March 28, 2009

Needy students receive free computers

RICH ADDICKS / raddicks@ajc.com Dozens of sixth graders at Louise Radloff Middle School left the school on Saturday with a free computer, courtesy of the Computers for Youth, a non-profit organization provides low-income middle school students with computers.

RICH ADDICKS / raddicks@ajc.com Students and their parents attend a computer learning seminar. After completing the class, the students received their computers.

By KELLY YAMANOUCHI

The prospect of a free computer lured sixth-graders back to school on a rainy Saturday. Louise Radloff Middle School in Duluth is the sixth school in the Atlanta area and the first in Gwinnett County to get free computers, educational software and training from Computers for Youth. Radloff also is the first school in the organization’s Atlanta program with bilingual training, in English and Spanish, for students and their families. “This is really going to help her in the future,” said Sandra Parker, whose daughter, Jaunna, is a Radloff student.

The mother also said the computer and training will help her connect with her daughter, and that she plans to put the machine in Jaunna’s room.

Computers for Youth, which was started in New York and opened its Atlanta office in 2007, takes used computers donated by corporations, refurbishes them and gives them to youngsters and their families at certain economically disadvantaged middle schools.

It selects the schools through an application process. To qualify, at least 75 percent of students must be eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch.

About 54 schools in the greater Atlanta area fall into that category, according to Jeanne Artime, co-director of Computers for Youth in Atlanta.

The organization held free weekend training sessions for Radloff sixth-graders and their families the past two Saturdays and distributed about 280 computers. The machines were donated by Cisco Systems Inc., Given Imaging and other companies.

After the training sessions, parents have indicated increased confidence in helping their children with schoolwork, Artime said. “We tell parents, ‘You don’t have to know the math. There’s a program that does. You can say, ‘Let’s figure this out together.’”

Computers for Youth expects to repeat the program next year at Radloff and hopes to add two more schools in the Atlanta area to its program. “There’s a great need,” Artime said.