Excerpt:
Computer Fluency in the New Information Economy
The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC), one of the partners in the project, emphasizes collaborative efforts to train youth and adults in digital media arts and to increase the online presence of local small businesses and community organizations. There are 13 centers in the Detroit/Hamtramck/Highland Park network, with populations ranging from youth to seniors, as well as members of special interest organizations, like environmental justice.
"It is a grassroots effort to boost our economic infrastructure," said Jenny Lee, co-director of Allied Media Projects, a non-profit member of the DDJC. "We need to train people in the types of online capabilities and services that our community is asking for. Requests for digital media trainings and services come from small businesses, non-profits, and local education institutions. The number of requests are growing and we need people who can perform work in e-commerce, sound or animation, graphic arts, digital video, or e-books. We also need people who can train others in these skills. Once people acquire these skills we need to make sure the people who want to hire them can find them. To accomplish this we are building an online clearinghouse for the graduates of our digital media trainings. Finally, by bringing these concepts and skills into schools via teacher professional development, we begin a process that can prepare our area's young people to be leaders in a new information economy. Our hope is that this makes it possible for more young people to choose to build their lives in Michigan and apply their creativity towards our post-auto industry future."