Connect Chicago

Smart Chicago runs the Connect Chicago website, a listing of more than 250 places in Chicago where you can use a computer for free, and the Connect Chicago meetup group, which is devoted to creating a culture of shared learning in these places.

Connect Chicago January 2016 Meetup Recap: Co-Creating a Digital Access & Skills Ecosystem

Denise Linn

On Friday January 29th, trainers, program coordinators, and public sector leaders from all across Chicago came together to Co-Create a Digital Access & Skills Referral Network for Chicago.

We were pleased to see friends and collaborators from Chicago Public Library, Microsoft, Safer Foundation, Blue 1647, YWCA Chicago, Jane Addams Resource Corporation, Literacy Works, LISC Chicago, Chicago Housing Authority, and many other institutions in attendance.

Why build this network? First, there is obvious value in taking inventory of all of the digital/tech skill-building programs in the city. Second, after the inventory is taken, we, as a sector, can begin to understand how our work fits together. By simply knowing where Adler Planetarium can recruit new youth, or where the Cara Program can refer its patrons to next, we illuminate learning pathways for Chicago residents.

To see a growing list of Connect Chicago people and programs, see our Twitter list.

You can read about our inspiration for hosting this event here and read more about the taxonomy that organized the event here.

Discovering Learning Pathways Across Programs

This was a highly interactive Meetup. Every program in attendance had a poster complete with detailed program information (from this survey), a flyer, an envelope for business cards or feedback, and space for others to mark if:

“I would refer my patrons to this program”

– and / or –

“I would recruit patrons who completed this program”

See Career Transitions Center of Chicago’s poster for an example:

1_CareerTransitionsCenterofChicagoatOldSt.Patricks

This was a “low tech” method of getting rich, hard-to-collect data from scattered sources.

If you enlarge the image above, you’ll see a hypothetical learning pathway for a resident. A digital learner in Chicago might start at Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH). POAH might then might refer that patron to Career Transitions Center of Chicago for both emotion/professional support as digital skills are improved. Then, if that patron is interested in the manufacturing field, they can go from Career Transitions Center of Chicago to the Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC). That is just one route to a goal. We want to illuminate more.

At the end of the Meetup event, we raffled off funds to one of the participating programs. We were pleased to award $1000 in funds to the Jack Ehrlich Literacy Program at the Anixter Center – a training program that provides one-on-one mentoring to adults with disabilities. According to Anixter’s Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey Response:

“We have a general computer class to teach internet navigation, typing, mouse usage, etc. Learners can work 1:1 on any computer skills they wish. We have iPads and touchscreen computers, and accessible technology, all of which people can learn to use.”

The city is filled with programs like Anixter. These programs and training sites work everyday, playing their specialized role in strengthening the digital access & skills ecosystem of Chicago.

Resources from the Meetup

You can access all the resources from the January Meetup in the Connect Chicago Shared Google Folder. In this folder you’ll find:

  • A spreadsheet of the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey responses. Note: If you are a participating program and see an email address or item that you would prefer not to be shared publically, please email
  • High resolution pictures of every featured program poster at the Meetup (including
  • Every program flyer featured at the Meetup
  • Notes from the Meetup. There is a section in the notes where organizations can post announcements and resources — we encourage everyone to contribute.
  • The presentation from the Meetup.

The work isn’t over. We plan to build on this material with your help. Digital/tech training programs or access programs can still fill out the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey to be included.

Thank you to all of the training sites and programs that participated in the January 29th Connect Chicago Meetup! More data and tools will be released as a result of this great work. Follow the Smart Chicago blog for news and updates.

Toward a Taxonomy for a Digital Access & Skills Ecosystem

Denise Linn

Smart Chicago has thought about taxonomies before as they related to data ecosystems. We’ve found this exercise to be foundational to supporting complex, citywide work like the Chicago School of Data. Now, inspired by Connect Chicago, we’ve defined a taxonomy for our city’s digital access & skills ecosystem. 

CKIx3XeWsAAvBbT

The taxonomy presented in this post inspired the structure of the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey and the January 2016 Connect Chicago Meetup. Together, the data collection from the survey and the Meetup will form the necessary ingredients for something we believe both residents and individual programs will benefit from: a map of the digital learning pathways available to Chicagoans.

