2000 Grant Recipients

November 2000: Theme - Adults Education | Job Retraining | Volunteerism

Holy Family Home and Shelter
Holy Family Home & Shelter is an emergency shelter for families. While they are at the shelter, families receive three meals a day, free laundry and local calling privileges as well as assistance for the services they need. There is an onsite education program for all the children as well as workshops and other programs for the adults.

Their small staff works hard in trying to widen the horizons of those whom they serve. The grant from the eBay Foundation™ has allowed Holy Family Home and Shelter to put their residents, parents and children in touch with the wide world of technology. Parents are now able to find employment and educational opportunities as well as training on the web. Children are using the technology to be able to do research projects for school.

Jewish Vocational Service
Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) links employers and individuals together to achieve their employment goals by providing the skills necessary for success in today's workplace, through high quality customer service, innovative program strategies and the use of new technologies. The JVS Technology Access Center (TAC) is a computer facility providing access to information technology and training for low-income residents. The TAC offers career advancement workshops in computer skills, job search skills, and professional development skills.

JVS offers one-on-one and small group assistance to TAC users in areas ranging from very basic computer skills to more advanced web programming skills. Software tutorials and online classes are available to assist each individual, regardless of where they are in their career advancement process. The TAC has served over 700 clients in the last year. Over 2001, JVS is partnering with the Beacon Initiative to offer career advancement services in the Beacon Centers' computer labs, located in some of San Francisco's most impoverished neighborhoods.

Through the eBay Foundation™ grant, JVS will enhance the career advancement services offered in the Technology Access Center and the Beacon Centers through a Technology Volunteer Program. JVS will recruit volunteers from Bay Area technology companies, as well as other community members, to provide clients with individual assistance in the TAC and the Beacon Centers. Volunteers will help clients with individual education and training needs such as mentoring, resume consultation, computer and Internet skills training. The technology volunteer program would recruit 50 volunteers to serve over 100 working poor adults, empowering them with the confidence and skills to progress toward living wage jobs and long-term self-sufficiency. The Technology Volunteer Program will build on our existing volunteer infrastructure, enabling us to offer a complete package of technology training and education services to disadvantaged adults.

On Your Feet
On Your Feet has been preventing and reversing homelessness since 1989 in Los Angeles. Founded by successful entertainment and advertising executives, the agency has focused on keeping homeless, at-risk, economically disadvantaged, and "working poor" in safe, stable housing as a foundation on which to build self-sufficiency and economic prosperity. Through their original privately funded Rental Assistance / Eviction Prevention program, experimental Federal Pilot Programs, City and County housing and self-sufficiency programs, On Your Feet has placed or kept well over 4000 people in housing. An integral part their service includes long-term self-sufficiency and economic empowerment components, such as onsite job skills training, job placement, and more.

Through a grant from the eBay Foundation™, On Your Feet was able to enhance their "Basic Computer Skills Training" program. A dedicated computer training instructor, and upgraded computer equipment will now provide basic through intermediate computer skills to low-income, disadvantaged, and homeless people, to qualify them for entry level employment in a modern business environment. Lack of computer skills prevents many low-income and homeless people from being employable, but these are often the people who need entry level employment the most.

This program will allow On Your Feet to help these people make the transition back into self-sufficiency immediately after stabilizing their housing, so there is far less risk of their becoming homeless or "falling through society's cracks" again before they become self-sufficient.

Residential Resources
Residential Resources has a mission to provide positive support to people with developmental disabilities and their families to live successfully in their community. They foster dignity, respect and fulfillment while helping clients move toward their goal.

With the eBay Foundation™ grant, Residential Resources will establish a computer lab to train persons with developmental disabilities to use computers effectively. The training will include basic computer uses and communication over the Internet. People with developmental disabilities in this community will have more access to job opportunities with computer skills. With enough training, our hope is to have an agency website that the people we serve will update and maintain.

Sakhi for South Asian Women
Founded in 1989, Sakhi for South Asian Women is a community-based organization in the New York metropolitan area committed to ending the exploitation and violence against women of South Asian origin. Sakhi strives to create a voice and a safe environment for all South Asian women through outreach, advocacy, leadership development and organizing. The domestic violence survivors that contact Sakhi range in economic and class background, however, the most vulnerable and the largest number are first generation immigrants who are low-income, unaware of their rights, and lack any supportive network. Their vulnerability and need for Sakhi is even greater if they cannot speak English.

Sakhi recognized that lack of English skills and financial independence constitutes one of the main barriers that keep low-income immigrant battered women trapped in destructive relationships. Even when they do leave, they often find themselves in poverty, stuck in low-paying, low-skilled jobs with no potential for future advancement. Currently, Sakhi is building a structure within our domestic violence work to provide a way for women to achieve financial independence and meaningful career avenues.

With the assistance of the eBay Foundation™, Sakhi will establish a computer center, where we can provide free computer instruction to women who are unable to afford to pay for classes or tutoring in Hindi for women who do not speak English fluently. For many survivors, learning computer skills is about increased job potential as well as self-empowerment.

