Most of you probably know what it is like to call for tech assistance and be transferred to a person in another country. Even though the representative on the phone is helpful, the language barrier can be difficult and frustrating.
While jobs in technology are high paying, skill-based and needed by more and more companies, many of them have been outsourced for years — ultimately, making life more difficult for the customer, while drastically cutting costs for the company. However, some businesses are becoming dissatisfied with overseas staff and are beginning to reverse that trend. Jobs are migrating back to the U.S., opening room for domestic staff.
Where there’s a demand, there needs to be a supply, and that’s the mission of the nonprofit Per Scholas. As more and more IT jobs are coming back to the U.S., Per Scholas is offering free IT training for minority and low-income adults.
It all started in New York City in 1995 and has since spread to Dallas, the Washington D.C. area, Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio. The schooling is free and most of the students who take the classes are either unemployed or working part-time, so the promise of a reliable career outweighs the training, which is unpaid.
Students can enroll in one of three main tracks. The first is a 13 week class that sets them on the path to working at a help desk. Upon completion of the course, students will be equipped with industry-ready credentials. A second option is to become a network administrator. Slightly more time consuming, this course spans 18 weeks in length. The shortest of the three is only eight weeks long and prepares students for software testing.
Over the past 19 years, Per Scholas has expanded into areas beyond New York, and helps, on average, about 80 students in each city each year. The company continues to look for areas in which to expand based on three determining factors: (1) the ready availability of IT jobs in the area; (2) if there are already other similar companies in the city; and (3) if there are enough available funds through donations and government grants to function for three years.
This is a big year for Per Scholas, as it will be starting a partnership with Doran Jones, an IT consulting firm. Through it, a new Bronx office will now be training 150 IT testers.
Despite all of this success, Per Scholas is not keeping it all to itself. The company encourages other nonprofits and cities to adopt similar practices and offers three key steps.
1. Form your solutions and practices based on the employers’ hiring and training needs.
2. Involve stakeholders from the non-profit, government, private sector and community organizations in the process. Make sure they are ready to play a part.
3. Creativity and flexibility are key. Search everywhere and everything to find potential students.
As Per Scholas works to boost American jobs and improve the lives of hundreds, Executive Director Angie Kamath describes their work in the most basic terms to Next City. To her, the organization, “symbolizes the impact of a profitable business model that changes the face of a low-income community and gives low-income individuals access to the middle class.”
Not bad for a small nonprofit competing with the global workforce.
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Tag: New York
If Another Superstorm Hits, This Dirt Barricade Will Protect NYC
Everyone — but especially New Yorkers — remember Superstorm Sandy’s seemingly endless destruction back in 2012. Costing the region billions of dollars, it was an example of what nature could do to our infrastructure and our society.
Preventing damage like what occurred is crucial — and a big part of what needs to be done to prepare for the future. That’s what the winning project of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design contest aims to do. And there’s no better way to do it than to also make some beautiful public space in the process.
The Bridging Berm is a new project on Manhattan’s lower east side. While there’s no timeline for completion, once it is finished, it will shelter 150,000 residents and a power sub-station from the effects of storms and rising sea levels.
The 2.19 miles along the East River that the Bridging Berm will occupy is currently a public park, though it has few entrances and is very isolated from the city. The Bridging Berm will change that — improving both access and the public space itself. Even more importantly, it will raise the riverbank to nine feet above its current level. Had this been around during Sandy, there still would have been four feet to spare.
Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox Architecture tells Next City that “the strength of the proposal is in the way they have addressed both the vertical and the horizontal through a series of programmed berms and bridges that mediate the boundary between the waterfront and the edge of the city — defining a place for community gathering and a way to inhabit the in-between.”
And a defining place it will be, with bike paths along the water, boating and fishing areas, as well as athletic fields. Clearly, there will something for everybody.
This multipurpose space is just one of three components to the larger “BIG U” proposal in the Rebuild By Design contest; roll-down storm gates on the FDR bridge as well as a berm-and-educational facility in lower Manhattan are also part of the plan.
The Bridging Berm could have the largest impact, though. With such a dense population and the power station in the area, not to mention the improved public space, it is an exceptional urban planning vision.
