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PHOTO: Former grant recipient Housing Families fights family homelessness by providing safe, temporary shelter and quality affordable housing.

Every quarter InterConnection awards Computer Grants to nonprofit organizations around the country. InterConnection looks for organizations that have proven they deliver necessary and valuable services to underserved communities like technology training, health care, education and job training. These organizations must also be in need of computer upgrades imperative to better manage their organization and improve their capacity to deliver these valuable services.

For our most recent computer grant round, InterConnection received over 50 applications from nonprofit organizations across the United States. The grant committee reviewed each application carefully and based their decisions on the following criteria:

40% – Impact and Reach
20% – Technological Capacity of the Grantee
25% – Ability to Execute, Financial Capacity and Plan for Sustainability
15% – Organizational Need

Of the 50 organizations that applied 9 organizations were chosen as grant recipients and will be awarded computers. We would like to congratulate the following organizations on being chosen as 2015 InterConnection Computer Grant Recipients:

Boulder County RSVP Board: Boulder, CO
Boulder County RSVP Board’s staff will use the computers for scheduling and communication in order to provide volunteer-powered programs and services to help seniors stay independent. Their programs provide access to nutrition, healthcare, housing improvements, and companionship, and were created in response to unmet needs of seniors in the Boulder County community.

FIRST at Blue Ridge
: Ridgecrest, NC
First at Blue Ridge’s computers will be used by staff and in their computer lab, where clients go to gain basic computer skills, complete their GED, take online college courses, do their homework assignments as well as prepare and submit resumes and employment applications. First at Blue Ridge is a long-term residential therapeutic community for individuals with chronic substance use disorders.

Osceola Council on Aging
: Kissimmee, FL
Osceola Council on Aging is a multi-service agency providing 30 health and human service programs including nutrition, housing and transportation to disadvantaged families and individuals in Osceola County, Florida. They will use computers for family enrollment into nutrition programs (Meals on Wheels, food bank, senior dining), as well as program administration, data collection, tracking and reporting.

Our Father’s House
: Fitchburg, MA
Our Father’s House operates a Homeless Family Shelter with 20 families and 60 children. The computers will be used by homeless children at the shelter for homework.

People United Against Poverty International: Philadelphia, PA
People United Against Poverty (PUAP) provides immigrants and refugee youth and their families with the support and important life skills they need to successfully settle and integrate themselves into American society. The PUAP computer lab helps immigrant youth and their families get connected to the internet, learn basic computer literacy and improve their English language skills through ESL training software and web-based applications.

SJB Leadership Academy: Miami, FL
SJB Leadership Academy offers a unique combination of traditional public school curriculum, individualized learning, and online instruction. SJB provides a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) program, a Music Engineering academy, and socialization opportunities, health and wellness information, and social service resources to families who come from generational poverty and disenfranchised neighborhoods. Computers will be used by students for coursework.

Studio Samuel Foundation: Jersey City, NJ (and Ethiopia)
Studio Samuel Foundation focuses on improving the lives of vulnerable young women in Ethiopia. Through its fair-trade product lines, Studio Samuel creates jobs and supports local artisans, and proceeds are applied to educational platforms for women and girls. Their grant computers will be used by program participants for learning basic computer literacy, ESL coursework, as well as introductory coding classes.

Team Operation Enduring Brotherhood: Rosenberg, TX
Team Operation Enduring Brotherhood is a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of veterans in order to foster peer-to-peer mentorship, increase healthy living, and reduce the number of veteran suicides related to PTSD. Volunteers will use the computers to communicate with members and to manage the organization’s finances.

Union Capital Boston: Jamaica Plain, MA
Union Capital Boston connects people with resources and organizations in low-income communities in order to create opportunity. Their innovative web-based loyalty program rewards community involvement and aggregates community resources, connecting residents to each other and to community organizations and opportunities. Grant computers will be used in the rewards program.

All of these organizations have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to making their community a better place to live. InterConnection will divide 65 computers amongst the 9 organizations based on need.
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Do You Know of a Nonprofit Organization in Need of Technology?

Our next Computer Grant Deadline is December 15th.

Any interested 501c3 nonprofit organizations that feel they embody what we are looking for are encouraged to apply. – See more at https://interconnection.org/computergrants.php