Students for Change
Students for Change have a charter of connecting college students with developing communities around the world where they can mentor their skills. The field volunteers spend a semester in a host community while providing training to the residents in the areas of information technology and small business management.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ is helping fund a computer learning center at Paljorling Tibetan Camp. As they facilitate new skills in education, business, the Tibetan community will see the possibilities that e-commerce can bring. Students for Change believe that technology plus education can make visible differences in the lives of mentors and learning cohorts.

Students For Change will be working with a minimum of 25 learners in the computer learning center and various community leaders. We will form learning cohort teams that will also assist the community handicraft business in expansion and diversification. The learning center will also function as an educational center, where we will teach skills that will enhance the success of the community. These will include, grant writing, accountancy, English, co-op development, and brokering resources,(e-commerce, trade, research for new markets), and distance educational possibilities. The center will also assist returning homemakers/elders wishing to learn about various topics to assist them in their cottage

Virtual Volunteering Project
Virtual Volunteering Program's primary mission is the helping organizations, schools, nonprofits, etc., involve online volunteers effectively. The VV Project website itself is the composite efforts of many volunteers, involving more than 300 online volunteers, ages 14 to 72 of various backgrounds and geographic areas.

The Virtual Volunteering Project website offers comprehensive guide with available online mentoring programs and resources, listing such things as: the critical first steps necessary for reestablishing such a program, suggestions for online safety, a list of key administrative tasks and more than 50 suggested activities for online volunteers.

Funding from eBay Foundation™ was used toward expanding these resources by researching and providing: suggested practices for screening and training volunteers, suggestions for how to match online mentors with students, suggestions for teachers to prepare youth for online mentoring programs, suggestion for orienting and involving parents in online volunteering programs and examples of online exchanges between adults and youth in various ages in other programs.

WGBY Center for Instructional Technologies (CIT)
The WGBY, PBS television for western New England, Center for Instructional Technologies (CIT), a professional development resource for educators, is committed to training teachers to maximize the power of technology to strengthen learning, and to providing content-rich resources for the classroom. The current project, funded in part by the eBay Foundation™ will teach the teachers who improve their communities by teaching in community-based organizations.

The eBay Foundation™ grant will help create a series of twelve workshops at the CIT for the staff of community organizations who have computers for their clients' use. In conversations with many local community centers, they have learned that most have received grants to purchase hardware, but they do not have the technical support or training they need to keep their computers running smoothly or to feel comfortable helping their clients.

WGBY, developed in close consultation with the community centers, is helping community centers and other non-profit organizations create a cadre of staffers who are experienced with the effective use of computers in the classroom as well as basic maintenance and troubleshooting techniques. Any local community centers are invited to participate.

Workshop topics based on the diverse needs of individual organizations might include basic office application programs, desktop publishing, web design, Internet use, graphics and basic video editing. With proper training, community organization staffs would be able to familiarize their constituents with the use of technology which is a critical step in helping to bridge the digital divide that exists between those who have access to technology and those who do not.

July 2000: Theme- Kids Education | Mentoring | Esteem

Computers 4 Kids
Computers 4 Kids is a nonprofit organization established in 1992 whose mission statement is to "help students of ALL ages acquire the technology and technology skills they need to succeed in the future by providing equitable access to technology resources in homes, schools and communities." This organization collects, refurbishes /upgrades and distributes about 1500 PCs computers annually to technology-needy families, schools and community organizations.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will help support the "Youth Managed Technology Enterprise" in Waterbury, Connecticut. Youth are honed in leadership skills as they are mentored by adults in the business community, participate in entrepreneurial projects and the publicity for them. They further the leadership skills by serving as "tech-advisors" to families new to computing, in youth programs at community centers with computer labs and help teachers in the classroom in the community's three high schools.

Jameson, Inc.
Founded in 1928, Jameson provides year-round recreational, camping and personal, life development programs for youth in central Indiana. Programs are geared to provide leadership and computer Internet training to youth aged 7 to 17. Children, who have a recognized need for increased social skills, are referred by a teacher, doctor, social worker or community professional. Some children have minor learning disabilities or health problems; still others have behavioral problems or come from economically-distressed or abusive home lives.

Jameson, Inc. has established a five-station computer lab for our year-round camp programs to assist children with homework assignments, newsletter production and developing computer competencies. E-Bay has provided support to enable the Jameson Computer Lab to link with the Internet.

Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana
Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana collaborates with the educators, volunteers and businessmen and women who help students at all grade levels understand economics and the opportunities available to them. These volunteer programs prepare the young people for long-term success as consumers, employee and future employers.

Funds from the eBay Foundation™ will be used to provide a new Internet-based business simulation, JA TITAN, for high school students. An estimated 7,600 high school students and 70 educators will be served by this learning program which provides a competitive game to challenge students' business skills and learning.

The user becomes the CEO and president of Cyberpen and throughout play, the participant plans and executes, with input from vice presidents accessible through the software, each aspect of the company's strategy, price, production, marketing, capital investment and research and development. A "performance index" combines these factors in evaluating company performance and performance when compared to other players both in the user's own classroom and in classrooms across the nation.