What is a Digital Access & Skills Ecosystem?

A digital access & skills ecosystem is a collection of people, places, and programs that

  1. Introduce the Internet or new technology to residents and/or
  2. Help residents practice and improve the skills to use the Internet or new technology

Below are just a few specific programing examples submitted by YWCA Chicago, the Safer Foundation, and Metropolitan Family Services of Chicago — three very different institutions doing great, complimentary work in our city:

Like in many cities, Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem was bolstered by investments from the National Telecommunications & Information Association’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). That funding supported work at local public computing centers and created a loose network of learning sites across the city.

Now, after BTOP, Chicago’s challenge is to take that network, support it, and make it stronger.

Classifying the Layers of Chicago’s Digital Access & Skills Ecosystem

The first step in making the network stronger is understanding what it looks like after BTOP.

Right now, Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem has several layers of communities, people, and places:

  • Learners of different ages, backgrounds, technology comfort levels, and motivations.
  • Trainers/Teachers  — some volunteer, some professional, and some with particular skill or language specializations. In Chicago, they implement programs of all types which include, but are not limited to:
    • basic computer classes
    • MOOC learning peer groups
    • one-on-one computer help
    • workforce development programs with digital training components
    • ESL classes with digital training components
    • arts programs with digital training components
    • introductory coding classes
    • STEM programs
  • Coordinators in the form of institutional, program, or site-level managers
  • Supporters who financially back one or several programs, sites, or site networks. These supports include, but are not limited to:
    • Corporations
    • Foundations
  • Sites (offering one to many programs) which include, but are not limited to:
    • community centers
    • afterschool programs
    • faith-based institutions
    • museums
    • library branches
    • workforce development centers
    • health clinics
  • Site Networks (sometimes overlapping) which include, but are not limited to:
    • Chicago Public Libraries
    • Literacy Works
    • LISC Chicago Financial Opportunity Centers
    • Chicago Department of Family & Social Services (DFSS)
    • Chicago Housing Authority (CHA)
    • Smart Chicago Health Centers
    • Chicago Citywide Literacy Technology Pilot Locations

In short, this is complex, decentralized ecosystem with many actors and limited resources. Learners seek to master new skills across programs and places, but different programs and places don’t always communicate with one another.

post pic 2

Classifying the Programming in Chicago’s Digital Access & Skills Ecosystem

Digital access & skills programing in Chicago (and any city) can be classified by mission and method:

  • Program Mission related to increasing access & skills
    • Goal
      • Direct, or when a program explicitly seeks to improve digital access & skills
      • Indirect, or when a program indirectly improves digital access & skills to achieve another primary or complimentary outcome (for instance, employment, English language learning, or violence prevention)
    • Reach
      • Demographic target (for instance, age, race, or gender)
      • Geographic target (for instance, neighborhood, ward, or school)
  • Program Method(s) to increase access and skills
    • Device lending or refurbishment
    • Internet access assistance
      • Reduced or subsidized at-home Internet subscriptions
      • Hotspot lending
      • Public Wi-Fi
    • Training support
      • Subject, software or tool being taught (for instance, Microsoft Excel)
      • Delivery of training (for instance, one-on-one or class)

In our work, we have found to that staying broad in our classification is best to ensure we do not miss valuable partners. There are hybrid programs that are not “tech” or “digital” intentionally, but have a computer learning components that make them important parts of this ecosystem. We’ve tried to strengthen our relationship with the literacy community in Chicago for this reason; often ESL, reading, or adult education programs introduce digital learning or technology to accomplish their goals. Sometimes digital skills are the “why” and sometimes they are the “how.”

post pic 1

The Next Step: A Referral Network Mapping Paths of Learning Across the Ecosystem

Understanding the ecosystem is the prerequisite to mapping out the digital/tech learning pathways for Chicagoans. Where is a safe place for someone to start learning? Where can they go next given their goals? These are the questions we seek to answer. 

