Free Geek was founded as a non-profit organization by Oso Martin, Free Geek launched on Earth Day 2000 as part of a public event at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, Oregon. In September of that year, Free Geek opened its doors to their facility on Southeast 10th Avenue as a recycling/reuse dropoff for electronic waste. In January 2001, The Oregonian posted an article advertising their free computer program for volunteers, which soon became so successful that they had to start a waiting list. They currently have more than 2,000 active volunteers per year.
Over the past 17 years, Free Geek has expanded to fill 22,000 square meters of homes and grow into a community education center, adding classes, internships, outreach programs, and free technology to low-income individuals and nonprofit organizations for their ongoing sustainable commitment. reuse and recycle. Since its establishment, they have:
- Redirect more than 1.3 million items from a landfill.
- Receive over 900.000 hours of volunteer experience from 35.000 individuals.
- Provide more than 72,620 technology tools to nonprofits, schools, community change organizations, and individuals, including more than 10,000 computers to volunteers and students in exchange for community services.
Video Free Geek
Activity
Free Geek offers a variety of free classes to volunteers and to the general public. These classes generally fall into several major categories including basic computer usage, advanced computer courses, digital art creations, digital birth/online security, and workplace readiness. Free Geek also offers phone and technical support on certain days of the week for the computer it produces.
Program
People who want to volunteer at the Free Geek community technology center usually choose between two programs: Build Program and Adoption Program. The Adoption program allows volunteers to get to work on relatively simple tasks, such as maintaining incoming equipment arranged or sorting metal and plastic. In the Build Program, volunteers learn when they work, and are trained to build a reconditioned computer. Volunteers who complete the Adoption Program are given computers after 24 hours of volunteering (one free computer per year) while Build Program volunteers get to keep the sixth computer they make.
Free Geek has many other programs, generally run by apprentices, volunteers and staff members who serve longer. Some examples: The Grants Hardware program reviews the demand for computer equipment from schools, churches, nonprofit organizations and community change. The Reuse program works to ensure that reuse is prioritized for recycling, and find new ways to get equipment into the hands of those who will use it. The Technocrats oversees the organization's network infrastructure.
Recycle, Reuse & amp; Resell
Geek Free is committed to keeping Oregon green. Raw materials are processed by volunteers in their warehouse, where about 40% of it is returned to usable technology. Some are sold, either online or in Southeastern Portland stores, where the results support educational and socialization programs. Any non-reusable material is recycled to the highest ethical, security and sustainability standards, preventing it from entering the waste stream and poisoning the environment. Free Geek also donates computers and technologies that have been refurbished back to the community; in 2017, for example, Free Geek is able to provide six laptop computers for every ten that are sold in the Free Geek Store. In 2016, Free Geek donated 4,400 tech items renewed to the community, providing free computers to low-income individuals, schools and non-profit partners throughout the Portland Metro area and beyond.
Hardware Grant Program
Geek Free is committed to providing free tools and tech support for organizations working hard to make the Portland community a better place. The Hardware Grants program connects qualified nonprofits and schools with updated desktop computers, laptops, printers, and other equipment. From the beginning, they have provided more than 10,500 items to a total of over 2,000 nonprofit institutions such as Black Lives Matter (Vancouver, WA), Bradley-Angle House, Habitat for Humanity, Hacienda CDC, Home Forward, KBOO Community Radio, Western Children Sea Theater and School, Oxford House and Root Street. 60% of the grant recipients are based in the Portland Metro area; between 2012 and 2017, 25% of hardware grants are given to schools or nonprofits, 18% for human services, 13% for art & amp; culture, 10% for community development, and the rest for a number of other sectors such as civil rights, animal welfare, health, faith-based organizations, and the environment.
Relawan & amp; Magang
Volunteers are the backbone of work at Free Geek, making massive e-waste recycling operations possible. Since its founding in 2000, more than 20,500 volunteers passed through the door. In 2016 alone, more than 2,000 active volunteers and internships gave over 47,500 hours of their time to Free Geek.
The Voluntary Adoption Program offers a free computer for every volunteer after 24 hours of volunteer time. Every year Free Geek delivers about 550 computers (complete with monitors, speakers, keyboards and mice) exclusively for volunteers who have completed their 24-hour service. Many volunteers are low-income individuals who do not have the opportunity to have their own computers. To ensure that everyone has equal access, Free Geek works with individual volunteers to accommodate a range of abilities, offering opportunities for people of all ages, from youth to the elderly; from all backgrounds and levels of experience, including those with little prior computer experience; volunteering in a wheelchair, with physical disability or with other special accessibility needs; volunteers with developmental disabilities or those in the autism or non-neurotypical spectrum; and the most comfortable volunteers communicate in Spanish.
