Community Resource Centre opened at Christianburg

Oct 08, 2014 News

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The New Life Wesleyan Church on Burnham Drive, Wismar, Linden was on Tuesday evening given even more “New Life’ when it formally opened the doors to its “Community Resource Centre.”

The Centre, which is housed in the church, was officially declared open by Chairman of Region 10 Sharma Solomon. It presently boasts eight internet-ready computers.
Other special guests attending the event included APNU parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon, and two members of ‘Experiment to discover Hope’, a group of young people who were integrally involved in the initiative from its inception, and who worked assiduously towards the materialization of the facility.
Several young people from the Christianburg community and their parents also graced the event, and quite a few of them even signed up for the programmes to be offered at the centre.
Both Solomon and Kissoon applauded the initiative and encouraged the young people to make the maximum use of the facility.
Pastor Gordon Bishop of the New Life Wesleyan Church told the excited gathering that a CRC is a community service/or educational facility where computers and related communications technologies are available to people who otherwise might have little or no opportunity to use or learn to use such facilities.
The first of ten such facilities to be established in Linden, Bishop noted that the CRC is a “community wide” initiative, collaborated between the RDC Region 10, the Experiment to Discover Hope Group and the New Life Wesleyan Church.
“The primary role of the church is to provide space and to work with the other stakeholders so that this project can be accessed by the immediate and wider communities,” Bishop declared.
Bishop noted that the goal of the CRC is to offer opportunities to improve the academic levels of children and young people of the immediate environs, and initiate and sustain personal and community interest in the immediate and wider communities of Linden and Region 10.
The Centre will also provide the opportunity for participants (adults) to gather together and be empowered through skills training, morals and family life educational programmes and other activities, according to Bishop.
“Our greatest wish in this initiative will be the degree to which the CRC becomes an integral part of its community.
As such, we anticipate that participants from the immediate and wider communities of Linden will take part in the planning process and have an integral role in directing and sustaining the center operations.
MANAGEMENT
A Steering Committee will be set up to serve as the governing body for the CRC or as an advisory committee to the agency’s existing governance structure. At a minimum, the Steering Committee will consist of the CRC Directors, supervisors and Representatives from the CRC constituency.  Additionally, other Representatives of the Local Community may be added based on the needs.
Community Representatives will serve as the liaison with the prospective CRC participants. They will be tasked with publicizing the development of the CRC in and for the community, and inform the Steering Committee of the needs, interests, and assets present in the community.
They will also engage in the process of community mapping to identify interests and needs of prospective participants along with assets and strengths available through other community enterprises and community members, and form partnerships and obtain assistance from members of the community (e.g., space, volunteers, funding, equipment & furnishings, etc.).
Researching and structuring programs in response to the needs and interests identified (e.g., adult education, afterschool sessions, job preparation, elder services, family and pre-school programs), will also form part of their mandate.
TARGET GROUPS
The CRC will cater to school-aged children, school drop-outs and Adults. There will be public access /open lab time, where members of the community would be given the opportunity to use the computers and other facilities to explore their particular interests, to develop skills, and to discover what technology can offer.
After School Activities will be structured for different age groups or offered as open lab time for children.
In addition to giving children an opportunity to acquire skills with basic computer applications, some will enjoy, for example:  Subject-Area Activities, Commercial software that offers homework help, tutorials, and other activities covering subjects, such as reading, writing, math, sciences, and other subjects.
The CRC also hopes to establish a comprehensive adult education programme which will involve far more than computer knowledge. There will be classroom or tutorial space for non-computer based learning and instructors with the requisite experience and qualifications needed to teach such classes.
After the facility was declared open many excited children were given the opportunity to have a ‘feel’ of the computers, under the watchful eyes of the trainers. (Enid Joaquin)

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