The Enterprise Center Tech Goes Home Chattanooga Smart Students, Stronger Families #148 Kelly McCarthy Initial Offer

Summary This request is to fund the continuation of the Enterprise Center’s Tech Goes Home Chattanooga program during FY2017 as part of the ongoing effort to break down the barriers to digital literacy, technology adoption, and Internet access faced by many of our underserved residents.    TGH CHA relies on partnerships with existing community organizations to provide our participants with 15 hours of age-appropriate digital literacy training, the opportunity to purchase a new Chromebook/iPad mini for only $50 (upon completion of the program), and assistance securing low-cost Internet access at home (for as little as $10/month).  Goals for 2016-2017**: Improve the digital literacy of the targeted population.  Measure: Individuals showing a demonstrated ability to use online resources FY2017 Target: 959   Increase the number of individuals having access to computers. Measure: Households with a subsidized device FY2017 Target: 651   Increase the number of households with Internet access. Measure: Households signing-up for low-cost Internet access FY2017 Target: 135 (+/≥ 20% households)   Reduce the effects of the digital divide on the targeted population in Chattanooga. Measure: Continued access and device usage as reported through future Follow-up Surveys FY2017 Target: 815 (+/≥ 85% individuals)

**Goals have been updated from Pre-Submission.

Finances

Amount Requested $200,000 Other Funding $155,300 Total Cost $355,300 Personnel Changes $0 Operational Budget Changes $35,300 Linked BFO Offers

Linked Capital Projects 1. What outcomes will be produced if your offer is funded? This request is to fund the continuation of the Enterprise Center’s Tech Goes Home Chattanooga (TGH CHA) program during FY2017 as part of the ongoing effort to break down the barriers to digital literacy, technology adoption, and Internet access faced by many of our underserved residents.    Our outcome goals are to: 1. Improve the digital literacy of the targeted population; 2. Increase the number of individuals having access to computers; 3. Increase the number of households in our targeted population with Internet access; and  4. Reduce the effects of the digital divide on the targeted population in Chattanooga.   In order to meet these goals, TGH CHA partners with existing community organizations to provide our participants with 15 hours of age-appropriate digital literacy training, the opportunity to purchase a new Chromebook/iPad mini for only $50 (upon completion of the program), and assistance securing low-cost Internet access at home (for as little as $10/month).    TGH CHA prioritizes low-income and underserved populations, including those in challenged neighborhoods (urban and rural), those without technology at home, those currently unemployed/underemployed, those who do not speak English, and those with disabilities. Our students have ranged in age from 4 to 84, around 72% are female, and 76% are African American or Latino, nearly 40% are unemployed, and at least 65% make less than $30,000/year.   Since we launched our pilot in January 2015, 394 people (representing 281 families) from over 20 sites across Hamilton County have graduated from TGH CHA (as of Jan 2016). 96% of our families have elected to purchase a subsidized device, so we have 271 new households with access to a computer in their home. We’ve also helped approximately 20% of our participants sign-up for discounted Internet access, which has brought an additional 56 families around Hamilton County online.     We plan to graduate an additional 959 individuals (representing 678 households) during FY2017. With an average household size of 2.33 people, the overall population affected will be at least 1,500 individuals. We anticipate maintaining or improving our averages, which means we plan to

