Parsells Ave. Community Church

The Parsells Avenue Community Technology Center is a project sponsored by the Parsells Avenue Community Church, which has ministered in the Beechwood Neighborhood for 110 years. The Church has carried out several youth programs over the past few years with the aim of educational and cultural enrichment.
The purpose statement of the Center states it is a “site of collaborative learning, providing youth and adults of the community with essential tools to explore their interests and achieve their goals through technology”.
In early 2001 the Church secured small grants from Youth as Resources and Science Linkages In the Community (SLIC) to set up a small computer lab. A part-time Champion of the lab was provided under a grant administered by Unity Health. In the spring, summer and fall of 2001, a weekly lab for youth was held on Saturdays exploring what programs and activities might be useful in an expanded lab. The Champion also developed a lab with 12 networked computers. Initial youth classes began with a ScienceQuest group and a group making local history posters in the summer of 2002. In the fall of 2002 AmeriCorps members helped expand open lab sessions to three times a week and coached another ScienceQuest group in the winter of 2003.
Yet most youth were behind in basic academic skills. This undermined efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote educational aspirations. So the program was redesigned to address these deficiencies beginning the fall of 2003. The lab has continued to operate an after-school and Saturday program for the community, providing homework help, assistance with job seeking and resumes, Internet research, and skill building. The lab has 15 working computers which have been upgraded to accomodate Windows XP software.