Dozens of programs and training sites have already filled out the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey. The questions are reminiscent of the framework above for a good reasons. We want to take inventory of the mission & method of the program and where that program sits across the different layers of our digital access & skills ecosystem.

survey scsh

Once this information is collected and shared with our collaborators, we can co-create a referral network. For the first time, we, as an ecosystem will have a formal map in place that tells us how one program relates to, partners with, can partner with, or can amplify the work of others. In reaction to each individual program’s survey, other programs will indicate:

“I would refer my patrons to this program”

– and / or –

“I would recruit patrons who completed this program”

We document this work and this taxonomy system not only in the hopes that it will benefit our partners in Chicago, but that it will benefit other cities who seek to define, coordinate, and evaluate work across their own ecosystems. We encourage all in Chicago’s digital access & skills ecosystem to fill out the survey and come to the Connect Chicago Meetup on January 29th to participate in this important undertaking.

 

Announcing the January Connect Chicago Meetup: Co-Creating a Digital Access & Skills Referral Network

Denise Linn

To kick off 2016, the Connect Chicago Meetup Group is inviting all tech/digital skills instructors and program coordinators to convene and help us understand how our work and missions fit together.

Event Name: Co-Creating Chicago’s Digital Access & Skills Referral Network

Where: Chicago Community Trust

When: Friday, January 29, 2016 from 11am – 1pm (lunch provided)

All who are interested in attending should:

  • Join the Connect Chicago Meetup Group if you haven’t already
  • RSVP to the event at this link
  • Fill out the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey

$1000 will be awarded to a participating program or training site! To be eligible to win the funds on behalf of a program or training site, you must be in attendance and have filled out the Digital Access & Skills Referral Network Survey.

Here is a glimpse of just some of the great work across Chicago that will be represented at the Meetup:

techgyrls

Humboldt Park Library Job Club Flyer

Safer

Why Build a Referral Network?

There are over 250 locations across the city where residents can access a computer and be trained for free. Having a long list of programs and public computing locations is not enough. We also want to understand the relationship between existing resources.

We’ve heard feedback from programs across the city like this: “We’d like to know where to get patrons and where to refer our patrons next in their learning paths. How does all of our work fit together?” or “we’d like to know what a roadmap for digital access & skills programming looks like across the City.”

We’ve also held focus groups with residents who had similar questions: “When I’m done at X program, I’d like to know where I should go next. What are my best opinions? What’s the next logical skill to work on or place/trainer to visit?”

Attendees will share their own program information, and share important information about their relationship to others’ programs — specifically, whether they would partner with that program, refer patrons to that program, or recruit patrons who finished that program.

We will pull the information collected that the January 29th Meetup together and release it. Our goal is to create a more fluid understanding of the great programs that are located all over the city in the service of a shared culture of learning. 

 

2015 Year in Review

Smart Chicago

This was a big year for community technology in Chicago. Here’s a month-by-month look at some of the things Smart Chicago has shared, supported, and accomplished in 2015.

January: Smart Chicago Model Featured at the Gigabit City Summit

Smart Chicago attended the Gigabit City Summit in Kansas City, MO – a three-day learning and networking opportunity exclusively designed for leaders in current and emerging Gigabit Cities. Cities convened to discuss how to facilitate business & startup growth, spark government innovation, and achieve equity of access in the presence of next generation speeds. You can see our presentation here and read our recap of the event here.  Denise Linn, who we would later hire as our Program Analyst in June, was also at the Gigabit City Summit. Here is her recap of the Summit on the Living Cities blog and her research on digital equity & gigabit cities.

 

Game of Gigs Gigabit City Summit 2015

With the start of 2015 seeing this event and the end seeing Google Fiber’s announced interest in Chicago, the topic of gigabit connectivity has come full circle. Smart Chicago is deep in this work – right at the intersection of city data, access, skills, and infrastructure.

February: Textizen Campaign for Placemaking

Smart Chicago used Textizen to get feedback from residents on the Chicago Complete Streets Program. Chicagoans were asked to give input on utilizing and improving public street spaces. At Smart Chicago, we understand how powerful text message can be to reach new audiences and listen to our community. This was a great collaboration with the City of Chicago’s Department of Transportation. You can read a blog post about the initiative here.