National Lekotek Center
The National Lekotek Center, founded in 1980, is dedicated to making the magic of play-and the learning that goes along with it-accessible to all children, no matter what their abilities or socioeconomic status.

The eBay Foundation™ grant will help support the CompuClub program. Using computers as the medium, CompuClub introduces participating children to technology, using special disability assisting devices and adaptive software. Abled and disabled children collaborate in creative projects, writing stories and producing art.

Research has shown that social isolation experienced by a child with disabilities often continues throughout the individual's life. The National Lekotek Center seeks to circumvent potential isolation by facilitating children with and without disabilities, playing together. Both groups of children benefit from sharing similar challenges, learning to see each other in a different light, often positioning the child with disabilities as the "expert"-even the teaching role-in situations where that child has stronger computer skills that the other children. These skills that the children gain are directly and frequently applicable to their school classroom learning.

The Odyssey: United States Trek
The Odyssey World Trek uses the Internet to take over 50,000 K-12 students on a virtual field-trip journey around the world. The second grant from the eBay Foundation™ will help fund a virtual trek to visit historical places, interview historic figures and meet experts in US History. Students will learn through the trekker's reports and online video clips. Chats and live interviews will prominent people allows students to interact directly.

Para Los Ninos
Established in 1980 and accredited by the Council on Accreditation for Children and Families, Para Los Ninos' programs assist 1000 children a day, aged 6 weeks to 18 years, and 2000 families a year.

Funding from eBay will go toward a new the youth leadership program, which trains Youth Center participants (aged 11 to 18 years) to teach younger kids in the Latchkey after-school program, how to use computers. Para Los Ninos Youth Center is an after-school program for low-income teen and preteens at risk for gang involvement, school dropout and substance abuse. The youth receive a combination of academic assistance, recreational resources and emotional support.

San Francisco Conservation Corps
The San Francisco Conservation Corps offers young people the opportunity to develop themselves, their academic abilities and marketable job skills while addressing community needs through service work.

Located in the heart of San Francisco's culturally diverse Mission District, the SFCC's ECO Center offers a comprehensive program of after-school and summer enrichment, focused around urban environmentalism, for youth and young adults. Young people develop academically, professionally, and personally through participation in academic support activities, environmental education, and environmental and community service projects. They learn to take active roles in shaping their communities, as well as their own futures.

The eBay Foundation™ has provided a grant to the SFCC for the creation of Youth Voice on the Web, a youth-directed, community oriented website focused around the theme of urban environmentalism. Harnessing the power of the World Wide Web for community outreach will enhance the students' community service efforts, while teaching valuable academic and professional skills.

Through the creation of a youth-directed, community-oriented web magazine, students will sharpen their writing and research skills, learn technical skills, and provide a useful resource for the ethnically -diverse southeastern sector of San Francisco. In creating the website, diverse urban youth will receive mentoring from professionals in the field, thereby increasing their Web literacy, improving their self-esteem, and helping to address the growing "digital divide."

Stevens Institute of Technology
The Stevens Institute of Technology was founded in 1870 and has been helping teachers and administrators integrate technology into the curriculum in order to more effectively engage students in learning, particularly in science and mathematics. The CIESE-Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education, "The Square of Life" program focuses on unique and compelling uses of the Internet in classroom instruction.

Through a project called "The Square of Life", five rural Guatemalan schools will be matched with five schools in Florida. Students from grades 1-6 will engage in exchanging information about plants, animals and other non-living objects found in their schoolyard. The structured activities would cover the range from varied subjects: science, math, language arts, reading and geography and social studies. Guatemalan schools sought for the project have been in communities in which Internet connectivity has been established with the resources of an inter-American bank and other organizations.

Third Street Community Center
Don Edwards Computer Learning Center, San Jose, CA

The Third Street Community Center was incorporated in 1997 to serve the diverse community of various cultural, socio-economic and age groups living and working in downtown San Jose, California. Free, age-appropriate, computer classes are offered for young people in Spanish and English through several after school programs. Programs include: "Homework Club" and "Computer Clubs", and a matching program called "Homework Allies", which are taught by trained City Year volunteers on computers that are donated and refurbished. In addition to these youth oriented programs, other members of the broader community are served in the downtown San Jose area through Community Mediation Services, volunteer-led English as a Second Language classes, and Techo-Mentoring. Techno-Mentoring matches computer-savvy volunteers help graduates and first-time computer owners to get their computers up and running and who are then available "on-call" to help trouble-shoot.

April 2000: Theme - International | Global Impact

Enterprise Development International
Enterprise Development International, founded in 1985, has the mission to enable the poor to free themselves from poverty. In more than 50 countries, Enterprise has worked with local organizations to provide business training, mentor relationships and small loans to needy people who wish to start or expand their own businesses. More than 70 percent of these people are women, who often have the sole responsibility of supporting their families. By operating home-based businesses, they are able to feed, clothe and educate their children. As their businesses grow, they are often able to employ others, thus strengthening their communities.

