New Report: CTC’s as Catalysts for Community Change

Posted by on August 22, 2003

Community Technology Centers as Catalysts for Community Change
A Report to the Ford Foundation

By Project for Public Spaces, BCT Partners and New School University

ABSTRACT

This report presents the findings from exploratory research into how community technology centers (CTCs) could function more effectively as public spaces and as forces for positive social change at the community level. In understanding the dynamics of their work at present, it hopes to inform community technology researchers, practitioners, and funders as to the ways in which the movement can leverage its accomplishments of the past in order to serve communities more broadly as it looks toward the future.

This research was initiated with funding and direction from the Ford Foundation, in order to assess the situation in which CTCs currently find themselves and make recommendations regarding whether and how CTCs could be supported to take on broader community agendas. The primary assumption driving this work was that CTCs — most of which are located in disadvantaged neighborhoods — are important not only because of their specific digital divide work, but also because they act as key public spaces in areas where there is a dearth of such community places. It is also hypothesized that there is a gap between the community development and community technology fields, and that this new perspective would help to bridge this gap, enabling greater efficiency and effectiveness on both the community technology and community development fields. The goals of this research were as follows:

* Understand the extent to which CTCs already think of themselves and act as public spaces in the communities they serve;
* Investigate perceptions of a gap between community development and community technology work;
* Explore the ways in which CTCs, as public spaces, can catalyze broader positive community change and the strategies they are employing to do so;
* Identify the characteristics of CTCs that are most amenable to carrying out this kind of work;
* Discern what specific kinds of support CTCs require in order to do this kind of work; and
* Make recommendations regarding actions CTCs can take, and that funders can use to establish priorities for CTCs.

The report summarizes the relevant literature on public spaces and community change and documents historical and current issues facing CTCs. It then examines these trends through the lenses of public space analysis and community development theory, and identifies areas for further research and action, with specific emphasis on recommendations and a funding program for CTCs that would broaden both their mission and traditional sources of funds.

The full report can be downloaded at:
http://www.bctpartners.com/comm_tech.htm

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Dr. Randal D. Pinkett
President and Chief Executive Officer
BCT Partners, LLC.
Carriage Office Building
900 Park Avenue
Plainfield, NJ 07060
908.754.9585 (Phone)
908.226.5412 (Fax)
rpinkett@bctpartners.com (E-Mail)
http://www.bctpartners.com (Web)