years and we plan on keeping it running for the foreseeable future.

Showcase and Awards Ceremony

SDFF is having an Open House on Thursday, February 2 at our Tech Center in City Heights. It is a showcase of our activities and will include an awards ceremony for our Intern of the Year and Volunteer of the Year. Congratulations and thank you to Angel and Mike.

Contact our office if you are interested in attending. Hoover High School interns will be showing their computer projects. Aaron Price Fellow interns will be talking about their experience learning about databases and web portals. Staff will also be available to talk about our consulting work including our web design projects.

See you there.

Thanks to our largest Donators of 2005

The Futures Foundation receives a substantial number of computers annually as a result of our Corporate Recycling Program. Key partnerships with business, academia, professional organizations, and nonprofits are behind the success of San Diego Futures Foundation programs. These innovative partnerships result in donations of computer hardware, software, peripherals, technical services, human capital, and the funds required to conduct meaningful technology inclusion programs. These donations to the Foundation help alleviate the digital divide in San Diego County and ensure that all San Diego County residents have access to the technology resources that many of us take for granted.

We would like to take this time and Thank some of our largest contributors of 2005:

Other pivotal corporate partnerships include:

The First American Corporation
San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency
CoStar Group
San Diego State University
Premier Inc.
L3 Titan
Pt. Loma Nazarene University
SemTech
CancerVax
Biosite
San Diego County District Attroney
Miro Technologies
Lender Support Systems
San Diego Volunteer Lawyers Program
Nolte Associates
San Diego Public Law Library
The Aspire Group
Napster

Thanks again to all of those who have made this effort possible. We look forward to working with you on future donations.

Sometimes the computer problems are low-tech

TechSoup just highlighted an article in their recent newsletter that is very helpful. Entitled "How to Clean Your Mouse: An Illustrated Guide", it's a really useful article when the most frustrating thing going on with your computer is a dirty mouse. If you have a computer lab - get some users to do this for you.

New Employee Joins SDFF

Scott has joined the Futures Foundation and will be managing our hardware donations, intern program and corporate recycling program. Scott started as an intern at SDFF while going to Coleman College. He brings a wealth of technology knowledge and great enthusiasm.

Welcome!

Tech Advice for Non-Profits: TechSoup

A great place for non-profits to look for articles and advice in the technology field is TechSoup. They have articles discussing all aspects of technology and tech support as well as other topcis. A recent article gave advice and how to best utilize volunteers. There is also a very good article on ensuring your mass emails are not classified as Spam.

TechSoup also runs TechSoupStock, a marketplace offering reduced price software. They have amazing deals on Microsoft software but be warned - you can only order Microsoft products once per year. Read the details. They also have software from Macromedia, Symantec and Intuit.

One of the best features of TechSoup is the Discussion Area. Check out the discussions on hardware, software, fundraising and a host of topics.

Aaron Price Fellows Start Internship

Three high school seniors who are Aaron Price Fellows have begun a 6 month internship at the San Diego Futures Foundation. The mission of the Aaron Price Fellows program is to enrich the lives of a diverse group of high school students so they become responsible, caring members of their community.

Annette, Andre and Monica will assist SDFF staff in all our programs and learn about both technology and non-profit organizations.

Welcome!!

National Engineering Week Planning

Futures Foundation Staff participated in a meeting sponsored by Qualcomm to promote activities during National Engineering Week, www.eweek.org. The San Diego region shares a nationwide crisis of too few students pursuing math, science and engineering college degrees. In a world-wide marketplace, the U.S. needs to stay competitive by producing for engineers and scientists. E-Week is part of a national effort to promote this beginning in elementary school and continuing through high school and into college.

Foster Families Receive 100+ Computers

We've partnered with San Diego County's Foster Family Licensing program this year to get refurbished computers to families raising foster children. This past week we gave out 101 computers. Our total for 2005 is 506 computers to Foster Families!

The parents are universally so thankful. And the children who came with them were pretty excited to be able to use the computers.

We owe a big thanks to Suzanne and Lamisse from the County. And an even bigger thanks to my volunteers: Mike, Julie and her two high school interns, Christine, Scott, Manny and a bunch of high school interns who helped clean and prepare the monitors and computers: Fong, Boun, Annette, Andre, Monica, Christian, Le, Sergio and Lupita.

Kearny High School Thank You to SDFF

We got a great thank-you note last week for a donation to Kearny High School. The teacher wrote:

As I sit amidst the quiet (students are on Thanksgiving Break) looking at our newly enhanced Student Center with 25 sleek black Dell computers I am grateful for the generosity of your Foundation. The 40 Dell computers and monitors we received last week from your organization have doubled the capacity of our Student Center, and given several teachers around the complex excellent dependable technology to enhance their instruction and improve their computer labs. Our Center was constantly in use prior to this, but I can only imagine when the students return how surprised and delighted they will be with so many more opportunities to find a computer that is actually available to them! Thanks again for making this happen for us. We are truly grateful in this season of Thanksgiving.

Intern receives BofA Neighborhood Initiative Award

Jelvin Forones, a former Futures Foundation intern and Hoover High School senior, has received the Bank of America San Diego Neighborhood Initiative Award. Jelvin is pictured above with SDFF Intern Manager, Steve Katnack.

Only five student leaders in San Diego County were chosen this year. The award is given to students who showed leadership in their communities.

Jelvin has been matched with a Bank of America mentor and will be working at the San Diego Futures Foundation this Summer in a full time internship paid for by Bank of America.

Congratulations to Jelvin!

New AOIT Interns from Hoover High School

A new group of Juniors from Hoover High School started today. They are enrolled in the Academy of Information Technology and will intern here for 24 hours. They help prepare computers for donation and learn software installation and security.

This group seems really engaged. We opened up computers and went over all the parts today.

Donations, Donations, Donations

The Futures Foundation is donating to many organizations this week:

• The Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana
• The Clairemont Friendship Senior Center
• San Diego Foundation for Change
• Promoting Responsible Independence in Daily Endeavors

Plus last week we donated to couple more organizations:

• The Ballantyne Community Charter School
• New Haven Youth and Family Services