By July, Textizen was purchased by GovDelivery. We see the success of this company— one that started in a Code for America fellowship, became a CfA Accelerator company, as a success for us and our quiet support. We were deeply involved at the product level— sourcing customers, paying for the service, providing brass-tacks product feedback.

March: Expunge.io & Fingerprint Terminal

Expunge.io was launched in January of 2014 as a website that helps start the process of erasing juvenile arrests and/or court records. Smart Chicago has a long history working on Expunge.io starting with the inception of the idea during our #CivicSummer program in 2013. With the support from The Chicago Community Trust, we continue to increase public awareness, support institutions, and document the juvenile expungement application process.

In March, we secured a fingerprint terminal at the Cook County Juvenile Court to help youth get their rap sheet. We know that juvenile expungement is an arduous legal process that prevents many young adults from expunging their records. The fingerprint terminal for the Cook County Juvenile Center helps young adults connect with free legal aid at the Juvenile Expungement Help Desk while also getting their rap sheet — one of the most important pieces to starting the expungement process.

April: Experimental Modes Convening  

Our consultant, Laurenellen McCann, invited technology practitioners to The Chicago Community Trust on April 3 & 4, as part of our Knight Deep Dive work. The Community Information Deep Dive initiative (or just “Deep Dive”, for short) is an experiment in synthesizing new & existing community information projects into a cohesive system for engaging with residents from the seat of a community foundation.

Experimental Modes Group photo

The convening was an investigation into what it means to build civic tech with, not for. It answered the question, “what’s the difference between sentiment and action?” through the experiences from the practitioners in the room. Here is a recap of the day including everyone who attended the convening. Laurenellen conducted an enormous amount of research around this topic which can be found on our website and in this book.

May: Foodborne Chicago Recognized as the Top 25 Innovations in Government

In May, our partner Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) was recognized as a Top 25 program in the American Government Awards competition by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation for its Foodborne Chicago program. Smart Chicago launched Foodborne Chicago in March 2013 with the goal of improving food safety in Chicago by connecting people who complain about food poisoning on Twitter to the people who can help them out —  the Chicago Department of Public Health.

June: City of Chicago Tech Plan 18-month Update

The City of Chicago released the 18-month Update to its Tech Plan and highlighted a number of Smart Chicago projects: Smart Health Centers, Youth-Led Tech, Connect Chicago, Foodborne Chicago, and CUTGroup. The Plan also discussed WindyGrid and the Array of Things sensors — projects where Smart Chicago is a civic engagement partner.  

Read Smart Chicago’s take on the 18-month update here.

July: Youth-Led Tech

We can’t talk about Smart Chicago’s work in 2015 without talking about Youth-Led Tech. Youth-Led Tech was supported by a grant from Get IN Chicago, an organization that supports and evaluated evidence-based programs that lead to a sustainable reductions in violence. For 6 weeks, 140 youth were taught technology curriculum in 5 neighborhoods  across the city of Chicago: Austin, Englewood, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, and Roseland. After completing 170 hours of WordPress training and content creation, the youth earned their own laptops in a graduation ceremony at Microsoft Chicago’s offices. Youth-Led Tech Celebration Ceremony

Smart Chicago documents everything, not only for our sake, but for the sake of others in the digital skills & access ecosystem. We have released the full curriculum online for anyone to use and adapt. We have our catering data, our instructor hiring process, profiles of our learning environments, and screenshots of the youth websites online. Later in 2015, Susan Crawford wrote a piece about the program in Medium, documenting the philosophy of the tech program where the youth, and not the tech, were prioritized:

There were also social-emotional learning elements of the program — peace circles, restorative justice — and talks about power in the city of Chicago. And here’s where Dan O’Neil’s attention to food fits in: O’Neil says the number one message he wanted to get across to the youth in the program was, “”We love you and we’re never going to let you go.’”

To access more links about Youth-Led Tech, visit this section of our website.

August: Bud Billiken Parade

Smart Chicago partnered with Chicago Defender Charities to support their efforts to include more technology tools (such as live-streaming and Textizen voting) in their programs. In August, we provided text voting during the Bud Billiken Parade so spectators could vote for their favorite youth dance teams, music groups, and performers.