DON’T MISS: 8 Inspiring Urban Renewal Projects
How New York City Police Plan to Use Smart Roofs to Control Gun Violence
As temperatures heat up, New York City police are cracking down on crime with a little help from the rooftops.
The NYPD announced plans to roll out a $1.5 million pilot program which uses rooftop sensors to monitor and determine the exact location of gunshots stretching over 15 square miles of the city, Capital New York reports.
The city has seen a recent uptick in shootings: 562 as of July 6 compared to 514 during the same time period last year. Mayor Bill de Blasio first mentioned the sensor program, created by California-based ShotSpotter Inc., when he ran for office last year.
Police commissioner Bill Bratton, who formerly served on ShotSpotter’s board, called the sensors “extraordinarily effective” at a City Council hearing in May.
“The best systems are those that you can tie in with your camera systems. You not only get recording of the gunshots, but you get the camera activation right away,” he said.
The two-year program includes special strategically placed microphones that use triangulation to detect exact locations of gunshots in real-time. Analysts monitor the microphones around the clock and distinguish the difference between actual gunshots and false positives from other sounds such as fireworks.
“This is the type of new and innovative technology that can be instrumental in aiding efforts to reduce the number of shootings and save lives in communities that have been hot spots of gun violence,” said City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, who chairs the public safety committee.
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Rachel Haot Revolutionized City Government. Now She’s Working At The State Level, and Wants Your Input
Rachel Haot was first amazed by computers when she was eight. She logged onto IBM’s early Internet service, Prodigy, to play checkers. “It was the coolest thing,”she told The Verge.
Twenty years later, in January 2011, Haot became New York City’s first Chief Digital Officer (CDO). It was her job to write a Digital Roadmap in 90 days, but also to define the CDO role. She was the first person to hold that title in any major American city, and her work has changed our cities’ attitudes to 21st-century tools.
Like Bloomberg, Haot is a technology entrepreneur. In 2006, she founded GroundReport, one of the first citizen journalism outlets. Her insight was that anyone with a phone can be a primary source for breaking news. Which is why on the GroundReport platform, anyone can submit an article or media for publication. Advancements in personal technology meant to Haot that “the crowd” isn’t just a scattering of passive readers, but a mass intelligence eager to contribute to everything.
During Haot’s four years as CEO of GroundReport, she saw the power of this principle as more than 7,000 people around the world contributed text, images, and video to the site. When Mayor Bloomberg approached her to make NYC Internet-awesome, she left GroundReport and moved to City Hall. Her transition from one job to another should, in theory, be seamless. The idea behind GroundReport — that the collaboration of many ordinary people can supply extraordinary value — also makes sense as political science. Journalism and democracy both work better when they’re more open and inclusive.
But in practice, she faced an uphill battle. NYC is arguably the intellectual capital of the world, but ancient IT systems and clunky bureaucracy bogged down City Hall. And then there was the culture. Another Bloomberg staffer, Stephen Goldsmith, was Deputy Mayor when Haot arrived and worked regularly with her. He said that getting departments to embrace new technologies like social media and data analytics was “very difficult.”
“New York City is a huge platform of information,” Goldsmith says. “When Rachel arrived, it was underdeveloped, underutilized, not personalized — just waiting for social media to unlock it.”
In the spring of 2011, Haot’s office published the “Roadmap for the Digital City,” which recommended a series of steps to make NYC the best at “Internet access, open government, citizen engagement and digital industry growth.” Some ideas included: installing public WiFi hotspots in parks and subways, investing in digital education and Internet access for low-income families and redesigning nyc.gov.
The benefits of open source collaboration and the importance of a great user experience have been obvious to Haot since she was very young. But her other talent is spreading computer literacy. Haot also has a knack for showing the technologically hesitant how the Internet can make their jobs easier.
Which is the main thing that needs getting done at state and local governments, says Jennifer Bradley of the Brookings Institute and co-author of “The Metropolitan Revolution.” “Digital is not something one person does,” she says. “It’s an approach a government has internally and externally. Digital has to be infused into everything.” Haot told A Smarter Planet she begins her conversation with other department heads by asking what their goals are. Then, she “backs into talk about digital tools” in pursuit of those goals.