distribute an additional 651 devices to our families,and help another 136 families obtain Internet access at home.  2. What is your plan for producing those outcomes? We completed three program sessions (Pilot, Summer, Fall) at 24 different partner sites in 2015.  We will offer four program sessions per year (roughly following the fiscal quarters) moving forward: Winter from January - March, Spring from April - June, Summer from July - August, and Fall September - December.   We will continue relying heavily on our partners to implement the program across Chattanooga and greater Hamilton County, and much of our staff’s time is spent identifying and assessing new/existing partners on an ongoing basis.    TGH CHA provides our Partners with: Curriculum and program resources (http://techgoeshomecha.org/online-resources/ (http://techgoeshomecha.org/online-resources/)) Marketing materials (posters, flyers, etc.) and forms Training & support for all TGH CHA course Trainers  Stipends for Hamilton County teachers/staff serving as Trainers/Co-Trainers Trained volunteers  Subsidized, new Chromebook or iPad mini (for Early Childhood program) for participants upon completion of the 15 hours of training (1 per family, requires families pay a $50 co pay) Semi-Annual graduation celebration for all participants, trainers, volunteers & partners   Partner Locations/Organizations provide: Course site and classroom equipped with wifi and computers (optional) Course Trainer (teacher or staff member) Assistance collecting surveys   Each course location will have a different class schedule (depending on the length of the classes, start date, etc.), but courses will begin within a few weeks of Trainers completing the “Trainer Training” (occurring prior to the start of each program session), and are required to conclude by the last day of the program session/quarter. (Current course locations/schedules can be viewed at http://techgoeshomecha.org/course-locations/ (http://techgoeshomecha.org/courselocations/).)   In order to track our specific outcomes, TGH CHA requires each participant/family to complete two surveys—one Pre-Training and one Post-Training. We collect contact info, demographic data, feedback on the program and curriculum, as well as information regarding usage of online resources for adults, Internet access, and information about student’s usage of technology for school. We will also administer surveys to participants via email and/or phone at intervals of 6, 12,

and 18 months post-training. We also require our Trainers to complete a Post-Training Survey and participate in a follow-up interview to help us improve upon the program curriculum and structure.   We have outlined our projected growth in the attached Budget+Projections spreadsheet, showing totals for each TGH CHA Program type (School, Community, Early Childhood & Small Business), as well as aggregate totals.   The milestones for each program session are outlined below and repeat each quarter.    Sites Identified & Courses Scheduled  - Monthly/Ongoing Completed by: Q1 – June 15, 2016 Q2 – Sep. 15, 2016 Q3 – Dec. 15, 2016 Q4 – Mar. 15, 2016 Key Activiites: 1. Schedule courses for existing partner sites and determine how many new sites are required.  2. Indentify/recruit new partner locations. (Potential sites must apply to be TGH CHA location by the 1st of the month prior to each session. ) 3. Review applications and secure new sites for session.  4. Successfully train new Trainers, Assistants, and Volunteers.   Monitor Enrollment & Attendance - Weekly/Ongoing Completed by: Q1 – Sep. 30, 2016 Q2 – Dec. 31, 2016 Q3 – Mar. 31, 2016 Q4 – Jun. 30, 2016 Key Activiites: Help Trainers market their courses (provide materials and tips, publicize new classes on website, etc.).  Track applications submitted and number of applicants accepted for each course remains in target range and within acceptable min/max number of participants (between 5 – 20 participants/pairs per course).  Periodically check in with Trainers and visit each course site at least once. Track attendance for each course to monitor dropout rate is within acceptable limits (<20%) and completion rate is on target during each quarter. Confirm Pre- & Post-Training Surveys and Final Projects are completed. Provide Device Order Forms for each course and confirm attendance for participants/households. Order devices (Chromebooks /iPad minis) from local vendor and confirm delivery. 

