By Eugene Ford
York, Pa.
It's often difficult for community groups to tap into the abilities of its residents because they have no way of knowing what skills are available. But the nonprofit South George Street Community Partnership in York, Pa., is using hand-held computers to change that.
A team of elderly volunteers are using devices called PalmPilots to administer high-tech surveys to find out what members of the community are available to work.
While PalmPilots specifically are made by 3Com Corporation, the devices belong to a family of computers called Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). These machines are small enough to fit in a person's hand, yet powerful enough to run programs and store personal information such as addresses.
A plastic stylus is used to "write" on a touch-sensitive screen. After the computer learns to recognize the handwriting, information can be stored in memory by writing it down. There are several different versions of PDAs available now, including a descendant of the PalmPilot called the Palm.
"Instead of concentrating on what York lacks, we're finding out where its assets lie, and in what ways people may be able to contribute," said Armand Magnelli, an employee of the Enterprise Foundation, a nonprofit group that's giving the SGCP technical assistance. "We try to find, for example, people who are skilled gardeners, or people who are experienced with caring for the sick, and who could help on a community level by finding employment using their skills."
To begin the survey project, the SGCP received a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, started in 1994. The money was used to buy a few computers and a dozen PalmPilots.
The PalmPilots make it possible for interviewers, roughly six of which are Seniors, to go door-to-door, or walk around community events, and enter the information that they gather with the surveys into a database.
"We have found that this mix of technology and community organization has really improved the efficiency of our work," says Magnelli. "Although we're really just beginning to collect information, I think that the use of the palm-pilots, and the fact that we have quite a few older people who really understand the neighborhoods conducting the interviews, will make an ideal way of connecting people to employers and to the community."
Aside from questions involving skills, the surveys also touch upon the make-up of households in York, and ask people about how they feel about their neighborhoods.
"Overall, this partnership between computer technology and activism is going to give us a much better understanding of how to improve things in York," says Magnelli.
Eugene Ford can be reached at
pj3@mindspring.com