Last fall, NYC announced that 100 percent of the Roadmap’s projects had been completed. Then in December, Haot announced she’d be taking the position of Deputy Secretary for Technology for New York State. Goldsmith, reflecting on the cultural change wrought by Haot, says, “The staff matured a lot in the time that she was there. In the end, there was much more of an appetite for digital.”
Now, from her new perch in Albany, New York, she’s issued the following challenge to NationSwell readers:
“How can we in government improve our service delivery and performance by embracing digital tools? How can we support a vibrant tech ecosystem statewide? Broadly: How do we realize the State’s innovative potential?”
Help her out by taking action using the button on the left.
The Latest (and Maybe Greatest?) Way to Propose Legislation to Your Lawmakers
Politicians have long been scratching their heads on how to restore the increasingly fractured relationship with constituents. So as more Americans migrate online, lawmakers are experimenting with crowdsourcing as a means to better understand voter needs and to create policy that answers their concerns.
In states such as New York and California, code repositories such as GitHub and writing workspaces like Wikispaces are fast becoming mediums for politicians to field feedback or help drafting legislation, Government Technology reports.
In fact, California Democrat Assemblyman Mike Gatto gained great fanfare for his Wikispaces initiative, which enlisted residents to help draft legislation on probate law. The measure, which enables a court to determine who becomes guardian of a deceased person’s pet, may have been a small contribution to the state, but it motivated Gatto to further pursue the idea of crowdsourcing policy. Gatto contends that crowdsourcing could bridge the longstanding gap between elected officials and frustrated constituents.
“When you put out a call like I did and others have done and say ‘I’m going to let the public draft a law and whatever you draft, I’m committed to introducing it … I think that’s a powerful message,” Gatto said. “I think the public appreciates it because it makes them understand that the government still belongs to them.”
New York City Council Member Ben Kallos uses GitHub to collect public commentary on much of his technology-related legislation. Kallos finds crowdsourcing as an empowering tool that creates a different sense of democracy, he told Government Technology.
And that’s not all. The Catwaba Regional Council of Governments in South Carolina and the Centralia Council of Governments in North Carolina are surveying local insight how leaders should plan for growth in the area. Earlier this year, residents were given iPads at a public forum to review four ideas for growth and provide feedback.
MORE: Why Boston Asked Its Youth to Determine How to Spend $1 Million
Of course, there’s a chance that special interest groups can manipulate these digital tactics to dictate how policy is shaped. Crowdsourcing expert Trond Undheim cautions that while the concept is great for public engagement, lawmakers should be careful with whom is influencing how laws are written. But Gatto maintains that Wikispace provides safeguards about editing a crowdsourced bill if it is apparent someone is changing legislation for the wrong reason.
“I think as long as there is sufficient participation, and that’s the big key, then I don’t think anyone can pull a fast one,” Gatto said.
But perhaps that’s the point of crowdsourcing: underscoring the very idea of democracy and giving everyone an opportunity to speak up.
If Another Disaster Strikes, New York City Has a Plan to House Displaced Residents
Hurricane Sandy unleashed a lot more than just wind and rain on New York City. As a result of the devastating storm, the city had thousands of displaced residents.
Big Apple officials learned a lot from the natural disaster, and one of the most important lessons is ensuring that citizens unable to return to their homes have a safe housing alternative while the city pieces itself back together.
Which is why the New York Office of Emergency Management is designing a housing prototype to hold refugees should another natural disaster strike the city. The “Urban Post Disaster Housing Prototype,” helmed by architect and Pratt Institute professor Jim Garrison, is a multi-story housing unit comprised of prefabricated modules that can be constructed in just 15 hours, according to Fast Company.
“A long time ago, we had a conversation about what it would take to house the homeless,” Garrison said. “People were coming up with all sorts of elaborate cardboard boxes. Finally, we came to our senses, in that a home for a homeless person is no different than a home for anyone else.”
The prototype includes three 480-square-foot-bedrooms assembled to form a walk-up on stilts while also providing wheelchair access. But the emergency housing project could also serve as an affordable housing model, according to Garrison, who says that the prototype could last 20 years.
In fact, part of the design includes ensuring energy efficiency through cross-ventilation and a balcony system that shades the unit from summer sunlight, which can save a resident two months a year from using an air conditioner, according to Garrison.