The eBay Foundation™ is helping support Enterprise in their work in Calcutta, India. This program provides training and loans to buy sewing machines, van rickshaws, fishing nets, and livestock. In the next 12 months, the program will provide more than 1,500 families with the tools to lift themselves out of poverty. The eBay grant will enable the project to buy computers and other office equipment so it can more efficiently track project participants and loans, a task that is currently done by hand. The grant also will fund computer training for the local staff and connect them to the Internet, allowing for better communications with Enterprise and the world.

TechnoServe
TechnoServe, founded in 1968, helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor rural areas of the developing world to build profitable businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and countries. By partnering with local and international businesses that supply business advice, marketing support, and access to commercial financing TechnoServe is able to currently support potential entrepreneurs in Nicaragua, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will help support the establishment in El Salvador of Farm Management Centers that will connect poor rural farmers to information on new agricultural technologies and international markets via computers and the Internet. One in five Salvadorans farm for a living. Most farmers grow traditional crops using limited technology and sell to the first buyer they find. They lack timely information that would influence them to grow new crops for new markets. They also lack business skills to calculate the difference in profit margins between traditional and non-traditional, higher-value crops. The Farm Management Centers will provide these services and more to small farmers, enabling them to turn their largely subsistent farms into growing, market-oriented farming businesses.

Technology Training Foundation of America
The Technology Training Foundation of America (TTFA), Computers for Schools Program, provides for a public/private partnership that helps bridge the 'digital divide' and creates wider opportunities for underserved communities in our technological world. The eBay grant enables TTFA to expand its Computers for Schools division to meet the increasing demand for computers by public and private schools, after-school programs, student incentive programs, senior centers, battered women's shelters, and charitable organizations. The grant will help facilitate the operations portion of the Computers for Schools program. This will enable TTFA to increase the number of computers and technology training opportunities available to students, minorities, inner-city youth, seniors, single heads of households, and other non-profit organizations.

The TTFA's Computers for Schools Program has four key components:

• Donation: TTFA accepts working and non-working computers and other related office equipment. It provides an avenue, through its 501(c)(3) status, for Corporate America to donate equipment no longer of use, to serve a greater need.
• Repair: Donated equipment is transported to one of TTFA's repair sites for refurbishing/upgrading before being placed into schools and non-profits at no-charge.
• · Training: The repair facilities offer vocational students exposure to a wide variety of computer hardware and opportunities to train with real-life troubleshooting exercises. In California, TTFA has become partners with fourteen statewide computer refurbishment-training school programs. They include computer repair programs within the California Department of Corrections, the California Youth Authority, the Consolidated Brig at Miramar Marine Base in San Diego, and three regional vocational training programs. TTFA has high standards and only places computers that will be used.

Recycling: Computer equipment that cannot be repaired or upgraded and other non-technology donations are recycled through one of TTFA's statewide recycling partners. Funds that TTFA receives from recycled equipment goes toward the purchase of new parts in order to service donated computers that need to be upgraded or repaired.

PEOPLink
The International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT) is a worldwide network of grass roots organizations representing more than 400,000 marginalized producers of crafts and agricultural products. PEOPLink (http://www.peoplink.org) is a non-profit organization training and equipping IFAT members use digital cameras and the Internet to market their handmade wares while showcasing their cultural richness. The eBay Foundation™'s donation will help fund this project will provide computers, digital cameras and training to enable some of the most needy artisan organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America to create and maintain their own Web catalogs. This capability will enable them to bypass the usual middlemen and thereby receive a higher share of the final retail price for their beautiful objects. At the same time consumers in the developing world will be able to see more information about the people that produce the crafts.

Net Corps Americas
Net Corps Americas (NCA) is an initiative of The Trust for the Americas that works to bridge the digital divide and to demonstrate the power of volunteerism across the Americas. NCA sends volunteers throughout the Americas with a focus on small businesses, education, civil society, and the environment. The Trust for the Americas, a foundation within the organization of American States (OAS), fosters partnerships among businesses, non-profit organizations, foundations, governments and academic institutions in response to mandates of the Summits of the Americas and of the OAS.

Net Corps America: Inter American Development Bank Study
Net Corps Americas (NCA) for people with disabilities sends high-tech volunteers to Central America to train people with disabilities and their organizations to use the new information and communication technologies (ICT). People with physical disabilities will use ICT to improve their personal lives, enhance their employment possibilities, create their own businesses, and work together. NCA is sent its first group of volunteers in the summer of 2000 to work with disability organizations in Honduras and Guatemala.

The donation from the eBay Foundation™ will add an important dimension to the NCA program. NCA will select a regional association of organizations that work on disability issues in different Central American countries and send volunteers to train association members to effectively use computers, the Internet and to create a shared website. This equipment and training will amplify the associate members' ability to work together to combat the societal exclusion faced by people with disabilities.