Smart Chicago staff, consultants, Smart Health Navigators, and Youth-Led Tech instructors also marched in the parade! We marched with our friends Gray Era Brass, handing out swag, promoting the text voting campaign, and shared information about Smart Chicago programming.

Bud Billiken Parade 2015 We look forward to continued collaboration with Chicago Defender Charities beyond 2015. For more information on the Bud Billiken Parade, see this blog post.

September: Our Civic Tech Publications & Philosophy

September 2015 saw the launch of publications and thought pieces emphasizing the importance of authentic civic engagement in technology and articulating Smart Chicago’s civic tech framework. We believe that the real heart of civic tech isn’t code, the apps, or the open data. It’s the people. The neighborhood tech youth instructor, for instance, onboards family, friends and neighbors into the digital economy and tech pipeline, but their work is too often hidden or uncelebrated. Executive Director Dan O’Neil penned the Civicist post, “The Real Heart of Civic Tech isn’t Code.” Here’s an excerpt:

Civic tech that doesn’t include people like Akya, Angel, and Farhad leads to a distorted vision of the field. A vision that leads with technical solutions rather than human capacity. A vision that glorifies the power of the developer rather than the collective strengths of a city.

Experimental Modes of Civic Engagement in Civic Tech by Laurenellen McCann was also published in September. This book represents the culmination of the Experimental Modes work under Deep Dive and was fueled by a scan of the field and practitioner convenings. It can be ordered on Amazon and read online. Our friend and former consultant Chris Whitaker also documented his civic tech lessons learned in the Civic Whitaker Anthology. These books are a testament to the great work of the authors, but also catalyze conversation for the civic technology and how the movement be innovative, engaging, and inclusive.

October: NNIP & Chicago’s Data Ecosystem

To build on the data ecosystem research and work of the Chicago School of Data, Smart Chicago started engaging with the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP).  We attended the Dallas NNIP meeting in October. NNIP is a collaborative community of 35+ cities and the Urban Institute. Partners centralize, analyze, and engage residents with neighborhood-level data. You can read our recap of the NNIP meeting lessons and themes in this blog post.

Continuing last year’s work with the Chicago School of Data survey and the Chicago School of Data Days, we seek to coordinate and support Chicago’s strong data ecosystem. Who is in that ecosystem? Institutions like DePaul’s Institute for Housing Studies, the Woodstock Institute, Chapin Hall, and the Heartland Alliance, just to name a few. Here is a taxonomy of this ecosystem that fuels our thought and collaborative framework in this area.

We look forward to continuing our engagement with NNIP and contributing to that network of cross-city practitioners.

November: Smart Health Centers

Our Smart Health Centers program places trained health information specialists in clinics to assist patients in connecting to their own medical records and find reliable information about their own conditions. In 2015, we expanded the program to more locations and hired a few of our Youth-led tech instructors from the summer as navigators. You can read Akya Gossitt’s story about her path leading to becoming a Youth-led Tech instructor and then a Smart Health Center Navigator.

We also began recording and sharing podcasts developed by the Smart Health Center Navigators. The Navigators discuss topics like healthy holiday meals and the digital divide in health care. You can listen to them on the Smart Chicago soundcloud account. We are excited to provide more opportunities like this to our Navigators and amplify their voices.

December: Final Integration of CUTGroup Text Message Solution

In September, we announced that residents can now sign up for CUTGroup via text message. This month, we implemented the last piece of this work where testers can also learn about new testing opportunities and respond to screening questions via text.

We did this work because if you do not have Internet access at home, you are limited by your time commitment on a public computers and might not have a chance to respond toemails in time to participate in a test. Out of our 1,200+ CUTGroup members today, 29% of our testers said their primary form of connecting to the Internet is either via public wifi or their phone with data plan. The impetus behind this project is to serve the large and growing number of residents who do not have regular access to the internet. By adding a text mode, the CUTGroup will be more effective at discovering resident’s voice.

CUTGroup-Twittercard

More in 2016

We thank all of our founders, partners and consultants who have been a crucial part of this work.