Free Geek also offers a customized 3 to 6 month internship program tailored for skilled volunteers 16 years old and over, designed to help develop important work skills to help them pursue careers in the technology sector and make connections in the community.
Plug Into Portland
Founded in 2014, Plug Into Portland grew out of a collaborative partnership between Free Geek and Portland Public Schools, expanded in 2017 to include other Metro district school districts such as Washington, Reynolds, David Douglas, and the Vancouver, WA area. The program discusses the digital literacy gap that hinders the inability of low-income K-12 students to learn because they do not have access to home computers. Students who volunteer for 24 hours in any nonprofit organization in their community receive free computers from Free Geek. Plug Into Portland is focused on computers that are fast and easy to get into the family home, allowing students access the technology they need to succeed in school and the means for their families to get involved in that success. The program serves approximately 100 students and low-income families by 2016.
Get-a-Computer
According to the 2014 Broadband Adoption Survey, at least 15% of Portland residents do not have internet access at home, while at least 10% do not even have access to computers. The population is largely composed of vulnerable and risky communities: low income families, youth, elderly, colored people, immigrants and refugees, disabled, and English learners. The lack of basic computer skills puts this population at a striking disadvantage. In 2016, in partnership with Multnomah County Library and a diverse group of community partners - including MetroEast Community Media, Home Forward, Human Solutions, Hacienda CDC, The Olseth Family Foundation, and NTEN (Network of Non-Profit Technology) - Free Geek launched the first group of Earn programs -a-Computer (EAC), a five-week-long cultural special literacy digital curriculum designed to bring this essential skill directly to the communities most in need and have the least access to them.
Free Geek works with low-income housing community partners to identify and recruit groups of ten residents at a time, especially the elderly population and immigrants who have little experience with computers. They offer as many options as possible to remove potential barriers to access and learning; they serve participants in their own neighborhood, provide free child care and care when necessary, and offer classroom instruction and written support materials in various languages ​​including English, Spanish, Kurdish, Somali and Russian. During the four classes, participants learn to navigate the web, send their first email, and access ongoing resources such as computer classes in the library and Free Geek. Each participant receives a free personal computer; during the last class, they help familiarize participants with their new technology, show them how to access free tech support from Free Geek, and make referrals to low cost internet services.
In the first year, EAC provided more than 1,500 teaching hours for over 150 students, grouped in groups of ten to enable personalized instruction. Of all the students, 87% are English learners, 54% do not have a high school diploma or GED, and 95% have a household income of less than $ 30,000.
Community Education
Free Geek offers a wide and varied offering of free education that reveals technology and empowers people with the technological skills they need to succeed in all areas of life. Community partners in this work include ChickTech, Girls Inc., Impact NW, Oregon City Public Library, PLUG (Portland Linux-Unix Group) and Thinkful, which provide classes and workshops for participants in the Free Geek education program. In a basic digital literacy class, Free Geek and volunteer instructors help individuals achieve their own goals with technology; in a more specialized offer, Free Geek fosters the imagination of community members, sparks their interest in technology, and builds confidence that anyone can learn and work with computers. Current classes and workshops cover topics such as "Computer Anatomy," programming with JavaScript and Python, web development, social media for organizations, data science, privacy and digital security, graphic design and digital art. by 2016, Geek Free serves nearly 1,700 students with over 4,000 class hours in class.
Maps Free Geek
Free software
Refurbished free computer Geek runs Linux Mint, Ubuntu or other free and open source software. The use of free software has several major benefits for the organization, and for the recipient of the equipment: Free Geek operates without the need to devote resources to manage software licenses, and can install software if necessary with minimal complications of legal considerations; and computer recipients get a variety of software, which can easily develop without paying money or entering into strict contracts.
Free Geek is the winner of the first Chris O'ollo FOSS Prize awarded by the Progressive Communications Association (APC) in 2007.
Location
In addition to Portland, a number of other cities have started their own Geek Free organization.
See also
- Empower
- World Computer Exchange
- Digital divide in the United States
- Global digital division
- Recycle computer
- Electronic trash in the United States
References
External links
- Free Geek
- BoingBoing article
- other BoingBoing articles
- Welcome to Free Geek - short documentary
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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