Net Corps America: Programa del Muchacho Trabajador (PMT)
The second grant to NCA from the eBay Foundation™ will permit Net Corps Americas to send volunteers to Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador who will assist and train educators and youth living in high-risk urban areas. In 1995 the PMT launched its Construyendo Nuestro Futuro (CNF)/Building Our Future project is designed to strengthen and improve job training and social re-insertion programs for high-risk youth, in an effort to provide them with a competitive edge in the work sector. The program has focused on entrepreneurial and citizenship development of youth aged 16 to 25 from marginal urban neighborhoods.

In addition to computer skills, the project is designed to help youth groups establish information centers in order to: provide micro-enterprise services (graphics and reproduction), gain access to timely market information and employment opportunities, produce on and off-line marketing materials, and other resources necessary to promote youth businesses.

Schools Online
The mission of Schools Online is to help ensure that all schools have effective access to the communication and information resources of the Internet. The organization donates Internet equipment to schools and facilitates teacher professional development and support. Since its founding in 1996, Schools Online has been a catalyst, helping more than 5,700 schools gain online access. Together with education partners, Schools Online has facilitated workshops on Internet access for more than 10,000 teachers.

In 1999, Schools Online formed a strategic partnership with two other organizations, the International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN) and World Links for Development (WorLD) called the Alliance for Global Learning. This partnership was created to address the inequities in access to technology and the Internet and to provide educational opportunities for more students worldwide. The Alliance is establishing computer centers and Internet connectivity in schools in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. In addition, it is conducting teacher development and promoting the integration of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) into classroom curricula.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will enable Schools Online to continue to develop, translate, and maintain the global-learning website. This multi-lingual site will give teachers and students a powerful way to share their collaborative projects and bridge cultural and educational gaps in classrooms worldwide.

January 2000: Community - Economic Revitalization | Community Improvement

The Community Food Security Coalition
The Community Food Security Coalition, (CFSC) has a mission to promote food production and distribution methods that are economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially just. Through the grant from the eBay Foundation™, CFSC will hold day-long training workshops on community economic development in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis in June, 2000.

The target audience for these seminars will be community groups working in low income urban and rural communities developing food-related businesses, such as market gardens, family farms, and food processors. These workshops are an effective - and cost-efficient method of building the capacity of grassroots organizations to create successful food-related economic development projects. The workshops will cover basic principles of community economic development to give participants a theoretical grounding in the field, and then move to more "nuts-and-bolts" type components of business planning, such as market analysis and strategy, preparing financials, credit access, and management principles.

CFSC will incorporate case study presentations from local examples of successful inner-city food-related businesses, taking a field trip to each site in the late afternoon after each workshop.

Family Service Agency of San Francisco
Family Service Agency (FSA/SF) is a one-hundred-and-eleven year old non-profit, tax-exempt, non-sectarian human service agency serving low-income San Francisco residents of all ages, through 41 innovative programs in 42 neighborhood locations.

eBay's grant assists the Family Service Agency's 5 to 9 Workplace Mentoring Program is a 12-week, on-site, career advancement program which provides "soft" skills training, volunteer mentoring, skills enhancement, job placement, career advancement services and family support to working low-skilled, low-income individuals. The program takes place between 5 PM and 9, beginning February 2000.

Volunteers recruited from the business community and FSA/SF vocational staff train program participants in computer literacy, word-processing, and other computer software as well as on the use of modern office equipment. In addition, volunteers provide one-to-one mentoring to facilitate the participants' advancement in the job market. FSA/SF's Employment Specialist offers weekly job readiness, career advancement, and job placement assistance to participants until they are placed at a better or higher paying job. To ensure that transportation and childcare problems do not create obstacles for program participation, FSA/SF provides developmental child care during program hours and transportation between the program site and the participants' homes. Of the participants who complete the program, 80%will be placed in better unsubsidized employment within 60 days of graduation. Job retention and job placement services will be provided for all program participants up to 90 days after they have been placed in jobs.

The Friendship Community Center
The Friendship Community Center strives to provide a safe and healthy location for interaction between all generations and all cultures in education, the arts, social and recreational activities. Their efforts offer information, referral and human services and improve the quality of life for the community.

Friendship Community Center, as a reply to Suttons Bay's local community will open a computer center for elderly residents, which will be taught by local high school youth. These classes will be affordable, and geared at fostering enriching relationship between different generations. This center will also be open to people of low-income and others who do not otherwise have an opportunity to gain computer skills.

The Fremont Public Association
The Fremont Public Association (FPA) is an anti-poverty initiative local to the Seattle, Washington area. They strive to provide human services in a manner that promotes justice and human dignity. The FPA dedicates its efforts in achieving an equitable and caring community free from poverty, prejudice and neglect.

The program funded through the eBay Foundation™ is The Martin Luther King VISTA Volunteer Corps. This Corps places full-time national service volunteers in community agencies providing frontline human services including: employment counseling; emergency shelter; violence prevention; family support; emergency food and more. By recruiting, training and coordinating nearly 30 full-time volunteers who commit to a year of service, the MLK VISTA Corps is able to make a tremendous impact on poverty-related problems including unemployment, homelessness, hunger, family violence and more.

• Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project - the MLK Volunteer is working to create and coordinate a computer lab for several hundred homeless and low-income adults to gain access to computers for job search, housing search and other priorities.
• Archdiocesan Housing Authority (AHA) - the MLK Volunteer is developing two Computer Learning Centers where low-income and disabled people can gain computer access for job search and other purposes.
• Public Access Network - the MLK Volunteer is working to increase public awareness of community computer labs and Internet terminals and to develop online tools to teach technology literacy and support sustainability of community technology centers.
• Plymouth Housing Group Bridge To Work Project - the MLK Volunteer is working to provide on-site job preparedness training for homeless adults in emergency housing.
• Washington Women's Employment & Education - the MLK VISTA Volunteer is working to identify, locate, contact and engage hard to serve welfare recipients in employment and training activities. Welfare recipients will be connected to Welfare to Work contractors who provide a wide range of services that will eventually lead to employment.

The grant also enabled FPA to create five additional VISTA Volunteer assignments addressing unemployment and other related problems.

Lighthouse of Broward County
Lighthouse of Broward County is dedicated to promoting the independence and productivity and enhance the quality of life of people who are blind or visually impaired. With the assistance of the eBay Foundation™, the Lighthouse of Broward County will expand its computer-training program for blind and visually impaired children and adults. The expansion will include updated software and Internet access. There will also be a separate self-study lab created, with four work-stations. Expanding and updating equipment in the classroom lab will enable Lighthouse of Broward County to increase the number of students they serve and expand the curriculum to include spreadsheet, database, e-mail, Internet, and other business related applications.

The lab will make available advanced computer technology including text to speech translators, optical scanning, screen reading and other specialized technology for blind or visually impaired persons.

Creation of a self study lab will enable students who don't have a computer at home to do their "homework" and proceed through their rehabilitation program more quickly. They will learn more effectively and be ready for job placement at an earlier date Students will also be able to use the Internet to access job banks and other employment information. Lighthouse of Broward County has found the Internet to be a wonderful resource for blind people, opening access to information that is otherwise unavailable or difficult to access.

The self-study lab will also house the children's computer program which runs during our summer camp and during our after school program. Specially designed computer games will make learning fun and exciting. With early training and positive role models, these blind children will grow up ready to meet the challenges of the sighted world. Technology truly does help blind and visually impaired children and adults optimize their potential for success and independence.

LionHeart Productions
LionHeart Productions exists to maximize the availability, understanding and enjoyment of live theatre for the citizens of Newaygo County, Michigan. They strive to teach their actors, which is a group of local youth, not only high artistic and technical quality in the performing arts, to nurture their imagination and to share with the audience the capacity to celebrate drama, comedy and compassion, but they also have a policy of giving directly back to their community. LionHeart adjusts their plays to appeal to their local diverse community and give proceeds from their events and donated items to other local non-profit organizations in their county.

In the past, through their productions, LionHeart has given 344 books to the Reading is Fundamental program in their area, glasses to the Lion's Club, canned goods to the county food bank and $521 to L.O.V.E. Inc.

Resources for Independent Living
Resources for Independent Living works towards accomplishing a fully accessible and integrated community and provides service for individuals with disabilities that enhance personal choice and promote social, vocational and economic opportunities.

Through the grant from the eBay Foundation™, Resources for Independent Living will be able to purchase important equipment to allow for disabled persons to experience freedom through technology. They will arm their center with things such as special software which can "speak" to visually impaired persons, and Madenta head mounted pointers and software to assist persons with spinal cord injuries or cerebral palsy to use a computer without manual dexterity.

Their programs include training, education, and peer participation, resulting in a stronger community and greater economic development.

1999 Grant Recipients

November 1999: Theme - Adults Education | Job Retraining | Volunteerism

Bay Area Video Coalition
Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), has a mission of giving a voice to those who would otherwise be silenced by lack of resources access. They provide the tools and training needed to low income and working poor residents of San Francisco to be competitive in the Information Age by producing promotional media that can compare to commercial products.

Bay Area Video Coalition is working to bridge the gap between industry's requirements for skilled labor and the needs of the unemployed and working poor for hard skills training. Through the grant from the eBay Foundation™, BAVC will be able to continue developing satellite programs, online curriculum and a pool of trained instructors. BACV strives to make a material contribution to reverse the "digital divide" and ensure the participation of undeserved communities in the information age.

Murfreesboro City Schools
The Vaughn Street Housing Project is a federal housing project in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that consists of 60 units of two-story brick and concrete "row apartments" built half a century ago. Houses or duplexes are rented by low-socioeconomic families surround Vaughn Street. Partnering with the Murfreesboro Housing Authority and the city's police and parks departments, the Murfreesboro City School System is establishing a Learning Center. What makes this project unique is that it is at the center of the community, working and bonding together with the families. This program builds partnerships to network with the larger community with a goal to facilitate success.

The eBay grant will fund computers and software for an adult literacy program, GED preparation, beginning and advanced computer skills, and job skills enhancement. In addition, the grant will fund two childcare workers who will care for young toddlers and babies while parents attend class. Parenting skills education, adult mentoring, integrated health, nutrition, and social service programs, job fairs, and a "Dress for Success" program will be offered by the City and its community partners.

