Former Florida Governor LeRoy Collins' legacy of uncompromising integrity in government and business continues at the Collins Center for Public Policy. Established in 1988 by distinguished Floridians who envisioned the need for an independent entity to find impartial solutions to controversial problems, the Collins Center exceeds the bounds of a traditional think tank—seeking opportunity and taking action on projects that impact the citizens of Florida and the nation (http://www.collinscenter.org/initiatives/).
For 2008-09, the Collins Center's CTC VISTA project will build upon baseline achievement by its regional Community Technology Initiative, and will involve collaboration with a newly created national initiative sponsored by the Knight Foundation. The Universal Access project, under the leadership of Ohio-based OneCommunity, will target 26 communities across the country including tri-county South Florida, where initial activities will be concentrated.
Community Technology Initiative (CTI)
CTI aims to lessen the divide between the digital "have's" and "have-nots" through the development of a regional agenda for community technology strategies. Comparison of regional and national survey data in recent years indicates that South Florida region trails the national average for technology literacy by as much as 5%. CTI collaborates with diverse public and private partners to develop a strategic vision for community technology progress, and plan with others to act upon that vision.
As information and communication technologies reshape society, the need for universal technology skills and access is increasingly recognized as a basic component of our “infrastructure” with significant implications for economic development, workforce and education, and regional competition. Technology literacy and access are fundamental tools, like reading, that every person needs to participate and remain self-sufficient in an information-based economy. Residents should be able to benefit from a growing variety of online resources, services, and opportunities and to communicate for social and civic purposes.
For six years, CTI principals have developed community technology centers in various settings and have initiated inter-agency collaboration at both the local level (Technology Access Coalition of Miami-Dade County) and the regional level (annual Technology Access Conferences since 2002, co-sponsored by the InternetCoast). This Collins Center initiative is an outgrowth of these efforts, and it represents a new and strategic approach to address ongoing issues of collaboration, growth, and sustainability for local programs.
OneCommunity
Based on a commonality of goals and objectives, CTI has developed a partnership with OneCommunity's national Universal Access project in South Florida. OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization that gained recognition for innovative approaches to developing technology infrastructure and increasing digital access resources in Northeast Ohio, connecting public and nonprofit institutions to a next-generation fiber optic network. OneCommunity serves educational, governmental, research, arts and cultural, health care, civic, and other nonprofit organizations, and by the end of 2008 its network will reach 22 counties across Northern Ohio. OneCommunity will co-supervise one of the VISTA positions under this proposal.