Events & Resources for #HourofCode & #CSEdWeek 2015

Denise Linn

December 7th through 13th is  Computer Science Week! This campaign is all about raising awareness for computer science education. Throughout the week, through Hour of Code events, students will try coding for the first time. 

photo 4[1]

Though one hour isn’t enough to make anyone an expert, that’s not the goal:

The measure of success of this campaign is not in how much CS students learn – the success is reflected in broad participation across gender and ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and the resulting increase in enrollment and participation we see in CS courses at all grade levels. – Hour of Code

Hour of Code in Chicago

This year in Chicago, there are 100+ Hour of Code events across the City both inside and outside of schools. Students can earn an Hour of Code Digital Learning Badge as proof of participation and the skills they gained. To find out more about these learning opportunities, visit Chicago City of Learning webpage. Hour of code has published a list of all Hour of Code events in Illinois here. Below is all of the Chicago Public Library’s Hour of Code 2015 programming for teens:

Tutorials & Resources for Instructors

Whether in a group or at home, students can tackle computer science for the first time through custom tutorials – sometimes involving their favorite games or fiction characters. Check out the Star Wars Coding Tutorial and the Minecraft Coding Tutorial. Here is an introduction to the new Star Wars Tutorial:

If you’re a parent, tutor, digital trainer or teacher and are interested in teaching an Hour of Code this week or in the future, check out this How-to Guide and the video below:

If you come across a student that wants to continue learning computer science beyond the organized Hour of Code, we encourage all instructors to apply for free student accounts to Taken Charge, a browser-based ISTE certified game for youth.

Ideas for Collaboration Between Digital Literacy & Traditional Literacy Organizations

Denise Linn

Smart Chicago’s resident membership at Literacenter means that our Connect Chicago trainers and programs can collaborate with the greater literacy community in Chicago. We see great potential for these two communities to strengthen one another and create a useful cross-program referral network for residents.

On November 24th, I led a Brown Bag Lunch at Literacenter and put forth some of ideas for how literacy organizations and digital literacy organizations can amplify each other’s work. Literacenter DT + TL Slide

Why Does this Collaboration Matter?

First, basic literacy is often a prerequisite for most digital skills trainings. For instance, Smart Chicago is giving away free licenses to the youth browser-based game Taken Charge, but the game is best for students at a 3rd grade reading level or above. Second, strengthening one’s reading or writing and strengthening one’s digital skills are not always achieved separately. For instance, our friends at Hooray for Learning use technology to help teachers foster creative writing. The Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition is undertaking a Technology Pilot Program for their adult learners, recognizing that technology literacy has a place in the greater literacy mission.

Of course, without access to devices and the Internet, gaining digital skills and literacy skills through technology is difficult. This is a challenge that Chicago’s literacy and digital literacy organizations share. In both fields, there is a reliance on the existence of at-home supplementary resources. Residents can retain knowledge and practice skills easily when they have books, devices, connections and social support in the comfort of their homes.  

Frameworks for Collaboration

When we think about ways that these two fields can work together, it helped to begin by understanding how they are different and similar:

Literacenter DigLit vs Lit Slide

The goods news is that digital literacy/skill-building programs and more general literacy programs have complementary strengths and needs:

Literacenter Inventory Slide

While digital skills programming can do more to serve and reach residents at lower reading and English language levels, that happens to the literacy community’s comfort zone. Digital skills programming can take note of literacy programs’ best practices on cohort learning and social support while learning. Both sets of programming are conducted by trusted institutions and both are in need of a strong referral network for its patrons. Where do we we send a job seeker at “X” reading level who wants to learn “X” computer skill?

Here are some preliminary ideas we can run with:

Literacenter Brown Bag Lunch November 24, 2015

This is a start. Through more gatherings like the one last week, we can expand the list of ideas above and understand the added value that collaboration can bring to each field’s mission.

Smart Chicago’s full presentation here:

Thanks so much to representatives from Literacenter, Chicago Literacy Alliance, Literacy Works, Chicago Public Library, WTTW, Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition, Open Books, Hooray for Learning, the Children’s Literacy Initiative, and others for coming out to the lunch and participating in this important conversation!