ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996                TAG: 9607300042
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-2  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press 

COMPUTER LAB TO GIVE PROJECT RESIDENTS SKILLS

THE NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORKS program aims to provide welfare recipients, young and old, free computer training.

Jemika Scutchings learned to use computers in grade school. But the 11-year-old housing project resident had no way to keep up those skills at home.

Until now. Jemika and other residents of Friendship Village are the first in Virginia to participate in a government program that provides free computer training to welfare recipients, right where they live.

Officials hope the Neighborhood Networks program will help children do their homework and teach adults job-related skills.

The state pilot site, a computer lab set up in an unoccupied apartment at Friendship Village, opened Friday.

``Successful affordable housing no longer is just the bricks and mortar,'' said Barbara Barnes, regional director of VMH Inc., which manages the housing project. ``It includes the services that will enrich the lives of the families who live there.''

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has 39 other Neighborhood Networks programs nationwide and plans to add computer labs at other housing projects in Virginia, said Henry Colonna, resident initiatives specialist for HUD's Virginia office.

Jemika was among the first in a crowd eager to try out Friendship Village's lab Friday. She sat down at a computer, with her 5-year-old cousin Nicole Hills on her lap, and fired up a word processing program.

``I like to type,'' Jemika said. She said the lab will help her do homework when she enters the sixth grade this fall at Lynnhaven Middle School.

``It's nice,'' she said. ``It's close to home.''

Volunteers from the FBI's Norfolk office and Old Dominion University will teach residents at Friendship Village how to use the computers and various software.

In addition, VMH will send resident Jackee Dunbar to Boston next week for three days of computer training so she can teach other residents.

``What this means is that the children will get some real help. We're coming into the computer age,'' Dunbar said.

The lab has five IBM clone computers, including two donated by Birdneck Elementary School, which is attended by children from Friendship Village. A $4,000 federal grant paid for the other terminals, Barnes said.

The computers will be hooked up to the Internet using technology developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research Center in Hampton. Public television station WHRO will pay for the Internet connection. The cost hasn't been determined, station spokeswoman Donna Hudgins said.

Details about the lab's operation still need to be worked out, but VMH hopes the center will be fully open to all residents within 60 days, Barnes said.

LENGTH: Medium:   63 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Nicole Hills, 5, and Jemika Scutchings, 11, play a 
          computer game Friday morning at Friendship Village in Virginia 
          Beach.