The name of this organization is now "Neighborhood Learning Alliance". It operates excellent after-school tutoring and credit recovery programs (using Novanet), primarily serving high school students in low-income areas of the City of Pittsburgh in a partnership with the Board of Education. My primary interest, as an academic researcher and computer scientist, is in its very innovative program to open 4 public computer rooms, in partnerships with 4 major providers of social services, also in low-income areas of the city. Each will have about 20 laptops and, when in full operation, will be open 7 days/90 hours per week, and offer computer classes (hopefully with excellent handouts and printed documentation) to better serve populations that has relatively little experience with computers but must now use them for job search, on-line job applications, and interactions with government and social services. 2 are already open and the others almost ready to start up.
Neighborhood Learning Alliance (formerly Wireless Neighborhoods)
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- EIN 20-0557748
- 412-363-1914
- 218 N. Highland Avenue Pittsburgh PA 15206 USA
- www.wireless-neighborhoods.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Mission: Wireless Neighborhoods is an alliance of community and faith organizations committed to using partnerships, technology and training to improve communities’ capacities to support children’s education, promote economic development, and address other social barriers facing residents.
Results: -Maintain a wireless broadband network across 40 Community and Faith Partners -Raised over $3 Million in Government Funding since 2004 to support quality Afterschool programming -First organization Selected by the United Way under its new competitive funding formula -Established and supported 12 community-school partnerships serving over 500 children over the past 3 years -Delivered 61 hours of afterschool Staff Development in 2007-08 -First community organization to require partner organization staff to have the PA Department of Education approved Basic Tutor Credential -Managing data collection effort across more than 15 community and faith organizations -Developed 3 curricula that are being used across multiple afterschool program sites
Target demographics: Created to improve community and faith organizations’ capacities to respond to issues that affect the lives of the children and families in the neighborhoods they serve, Wireless Neighborhoods has chosen quite purposely since its inception to target a majority of its efforts and resources on improving the quality of afterschool programming because of the alarmingly low levels of academic proficiency, particularly for the children in the City’s African-American and lower income neighborhoods. Wireless Neighborhoods and its partners have helped transform afterschool programming from safe places with homework help and a snack into truly innovative, professional and youth-friendly instructional environments that are setting the standards for community afterschool practices.
Direct beneficiaries per year: over 500
Geographic areas served: Allegheny County, with a focus on the City of Pittsburgh
Programs: Wireless neighborhoods, dba neighborhood learning alliance (nla), has been providing programs and support to families in pittsburghs lower income communities for the past decade. The organization was created in the early 2000s by a coalition of non-profit organizations to advocate, develop resources and provide shared expertise for community organizations in two principal areas afterschool and community technology. Since its inception, neighborhood learning alliance and its partners have helped bring afterschool supports to pittsburghs lower income communities and have worked tirelessly to transform afterschool educational programming into truly innovative, professional and youth-friendly instructional environments that are setting the standards for community afterschool practices. Most of this work is done in collaboration with a group of extremely committed partners including allegheny youth development, bloomfield garfield corporation, thelma lovette