  Assess Data, Targets & Revisit Goals - Quarterly/Ongoing Completed by: Beginning of each Quarter for the previous Quarter and at intervals of 6, 12, & 18 months after each Program Session.   Key Activiites: Debrief with Trainers after each course concludes.  Collect information about participant’s ongoing computer usage, Internet access, etc. in surveys. Analyze survey data and lessons learned from pilot/previous quarter.  Make adjustments to program based on feedback from participants, Trainers, Committee, and TGH Boston staff. Work with PEF & HCDE to track student-level data for future impact studies.  3. What problem are you solving for Chattanooga? Like most cities, Chattanooga needs to address a major digital divide: a disparity in technical skills, hardware adoption, and Internet access based on income, race, and age. Digital literacy skills and access to the Internet give individuals a clear advantage in a world that is increasingly lived online. Yet, those who live at or below the poverty level, live in rural communities, are African American or Latino, have a disability, have a high school diploma or less, or are over the age of 65 find themselves disproportionately on the wrong side of the “digital divide”. Lack of basic computer skills and access means families are at a disadvantage when it comes to doing homework, finding employment, securing housing, accessing resources, optimizing finances, maintaining health, and staying in touch with loved ones (to name a few).   Based on data collected from surveying our participants, an estimated 36% of our participants have no Internet access at home prior to entering our program, and 29% report that they have had to change/cancel their Internet service previously because it was too expensive. Likewise, only 34% of our participants have a computer/laptop/tablet at home, 71% have a cell phone they use to access the Internet, but 16% have no device that they can use to access the Internet prior to entering our program.   The importance of digital literacy and access to the Internet for long-term success cannot be understated. Almost 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies (http://connect2compete.org/connect-to-compete-overview)—including Target and Walmart— only accept job applications online. A 2008 study by the Federal Reserve (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2008/958/ifdp958.pdf) stated that high school students who have broadband Internet at home have graduation rates 6–8% higher than students who don’t. And, consumers can save almost $8,000 a year by using online resources to find discounts on essentials like apartment rentals, clothes, gasoline, and food, according to a 2011 study by the Internet Innovation Alliance (http://internetinnovation.org/library/specialreports/access-to-broadband-internet-top-ten-areas-of-saving-2011/).   

TGH CHA utilizes the simple, but effective, model of Boston’s award-winning Tech Goes Home (http://www.techgoeshome.org) program, which has served over 15,000 residents since 2010. We offer programs for adults, school-aged children, and preschoolers. Partnering with community organizations, we provide  15 hours of group training to help participants understand the relevance and value of the Internet in their daily lives and acquire the skills to be able to access information and resources online.    Tutorials focus on topics such as tracking a child’s grades and attendance online, securing a professional email address, creating a resume/applying for a job, banking online, finding discounted goods/services, accessing City/County resources, researching health issues, finding the best reading apps for kindergarten readiness, learning how to use Facebook to market your business, and much more. Upon completion of the course, participants also have the option to purchase a new Chromebook/iPad mini for $50 (a fraction of the retail cost). We also offer assistance in securing low-cost home Internet service through one of several available options.   When surveyed, 100% of graduates would recommend the program to friends and family, and some of our sites now have waiting lists. 4. How will you know if you are on track and successful? Measure: Individuals showing a demonstrated ability to use online resources. Measurement Plan: We measure the number of individuals that actually graduate the program, meaning they have completed the 15 hour course at our partner location and have presented a required final project demonstrating their new skills at the end of the course. We require our trainers to take attendance on a Google Spreadsheet (provided and monitored by our Program Coordinator) to ensure each participant completes the entire 15 hours and presents their final project. We track individuals/families enrolled, dropped, and/or graduated and devices distributed for each site in a spreadsheet throughout the course of each program session/quarter.   Our Program Director analyzes all of this information after each program session has wrapped (quarterly) to help determine if we are meeting our targets and how our partner sites are performing, so that adjustments can be made for the next session. We also provide periodic reports to update the Enterprise Center’s CEO and Board on the program’s progress, successes, challenges, and upcoming plans, as well as sharing this information with others on the Digital Equity Committee for feedback. Our results will be published on our website in a final report at the end of each fiscal year, and copies will be provided to each of our funders. Historic Baselines and Targets: FY 15 Actual - 72 FY 16 Target - 1240  FY 16 Projected - 804 FY 17 Target - 959

Frequency of Measurement:  Quarterly Target(s) Indicating Achievement of Outcomes: Quarter 1 - 135 Quarter 2 - 291 Quarter 3 - 294 Quarter 4 - 239 Measure: Households with a subsidized device. Measurement Plan: We (TGH CHA staff and our local distributer) track devices distributed to each site in a spreadsheet throughout the course of each program session/quarter.   Our Program Director analyzes all of this information after each program session has wrapped (quarterly) to help determine if we are meeting our targets and how our partner sites are performing, so that adjustments can be made for the next session. We also provide periodic reports to update the Enterprise Center’s CEO and Board on the program’s progress, successes, challenges, and upcoming plans, as well as sharing this information with others on the Digital Equity Committee for feedback. Our results will be published on our website in a final report at the end of each fiscal year, and copies will be provided to each of our funders. Historic Baselines and Targets: Our goal is to have ≥ 96% households obtain a subsidized device for their home.  FY 15 Actual - 49 (100% of households) FY 16 Target - 590  FY 16 Projected - 554 (96%) FY 17 Target - 651 Frequency of Measurement:  Quarterly Target(s) Indicating Achievement of Outcomes: Quarter 1 - 93 Quarter 2 - 195 Quarter 3 - 193 Quarter 4 - 170 Measure: Households signing-up for low-cost Internet access. Measurement Plan:

TGH CHA requires each adult participant/family to complete two surveys (http://www.techgoeshomecha.org/student-surveys/)—one Pre-Training and one Post-Training. We also require our Trainers to complete a Post-Training Survey and a brief follow-up interview to help us improve upon the program curriculum and structure. We collect contact info, demographic data, feedback on the program and curriculum, as well as information on usage of online resources for adults (particularly for job related research, community services, financial literacy, and communication), Internet access, devices in the home, and information about student’s usage of technology for school. We will also soon be able to track enrollments through our partner, EveryoneOn, via their parter portal.    Our Program Director analyzes all of this information after each program session has wrapped (quarterly) to help determine if we are meeting our targets and how our partner sites are performing, so that adjustments can be made for the next session. We also provide periodic reports to update the Enterprise Center’s CEO and Board on the program’s progress, successes, challenges, and upcoming plans, as well as sharing this information with others on the Digital Equity Committee for feedback. Our results will be published on our website in a final report at the end of each fiscal year, and copies will be provided to each of our funders. Historic Baselines and Targets: Our goal is to have ≥ 20% of households sign-up for low-cost Internet access. FY 15 Actual - 9 (19%) FY 16 Target - 157 (20%) FY 16 Projected - 115 (20% of revised graduating households) FY 17 Target - 135 Frequency of Measurement:  Quarterly Target(s) Indicating Achievement of Outcomes: Quarter 1 - 19 Quarter 2 - 41 Quarter 3 - 40 Quarter 4 - 35 Measure: Continued access and device usage as reported through future Follow-up Surveys completed at 6, 12, 18 months after graduating. Measurement Plan: We will administer online surveys to graduates via email and/or phone at intervals of 6, 12, and 18 months post-training. We completed our six month follow-up survey of graduates from our pilot (May 2015) this past November, and will be surveying our FY2016Q1 graduates in March 2016. We continue to administer surveys on a quarterly basis until we have completed intervals of 6, 12, and 18 months. Our goal is to have a response rate of at least 20% of households, which we have exceeded slightly so far.   

We ask a number of questions similar to those during the program, but most importantly we ask about maintaining Internet access and continued usage of their device. While not official measures, we also ask graduates to rate their computer skills six months after the course (pilot avg. rating of 7.36 out of 10) and if they’ve completed additional online-based training since graduation (72% have continued some type of training online).    Our Program Director analyzes all of this information quarterly to determine if we are meeting our target. We also provide periodic reports to update the Enterprise Center’s CEO and Board on the program’s progress, successes, challenges, and upcoming plans, as well as sharing this information with others on the Digital Equity Committee for feedback. Our results will be published on our website in a final report at the end of each fiscal year, and copies will be provided to each of our funders. Historic Baselines and Targets: Our goal is to have +/≥ 85% of individuals continue to use their devices and maintain Internet access after graduating. FY 15 Actual - 65 (91% maintain Internet access) / 72 (100% continue using their device) FY 16 Target - 1054 FY 16 Projected - 683 FY 17 Target - 815 Frequency of Measurement:  Quarterly Target(s) Indicating Achievement of Outcomes: Surveys will be completed at 6, 12 & 18 month intervals after each class graduates, so targets won’t be realized until later in the year.   Quarter 1 - 115 Quarter 2 - 247 Quarter 3 - 250 Quarter 4 - 203