He’s also entertained the possibility of placing the unit on a barge anchored to the harbor, but it’s still unclear if it could weather severe storms.
For now Garrison is performing experiments on the prototype, which is perched on a hill near his firm in Brooklyn. As part of the test, The Pratt Institute and The New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering plan to invite residents to use the prototype for up to five days.
“The idea of this housing was to make it versatile enough so that you could install it in neighborhoods so that residents aren’t displaced, so they’re not sent to other neighborhoods,” Garrison said. “Your children can still go to the same schools they were part of. You can still be part of the social and economic circle of your neighborhood.”
MORE: Hurricane Katrina Inspired This Man to Revolutionize Emergency Housing
This Drilling Practice Is Controversial. But Now, New York Towns Can Say “Get the Frack Out”
Just a few months ago, we detailed the years-long David and Goliath battle between the small town of Dryden, New York, and Norse Corp., a natural gas company that wanted to frack the gas-rich land underneath the community’s feet.
Fracking, a controversial process that’s booming across America, has a whole range of negative health and environmental impacts.
Citing environmental concerns, Dryden’s officials unanimously banned the fracking within their borders in 2011, despite the fact that Norse had a lease to drill. Naturally, the gas company took Dryden to court (twice!).
But now, in another blow to the gas giant, New York’s top court has upheld Home Rule — a municipality’s legal right to apply its zoning laws to oil and gas wells. Essentially, New York towns and cities have the right to ban fracking.
MORE: How This Little Town Stood Up Against a Gas Giant
In the 5-2 decision, the Court of Appeals upheld the opinion of a lower state court. Judge Victoria Graffeo wrote that the two towns, Dryden and Middlefield (which was also named in the suit), “studied the issue and acted within their home rule powers in determining that gas drilling would permanently alter and adversely affect the deliberately cultivated, small-town character of their communities.”
New York has had a state-wide fracking moratorium since 2008 which oil and gas companies are hoping that Gov. Cuomo will one day end. Dryden was the first town to prohibit it all together, and remarkably, more than 170 other communities in New York followed its lead with similar bans. With this ruling, these towns can stay frack-free even if Cuomo lifts the state moratorium.
“It’s really, really great for the local municipalities who need to defend themselves against these big national and international corporate interests,” New Paltz, New York, supervisor Susan Zimet told the Daily Freeman. (New Paltz banned fracking in November 2012.) “Home rule is about the only power our small communities have in fighting these battles.”
DON’T MISS: North Dakota on Fire: One Man’s Quest to Turn Wasted Gas Into Power
Deborah Goldberg, an Earthjustice lawyer who argued on behalf of Dryden told the Voice that the decision will have a “huge impact here in New York state and may very well influence similar efforts around the country.”
The anti-fracking movement has spread across state lines, including communities in California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas and Ohio. Now if only the whole country could get on board.
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NationSwell Council Event with Rachel Haot
Rachel Haot, who set a new standard for civic engagement in the digital age as the first Chief Digital Officer in New York City government, was recently appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Secretary for Technology for New York State.
She will join the NationSwell Council on Wednesday, July 30 to discuss her career path and how members and guests might mobilize support behind her mission to help state government reach the people it serves through expanding and evolving new media tools.
Haot established the first urban digital roadmap in the United States, going on to achieve each of those initiatives, from overhauling nyc.gov to hosting the first municipal government hackathons. Read on for more about our NationSwell Council featured innovator and her work to merge government efficiency and technological innovation.
“New York City Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot says we’re in a ‘golden age of technology in NYC,” Engadget, December 2013: A glimpse at what makes the future of technology in New York City so bright.
“Open Government Initiatives Helped New Yorkers Stay Connected During Hurricane Sandy,” TechCrunch, January 2013: New York City’s Chief Digital Officer looks at one powerful example of how open government can keep New Yorkers connected.
“From Stoop Sales to Chief Digital Officer of NYC,” The Atlantic’s Advice to a Younger Me video series, October 2013: Haot considers what advice she would give to her younger self, including the notion that “if you take too long to make a decision, someone will make it for you.”
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We hope you will join us for:
Lunch with Rachel Haot
Wednesday, July 30
12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street, New York, N.Y.
RSVP by responding to the invitation in your inbox at your convenience.
