Communities Connect - A Grassroots Approach to a Statewide Community Technology Network

Success Stories

 Speaker:
Matthew Mitchell
509-358-7685
matthew_mitchell@wsu.edu
Washington State University
Communities Connect is an initiative to transform a sole founder Community Technology (CT) grant program into a self-sustaining, holistic support network for CT-based community development in Washington State. This nascent project began less than one ago and has defined its vision, strategic agenda, action plan, and benchmark matrix through the intensive, multi-modal stakeholder engagement. Accomplishments to date include: a qualitative futuring assessment, a statewide listening session, an online dialogue venue, implementation of three distinct CT grant programs, and an outline for providing up-to-date developments relevant to CT applications. The largest challenge for Communities Connect is perhaps its greatest accomplishment: building a holding environment for diverse stakeholders focused on a spectrum of underserved populations in Washington State in which it's possible to share knowledge, exchange resources, aggregate influence, and coordinate policy and program action related to Community Technology.

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For more information about the conference, contact the conference co-chairs: Cindy Bigger, cbigger@umn.edu, (888) 241-0843, or Rick Maurer, richard.maurer@uky.edu, (859) 257-7582.

For questions, comments or concerns about the 2006 NACDEP Conference website, contact emilye@srdc.msstate.edu.