The Oakland Public Library Foundation
The Oakland Public Library Foundation strives to inform, inspire and delight their diverse community as a resource for information, knowledge and artistic and literary expression. They work to provide the best in traditional services, new technologies and innovative programs.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ is supporting the library's "Second Start Adult Literacy Program", which provides free, tutoring to more than 350 Oakland adults each year. This program is so popular that there has been a backlog of adults waiting to enter. Our grant will allow for significantly more people to be served through the Second Start Adult Literacy Program. It will also help volunteers get trained to serve and strengthen the program in their community

Redwood City Project READ
Redwood City Project READ is a free, volunteer-based literacy program for adults, children and families who want to improve their literacy skills. Four complementary literacy programs are offered to meet the literacy needs of the community. Project READ offers a variety of options for volunteers, including computer and office work.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will help support Project READ's Kids in Partnership (KIP) program, which involves cross-age tutoring and monthly library activities involving families of tutors and students. This small group family literacy program is targeted at low-income families where fewer than 18% of parents have earned a high school diploma and many of their children are "at-risk" students. At risk teens volunteer their time, tutoring elementary students in conjunction with their parents. KIP encourages families to grow and learn together while volunteers strengthen their own literacy. Teen volunteers are provided with a safe, productive project in a geographic area where there is limited access to supportive environments in which to spend their after school hours.

Washington Literacy
The mission of the Washington Literacy is to ensure that people in Washington State have the literacy skills to fully participate in society. Washington Literacy (WL) helps individuals, families, community-based literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs learn about and access assistance through their services.

Through the grant from the eBay Foundation™, Washington Literacy will be able to provide fifteen training workshops for the volunteer literacy tutors, adult learners and literacy program workers throughout Washington State. These workshops will empower volunteers with the teaching tools they need to enable adult students to become active in their learning process. This will in tern transfer to the students' children, who historically have low literacy rates. The tutors will also learn how to design student-centered lessons and work with their students to map out strategies for achieving their goals. The workshops encourage the use of real life materials such as deciphering the teacher's notes of a student's children and then writing a note in response to the teacher's comments.

July 1999: Theme- Kids Education | Mentoring | Esteem

Epicentre- Harmonium
The Epicentre's mission is to serve as a catalyst to enable community members to achieve their maximum potential while promoting the well-being of people. They work to prepare teens for the 21st Century through business, entrepreneurship, community services, arts, educational and recreational opportunities. They focus on empowering young people by giving them tools to develop their skills and putting them to work. At the Epicentre, teenagers discover their passion, learn new skills, give back to their communities and contribute to the economy - today!

Through the grant by the eBay Foundation™, Epicentre will become a Community Technology Center in which teens will be hired to make Epicentre's computers available to the public. The teens will offer training in information technology and manage their own entrepreneurial technology business.

Health Education and Training Center/Public Health Institute
Health Education and Training Center (HETC) strives to be a catalyst for change that seeks to improve and promote personal, family and community health. It focuses on creating innovative solutions to bride the gaps between health care providers and those who need their services.

HETC was created by a high school student as a response to the escalating rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as unintended pregnancies among adolescents. This program focus' on peer education to create positive group norms of behaviors in order to reduce these social problems.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will enable HETC to recruit, train and support peer health care educators. This student-planned and student-conducted peer health education program will be a model which they plan to propose to other schools in undeserved and culturally diverse communities.

Redlands Christian Migrant Association
The Redlands Christian Migrant Association is a non-sectarian organization, which originated in the Redlands area of Florida and now serves statewide 5000 children and families in 21 counties. Their goal is to create and foster opportunities for the children of migrant and other low-income rural families to maximize the choices in their lives.

The Redlands Christian Migrant Association provides child development and family support in communities where migrant children are often taken to work in the fields or wait in the car while their parents worked.

This organization has allowed children to be equipped with language and computer skills as well as self-esteem as they learn their potential to succeed in school and beyond.

The Center for AIDS Education and Training (CAET)
The Center for AIDS Education and Training (CAET) provides HIV and health education programs which are designed to enhance the physical, mental-emotional and social health of youth, and impart the practical skills and self-reliance needed to access community health resources.

The grant from the eBay Foundation™ will help fund SOS-Today Pilot Project which provides youth leadership training and mentoring to 80 at-risk high school students. These peer educators will then conduct interactive educational sessions to 1,090 at-risk youth ages 12 to 17.

The peer educators will directly address the realities facing young people, empowering them with the practical skills to protect their health and the health of others.

The Odyssey: World Trek for Service and Education
The Odyssey: World Trek for Service and Education works to use the Internet to promote global awareness among youth and engage them in activities to create positive change in the world.

This organization was founded by a group of public school teachers to leverage the educational strengths of the World Wide Web to take 1,000,000 students on an unprecedented educational two-year virtual trip around the world through the Internet, via the Odyssey website. In this program, five volunteers visit ten major non-western countries to document the lives of the people and places of significant cultural value.