How This Nonprofit is Helping Harlem Students Eat Healthy
As summer kicks off students and teachers are escaping the classroom for some much-needed time soaking up the sun. But a nonprofit and its partnering school are instead using summer vacation to expand its organic garden program — and they need your help.
The Edible Schoolyard NYC (ESYNYC) works with public schools to build organic gardens and teach cooking and healthy eating to some of the city’s underserved areas. Kicking off this month is its crowdfunding campaign, “Rooting for Harlem,” to maintain the program in East Harlem at P.S./M.S. 7 and Global Tech Middle School.
The campaign has raised $7,700 so far, but is looking for a total of $50,000 to add new components to its 4,000-square-foot raised bed courtyard garden and rooftop garden, perched atop one of the city’s building-lined blocks. The money will be used to plant fruit trees and build a willow arbor, as well as update infrastructure like installing new wooden and metal planters for the lower and upper terraces, an irrigation system and benches. The other half of the funds will go towards supporting the teaching staff, who teach growing in and out of the classroom as well as preparing and cooking garden-fresh meals. The students also run a neighborhood farm stand as a part of an after school program that will reopen in September, bringing the same fresh fruits and veggies to their community.
This is not the first city garden ESYNYC has built. The group launched a half-acre, organic experiential garden at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. Transforming a former parking lot into a leafy refuge, the garden also houses a greenhouse and a stand-alone building that now serves as a kitchen classroom where students learn about preparing and cooking fresh feasts from their own garden.
“Every dollar we raise brings one more edible education lesson to our kids, one more plant, one more positive, healthful, joyful experience,” said Executive Director Kate Brashares. “Every dollar makes a difference in improving a child’s health.”
P.S./M.S. 7 receives federal funding as a title I school, and 100 percent of the students receive free and reduced-price school lunches, according to Edible Schoolyard. More than one in five kids live in temporary housing or are homeless, one of the highest percentages in New York City. The diverse neighobrhood of East Harlem faces challenges similar to other urban communities, including 37 percent living below the poverty line and 30 percent in low-income public housing. The community also faces major health issues. One-third of adults are overweight, one-third are obese (the highest in the city) and 13 percent are diabetic.
As students head home for the summer, it’s important they’re taking their knowledge of cooking and healthy eating with them, and even more important that the Edible Schoolyard may continue its mission in the area. The Crowdrise fundraiser will last through July 17 and interested donors who offer $10 or up will be invited to the official opening ceremony in September.
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Why Public Markets Are So Important
Who doesn’t love a public market?
After all, they provide a great opportunity to buy local food, expanding your culinary tastes in the process. But despite our adoration for these markets, we may not realize the full impact they have on the people working the booth. Elijah Anderson, a Yale sociologist, coined Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market a “cosmopolitan canopy” because it is a place of equal opportunity for all genders and ethnicities. Philadelphia is not alone, though, as public markets across the country give everyone the chance to succeed.
Public markets are on the rise again, as noted by Project for Public Spaces (PPS), who found that the number of farmer’s markets increased from 2,863 in 2000 to 7,175 in 2011. The rise can be attributed partly to the help of organizations that assist in linking farmers with land — many of whom are minorities.
FARMroots is one such group. Since its formation in 2000, it has been connecting Latin American immigrants with land in New York State. Recently, they have expanded into the city, supporting urban farms, a growing industry. This is possible through partnerships with Black Urban Group and second-career farms, which are run mainly by women. In addition to minorities, women are also new titans in the sustainable agricultural business. So far this year, FARMroots has helped raise and market 20 new farm businesses.
Further, farmers are also doing business with SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) customers, resulting in increased small business development and food access.
These initiatives aren’t limited to just the Northeast though. PPS has recently been working with a Hmong population in Missouri. Originally from Minnesota, the transition was rough due to a different growing season and less interest in Asian foods. However, with the help of a grant from the Kellogg Foundation through PPS, these Hmong farmers have been given another chance, with a grant that allowed them to participate in training sessions — resulting in sales increases ranging from 200 to 800 percent.
Although these minority and women farmers may experience some discrimination, overall public markets give them the chance to expand their businesses and improve their lives. Therefore, next time you drop by a farmer’s market, realize that not only are you helping yourself, but you are benefiting the lives of those selling to you, too.
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