Bridging the Digital Divide with Nexus 7
Bridging the Digital Divide with Nexus 7
Last August, we got an exciting call from the staff at the New York State Office for New Americans, informing us that they had recommended BCNA for a very special donation. A few weeks later, we received 100 boxes from Google, containing a donation of 100 brand new Nexus 7 tablets.
To date that very generous gift from Google has enabled us to train over 75 micro-businesses, some of which are still struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, with this exciting new technology.
These 75 businesses are part of BCNA’s Technology to Boost Your Bottom Line, a program funded by Citi Foundation, which includes workshops and one-on-one advice to micro-businesses in New York City to use technology to improve their bottom line.
BCNA staff have already conducted ten workshops to teach these immigrant entrepreneurs, who include hair salon ownerss, gift item retailers, artisans, day care providers, street food vendors, and car service drivers, how to use Nexus 7 tablets to better manage their businesses.
Participants learned how to use the technology to check emails
, communicate with vendors and clients, research their competition and prices for supplies, and how to accept payments on line. In addition to the initial two hour training, which provides an overview of how to use the tablets, program participants receive monthly updates with useful articles or videos about effective ways to use the tablets. We are also pleased that the participants have agreed to complete two surveys, one in six months and one in twelve, to provide feedback on how they used their tablets and what additional features would have been helpful.
Susan Molinari, the VP of Government Relations at Google, recently said, "We believe that technology can and does play a compelling role in rebuilding communities to make them more resilient and stronger. Increasingly, more and more people are using technology and the internet to educate themselves or provide for their families. Our hope is that these tablets will be a resource to do just that."
We agree and have already seen our clients reaping the rewards.
We are extremely grateful to both Google, the New York State Office for New Americans, and to Governor Andrew Cuomo, for his leadership in supporting hard-working immigrants.
We hope that this example, and the positive results we are seeing for our clients, will inspire other technology companies to follow suit with sponsorships and training.