Interactions are also established between the students, the local community via email, bulletin boards, and live events.

April 1999: Theme- General

CHAMPS- San Jose State University, San Jose, California
CHAMPS/ Project Team Work is a youth and community outreach project sponsored by San Jose State University's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. This organization places San Jose State University athletes in public schools and community youth groups to serve as mentors and role models to youth who need academic, social and /or emotional support. CHAMPS/Project Team Work serves children and youth in seven elementary schools, five middle schools, four high schools, and various other local community agencies in northern California.

College Kids
College Kids' mission is to promote equal opportunity for all children by developing and supporting grassroots partnerships that help children from low-income communities, grades 3-12, realize their potential to make it to college.

The College Kids model brings resources into the community (mentors, college students) and strives to enable community members to become service providers and not just service recipients. This organization appeals to three levels of education, in preparation for elementary school, middle school, high school and university. College Kids has sites on universities in various locations within California and is gaining attention in other universities across the United States.

Home Care Companions
Home Care Companions enables people living with a life-threatening illness to receive sufficient, appropriate and affordable health care in their own homes by training patients, families and friends in basic home care nursing skills.

Clients learn practical skills that will help them to build and organize a support network, manage medications, control common symptoms as side effects, recognize a medical emergency, communicate with medical professionals, access other community resources, provide bed care, put legal affairs in order, etc. They also train medical care professionals from throughout the United States, as well as Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Inn Dwelling
Inn Dwelling is a shelter that assists underprivileged families as well as handicapped and elderly people in the Germantown area in Philadelphia toward self-sufficiency. Some of the many programs offered are related to budgeting and debt-management counseling, educational opportunity, job and literacy training and relocation assistance.

Inn Dwelling believes in sustaining the dignity, independence and well-being of each individual served through a holistic method providing people with the skills to help them get out of poverty.

Parents Helping Parents, Inc.
Parents Helping Parents, Inc., helps children with special needs receive the resources, love, hope, respect, health care, education and other services they need to reach their full potential by providing them with strong families and dedicated professionals to serve them. They work directly with parents or care providers and teach skills to identify problems in their children and to equip them with tools to guide their children onto a healthy path.

Programs include mentor parenting, education planning classes, learning disability and attention deficit disorder classes, as well as children's neighborhood projects.

Project H.E.L.P.
Project H.E.L.P. (High Expectations Learning Program) strives to ensure academic success for all elementary school students. Project H.E.L.P. is local to the San Francisco Bay Area. Its organizational mission is to become a county, state and national model for early academic intervention. The group simultaneously addresses school reform issues and acts as a school-change agent. Project H.E.L.P. incorporates parent involvement in its strategy as well as teacher training for long-term results.

Students Run LA
Students Run LA encourages under-achieving students in Los Angeles County to set athletic goals for themselves to build self-esteem, self-control and to demonstrate the value of personal achievement. This method has resulted in an increase in the positive academic performance of participants and has encouraged students to stay in school and make academic plans for their future. It also seeks to encourage mutual understanding and respect among youth from diverse ethnic groups. This organization was started by one teacher who tried this approach with a small group of students; the result was so positive that other students, other schools, and eventually entire districts became involved, and it turned into a formal organization.

1998 Grant Recipients

Friends of Farm Drive
Friends of Farm Drive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the residents of a San Jose, California neighborhood. The area is rampant with drug dealing and gang activity and is well known to local law enforcement agencies.

Friends of Farm Drive is spearheaded by a member of a neighborhood church. The organization has partnered with agencies such as the California Youth Authority, San Jose Police Department, San Jose State University, and numerous medical staff, in helping to create a safe haven for the community. Friends of Farm Drive currently rents two apartments in the neighborhood, which are used as community centers. Volunteers assist with homework, teach English as a Second Language (ESL), arrange monthly food donations, staff injection clinics, and administer tuberculosis testing and treatment.

The eBay Foundation™ grant helped the Friends of Farm Drive fund a summer program by providing salaries for members of the Youth Outreach Program, who administered a recreation program targeted at "high-risk" youth, ages 14 through 20. The grant also assisted Friends of Farm Drive in establishing a computer learning center. Volunteers offered technical instruction to adults and youth, enabling them to develop computer skills. The program is currently run entirely by volunteers.

University Research Expedition Program (UREP)
The mission of the University Research Expeditions Program is to "improve our understanding of life on earth through partnership between University of California UC researchers and members of the general public." Established in 1976, UREP has supported thousands of research teams and provided opportunities for students, teachers, and other members of the public to join UC scientists on research projects investigating critical issues of environmental, human, and economic importance worldwide.

The eBay Foundation™ grant provided scholarships to send California elementary and high school teachers on UREP trips, where they learned by working side-by-side with university scientists and local residents in countries around the world. The teachers had the opportunity to work with the local people in the countries they visited (for example, teaching the value of preserving local rainforests). Teachers returned from these research projects energized and excited to teach what they learned to their students. These programs increase awareness of current events and foster understanding of different cultures among both students and teachers. Additionally, the volunteer efforts make valuable research possible, which benefits everyone.