5. What else should the Results Team know?   Results & Adjusting Targets For our FY2016 offer, we created our first ever targets for our four outcome measures in the absence of any historical data. These target numbers were set prior to completing our initial pilot of the TGH CHA program, so we had to estimate key indicators like average course size, number of locations, and seasonal capacity, which determine our ultimate targets, based on the current numbers from Tech Goes Home in Boston (adjusted for Chattanooga’s population). We set our targets optimistically, but our projections indicate that we may not meet them. However, Boston’s current performance is the result of over a decade of growth, so it is reasonable to assume Chattanooga’s program would need some time to get to that point as well. We’ve now

completed three program sessions during 2015, and believe we can more reasonably judge key measures, like average class size, that directly influence the total number of program participants, so that our current projections and FY2017 targets will be more accurate. New Personnel In July 2015, we hired an additional person to serve as Program Coordinator to assist our Program Director with management of our sites, trainers, and volunteers. We’ve also brought on a local vendor, H&D Corporation, to purchase, warehouse and distribute devices to our sites.   Savings During 2015 we purchased most of our devices through our business account with BestBuy for about $35 under our budgeted costs ($249.54 ea tax free). Because of the price point on Chromebooks, mark-up is very low, so the price doesn’t vary widely. However, we switched over to a local vendor, H&D Corporation, in January 2016 and that has allowed us to reduce the price per device to $234.98, and will provide additional technical support for our participants for one year.   Collaboration TGH CHA follows a “train the Trainer” model, founded upon successful partnerships with schools, community centers, libraries, churches, and other anchor institutions. We partner with existing institutions already trusted by the community, who provide a Trainer for their site, and we train them to plan, market and teach an appropriate course. This allows us to serve far more people than our small staff of two could train directly, as well as ensuring our partners are truly invested and engaged in the solution. We have had several graduates return as trainers or volunteers for the program at new locations (such as their church or child’s school). In short, TGH CHA does not exist outside of our partners.    By partnering with trusted institutions to host courses at their locations, residents are less apprehensive and don’t need to travel across town to participate. In the case of our public schools, this may be the first time a parent/caregiver has visited/participated at their child’s school, and TGH CHA opens the door for more communication and future participation.   These organizations host courses at their sites, provide trainers and/or volunteers: EPB, PEF, Hamilton County Public Schools (including Howard, CGLA, East Lake Academy, East Ridge Elementary, Red Bank High School, Soddy Daisy Middle School, Rivermont Elementary and Clifton Hills Elementary to name a few), CHA Public Library, CHA Youth & Family Development, CHA Head Start Centers, CHA Housing Authority, Northside Neighborhood House, Metropolitan Ministries, TN Career Center, and another two dozen other neighborhood associations, churches, and nonprofits. (For a complete list of sites for the current term, visit http://techgoeshomecha.org/course-locations (http://techgoeshomecha.org/courselocations)/.)   Through our partnerships with PEF and the HCDE, we will also track anonymized, student-level data (such as grades, test scores, attendance and behavior) of public school students participating in TGH CHA, as well as non-participating cohorts. To our knowledge, this will be the

first time a digital equity program of this kind will be able to track the potential influence on student educational performance over time. We don’t have specific outcomes tied to these activities yet beyond successfully collecting the data, but we are excited about the long-term potential for this data.  

Attachments: 148_2014 form 990 the enterprise center, inc..pdf 148_cover letter - tech goes home.pdf 148_financial report 06-30-15 the enterprise center inc..pdf 148_tec annual operating budget.pdf 148_tec template b3- schedule of positions salaries wages.docx 148_template b4 - major sources of funding for the past five years (1).docx 148_tgh cha_budget format-a3_fy2017bfo.xls 148_tgh cha_program beneficiary statistics-b2_fy2017bfo.docx 148_tgh cha budget+projections_revised_20jan2016.pdf