We will expand our services beyond the website by sponsoring career fairs and contests, presenting a traveling career show for schools and after-school programs, promoting special interest events to enhance the school curriculum, and recruiting mentors for disadvantaged students.

Using a career-centered website and these outreach programs, we provide the tools and resources to enrich academic and vocational opportunities for Philadelphia students. Such programs require the cooperation and involvement of individuals, institutions and businesses in the effort to help students and their parents get the assistance they need.

Studies have shown that computers at home with internet access not only inspire children to learn; they also help parents become more effective learning partners.¹ Through our own fund raising initiatives and coordinating with other local programs, we will provide lower-income students computers and training to help them improve their learning environment at home.

Our fund raising initiative will focus on these goals:

• Promote our career-centered site aggressively to individuals, schools, libraries, community centers, businesses and cultural institutions to instruct and inform the public of useful programs throughout the city.
• Maintain and expand our website to publicize quality programs and encourage career-centered components in the web sites of other cultural institutions and organizations in the city.
• Develop and implement our career-centered outreach programs to schools and community centers.
• Recruit adults within neighborhood communities to mentor younger children, volunteer at their neighborhood school, and provide positive reinforcement for academic and civic responsibility. Studies show that mentored children are 50% less likely to drop out of school and 46% less likely to use illegal drugs.²
• Identify low-income students who need home computers and training, and work with individuals, businesses and other organizations to sponsor computer donations.

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¹Computer Youth Network, Remarks at Philadelphia City Counsel Briefing, September 14, 2005.

²Big Brothers and Big Sisters, http://www.bbbs.org