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Op-Ed: Tech centers, tool for community transformation

Author Myrna Vázquez is program officer at the Center for Puerto Rico – Sila M. Calderón Foundation.

Author Myrna Vázquez is program officer at the Center for Puerto Rico – Sila M. Calderón Foundation.

Communities have certain niches that require special attention to achieve their balance. Technology centers offer disadvantaged communities the opportunity to access information technology and communication.

These places of community transformation provide a diverse workspace that will lead to an improved quality of life and reduce the digital divide. It is in these centers where solutions to many of the problems and situations that affect the community arise; additionally, they provide access to technologies, programs and services, and become spaces for generating social change.

Members at the community centers work on the diversification of services to integrate the different generations that make up the community.

The digital divide is more than a lack of access to technology; it is the inability to use technology. Technology centers reduce this gap thereby empowering communities to be more proactive.

As social enterprises, technology centers are most effective when they are community-driven and focused on meeting the needs of the community. These needs are what determine the role of the center as they change based on different factors: social, economic, of the surrounding population and others. The center must be designed to transform its role according to changing needs of the community where it is located.

It is also important to emphasize the promotion of the community’s economic development through the creation of jobs and income to support services offered by the centers.

Therefore, centers have spaces that provide access to opportunities with a greater degree of commitment and responsibility, achieving results in reviving communities that impact the country. Let’s support our technology centers.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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