E-Literacy has become an essential skill necessary for a citizen to be an engaged member of their community. From finding resources within the community, to exploring job opportunities, to communicating with family; having access to the Internet empowers people.

There are many organizations providing core services such as food and shelter. But if society provides nothing more than core services, it will keep this segment of the population permanently on the fringe. CCIL seeks to give these people access and e-literacy training, thus providing opportunities to move beyond just surviving.

Here are some of the programs CCIL supports to promote e-literacy.

• E-mail for everyone. Whether you access the internet using our modems, connect at a public facility such as the county library, we provide e-mail accounts for any citizen who lives, works, or attends school in Chester County. This service is utilized by several non-profit organizations in the area in conjunction with their computer training classes - including the West Chester Area Senior Center, Downingtown Area Senior Center, and Chester County Disability Services.
  
  
• CCIL Volunteer positions provide opportunites to gain highly relevant job skills in leadership and technology. Many of our volunteers come to us during times of unemployment. Through the assistance of others, they learn new skills and regain a sense of confidence and value.
  
  
• Computer Exchange program - CCIL works with our partner, the West Chester Area School District, to identify low income students and families in the district to receive donated computers through CCIL.
  
  
• CCIL maintains a pool of 56k modems for public access to the internet. The primary dial up phone number is in West Chester; however we maintain three additional access phone numbers in the Phoenixville, Coatesville/Honey Brook, and Oxford/Kennett areas to insure we reach communities serving the greatest segment of low income households. These modems also support the efforts of the computer training received by students in school and from adult computer education classes...including training from our partner organizations like the West Chester and Downingtown Senior Centers. The no charge access to our dial-up service gives these students an opportunity to use their new skills.
  
  
• Every CCIL user account comes with a public web space. Users on our system build personal web pages or web sites for their favorite non-profit organization.
  
  
• Non-Graphic (text) access to the internet is still supported by CCIL for the small segment of the population with special disabilities. People with impared vision often use software that reads the contents of the computer screen to them. Having screens with information and no graphics makes this process easier for those individuals.
  
  
• CCIL volunteers have supported several rebuild projects in which donated used computers were brought back to life and then distributed to people in the community. Several of these programs involved working with young people that were activly involved in the rebuilding of the computer before it was given to them. Many of these projects involve the installation of "open source" software. CCIL prides it's self on keeping our services accessable by older computers.
  
  

DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT THAT PROMOTES E-LITERACY? - Let us know. CCIL is looking for new projects and organizations in which to partner. To learn how to get started....[CLICK HERE]