THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601120188
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
WITH A FEW CLICKS of a button on a computer mouse, 10-year-old Kita Cofield can make Spiderman jump from his perch off the perimeter of a computer screen and land squarely on the seat of an imaginary motorcycle.
``How do you do that?'' Ernesto Peterkin, also 10, asked in amazement.
For Kita, it took little more than the right software and about two months of after-school computer training at the Swanson Homes Community Center.
``I want to be a cartoonist when I grow up,'' said the Shea Terrace Elementary School fifth-grader, ``and this is what gave me the idea to be one.''
Seated at one of two Packard-Bell CD/ROM computers purchased through a federal grant by the Swanson Homes Tenant Council, Kita maneuvered characters on the monitor to create her very own cartoon.
Within minutes, a crowd of curious youngsters gathered behind her, barking orders like, ``Now get Spiderman to jump off the motorcycle.''
Children, ages 8 to 14, who live in Swanson Homes are receiving free computer training thanks to the remaining dollars of a $40,000 grant awarded four years ago by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The same training is also being offered weekly to adults. But since its creation late last summer, the computer learning center has attracted more children than adults, much to the dismay of Sandra Cofield, Kita's grandmother and the president of the Swanson Homes Tenant Council.
``Very few adults are taking advantage of the computer center,'' said Cofield. ``And we have it out here for them.''
There are 210 units in the housing community with at least one adult resident, but only about a dozen of those tenants have shown interest in the free classes.
``It was set up as an educational project,'' said Cofield. ``We have a lot of young mothers out here that need the computer experience to further their education, to get jobs.
``I feel like it will benefit them later on,'' she said. ``With welfare reform and different options being closed to young people, I feel like it's a great opportunity for them to take advantage of.''
According to Michael Ziglar, a certified public accountant who was hired as a consultant by the tenant council to coordinate its computer training, the children are much more eager to learn ``because they're not afraid.''
``The strategy is we hope to get more participation from adults by working with their kids,'' he said.
In November, the council organized a computer club geared specifically to the children.
``We had one of the lowest rates of children graduating from high school, and we wanted something to target at the kids to bring them into adulthood and make them move further,'' said Cofield.
The club meets every Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the community center on South Street. Because there are only two computers, the boys and girls meet separately for one hour at a time.
On a recent Friday, four girls were watching a program called ``How Multi-Media Computers Work,'' while four others were introduced to ``My First Encyclopedia.''
``I want to hear some music,'' pleaded Sharaye Foster, 12, a sixth-grader at Hunt-Mapp Middle School.
``Oh, in other words, you don't want to learn anything,'' teased Ziglar, the instructor. ``You just want to play?''
The kids are allowed to experiment with some computer games, like the Spiderman cartoon-maker, but for the most part, they're encouraged to call up tutorial lessons in subjects like typing and word processing. Recently, the students made their own invitations to a party they're planning in February.
``I would venture to say that even though we only have two computers here, we're probably the most advanced tenant council in the state,'' said Ziglar. ``Technologically speaking, I think we are.''
To entice participation on a regular basis, each child earns 10 ``computer dollars'' at every meeting. The kids may also earn computer dollars by performing chores for two hours a week for the 35 elderly Swanson Homes residents.
At each meeting, the children's ``savings accounts'' are computed via computer and will be used later to pay for field trips.
The idea behind ``charging'' for future trips, said Ziglar, is to refute the notion among children that they deserve something for nothing.
``And not only that, when we have discipline problems, we fine them computer dollars,'' he added.
Typically, about 15 children show up each week, but membership continues to grow as word spreads. And as the number of children increases, so does the need for adult volunteers.
``We need at least two adults working with each group of kids,'' said Ziglar, who would like to recruit volunteers from outside the housing community.
``As I've observed in public housing, what generally happens is people come in, but they stay maybe a hot minute and then they're gone,'' he said. ``We want them to stay a set period of time, maybe two to four hours a week for six weeks.
``We're not trying to burn anybody out or anything. We're just trying to get a little bit of outside help.''
Volunteers would benefit by receiving free computer training themselves, said Ziglar.
He hopes that with the help of volunteer instructors the computer learning center will be able to continue training for residents of Swanson Homes indefinitely. The tenant council has only two months before its grant expires.
``We're looking in the near future to write another proposal, but right now we haven't started one,'' said Cofield.
Without a follow-up grant, the council will lose Ziglar as their consultant, which means tenants will have to work harder with what has been left, Cofield added.
``Whether Mr. Ziglar has to leave or not, I think residents here should band together to try and further their educations, to try and move on,'' said Cofield. ``They shouldn't want to stay in one place.
``It's time for a change. With different companies laying off people and the federal government shutting down periodically, we need to be working so that we can support ourselves and be better educated to raise our children in a better environment and a better community.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Latasha Maddrey, 10, practices her newly learned computer skills at
the Swanson Homes Community Center.
A tutoring screen is used to help teach the children computer
basics. The same training is being offered weekly to adults in the
community.
Staff photo and cover photo by MARK MITCHELL
Sandra Cofield, president of the Swanson Homes Tenant Council, tries
her hand at the high-tech keyboard. The council hired Michael
Ziglar, a certified public accountant pictured on the cover, to
coordinate the training.
KEYWORDS: COMPUTER PUBLIC HOUSING by CNB