Contact Information
Address:
2727 Mariposa, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
Why is your organization interested in increased broadband usage among your members and community:
BAVC is a "transmedia" nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire social change by enabling the sharing of diverse stories through art, education and technology. For over thirty years, we have worked to connect communities, young people, media makers, teachers, schools, technologists, nonprofit organizations, and audiences toward these ends. We are extremely invested in broadband users among members of our community, and even more so as we move with the rest of the global nonprofit sector toward engaging diverse communities through digital media skill sets, civic opportunities, workforce development, and stories. As more and more applications and video content demands higher speeds and greater connectivity, broadband is absolutely critical to the success of our programs and participants.
Because BAVC has been doing this work for over thirty years, we were active during the first "digital divide," when some sectors of the population -- particularly the already disadvantaged -- were left behind in the blooming experiment of the Internet. Over two decades later, the challenges facing these communities to not only participate, but to compete for jobs, is once again a high stakes dilemma. We hope to use our experience and network of both non-profit and for-profit relationships to ensure that everyone in our community has the same opportunities.
Demographic Information
Service Area Congressional Districts:
Does your organization serve vulnerable population groups? If so, please identify:
Hispanic
Black/African-American
Asian
Disabled
Low Income
Unemployed
Senior Citizen (55 and over)
Youth
Other
If other, please explain::
We actually serve all of these groups but were not allowed to select more than ten groups above.
Number of hosehold subscribers:
Estimated population size of your service area:
Please provide demogrphic information for the population you serve:
Between our facilities in San Francisco and Oakland, we serve 800 low-income youth per year through our next generation programs, 200 low-income adults per year through public access producer programs, and thousands of teachers, veterans, disabled, and unemployed workers per year through our workforce development and training programs. The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most diverse regions of the country, and contains one of the largest and fastest-growing populations of Latin American immigrants in the nation as well as a large and rapidly-growing Asian and Pacific Islander populations (over 30% of the population of San Francisco according to the U.S. Census, 2000).
For example, 55,722 people reside in Fruitvale, a neighborhood of Oakland that we serve through our bilingual "Abriendo las Cajas (Opening Boxes)" digital media program that seeks to reduce domestic violence among the Latin American immigrant population in this neighborhood. In this community, 46.1% of the population is Latino, the fastest growing ethnic group in this area. The Latino population faces a number of risk factors such as linguistic barriers, low educational attainment, and poverty. About 62% of the Fruitvale population speaks a language other than English. Of those, 71% speak Spanish. Forty-four percent (44%) of the Latino population never graduated from high school as compared to 40% of the general population. Approximately 22% of the Latino population lives below the federal poverty level, compared to 11% in Alameda County. [Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000; and Hampton R. L. and Young B.R., ". Violence in Communities of Color: Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Be."]
Supporting Vulnerable Populations
Please describe the specific affirmative steps that your program will take to engage and serve the groups identified:
We have several programs that do targeted outreach to vulnerable populations, and will continue to conduct active outreach to these groups. We have strong partnerships with local nonprofit organizations that reach into our neighborhoods, relationships with public schools, teachers, and youth organizations, and relationships with local colleges, universities, senior citizen groups, and individual producers that make for a strong outreach network. This year, we implemented a general low-income membership program for BAVC, which allows community members to obtain a Producer Level Membership (regularly $175/year) with several benefits at the low rate of $10/year, which gives low-income community members the ability to participate in our programs. We offer several free and reduced rate programs and services, including free training programs, computer lab access, and production equipment use. Our youth programs are nationally recognized for our ability to support participation by low income youth, who are paid for participation in our programs and internships.
Please describe the ways your center will be accessible to people with disabilities and technologies will be used:
In September, 2009, BAVC took over public access television operations in San Francisco, adding a set of programs designed to serve diverse populations, including the disabled. In February, 2010, we completed a series of renovations to meet ADA accessibility guidelines. These renovations included improved building access, wheelchair-accessible production spaces, work surfaces, and a remodeled kitchen and lounge that meet ADA guidelines. We regularly have members with disabilities participating in our productions (including a weekly program called "Disability Now"), classes, and programs. We offer some software-based assistive technologies for vision-impaired students, and are currently evaluating additional technologies for the deaf and hard of hearing, including work with developers creating software that automates video captioning.
Do you offer, or plan to offer, multilingual training and outreach? If so, please describe and identify languages it will be in:
In partnership with local immigrant health organization La Clínica de la Raza and ZeroDivide, we created a program called "Abriendo las Cajas (Opening Boxes)," a bilingual (Spanish/English) digital media training and production program; all materials created for or by this program are bilingual (curriculum, instruction, videos). Through this capacity we hope to better serve the large (and growing) Latin American immigrant population in San Francisco and the surrounding area, particularly Oakland.
Local Drupal Development Commitement In addition to what the OMF will provide through this grant, we
estimate that a successful implementation will require a minimum of 80
hours of local drupal support (through trained staff, contractors, or
volunteers).
How many hours of professional drupal development support can you commit to securing between Oct 2010 and Oct 2012:
What is the estimated Cost (or value, if volunteer) of this commitment:
Current Capitial Equipment Commitment If your organization already has some or all of the equipment
required to implement the Open Media Project, or the capital budget
necessary to acquire it, that value will be included as part of your
match. If not, grant funds will be used to acquire the equipment you
require.
Current Digital Broadcast Server(s):
Current Dedicated RAID Storage:
Other Current Equipment Value:
If other, please explain:
Encoding servers, racks, and mounts.
Future Capital Equipment Commitment If your organization already has some or all of the equipment
required to implement the Open Media Project, or the capital budget
necessary to acquire it, that value will be included as part of your
match. If not, grant funds will be used to acquire the equipment you
require.
How much Capital Equipment budget could you devote towards the
acquisition of the following equipment:
Future Dedicated RAID Server:
Other Future Equipment Value:
Technical and Administrative Support We estimate that a successful implementation of the OMP will require a minimum of 80 hours of technical and administrative support
(through involvement of your ED, bookkeeper, engineer and other staff). Any time contributed will count towards your in-kind match.
How many hours can you commit to securing between Oct 2010 and Oct 2012:
List each staff member, position, number of hours committed, and hourly wage (or equivalent, if salary):
Hardware engineering and development support, 120 hours, $50/hour.
Video Content Commitment Partners will be supporting Sustainable Broadband Adoption by
addressing the primary hurdle identified by non-adopters: a perception
that broadband is not relevant to life, especially in low-income and
minority communities.
What is the value of the staff time and resources you are willing to
devote to supporting the production of video content that will address
'broadband relevance' from the perspective of members from
disconnected communities"?
Broadband Training Program
If you intend to provide training or education, how many people in total will your program(s) reach:
How many hours of training do you expect to provide per person on average for your program(s), through completion of training:
How many Full Time Employee (FTEs) will you employ for broadband and digital literacy training purposes:
Describe the qualifications and training of full time employee instructors of broadband and digital literacy training:
We generally hire independent contract instructors to teach our digital media training programs; instructors typically must have a minimum of two to five years teaching experience working with the target population(s) in the subject matter, a minimum of three to five years' technical/professional experience, and some experience with curriculum development and evaluation.
Job Creation
How many indirect jobs will be created from this project:
How many direct jobs will be created from this project:
