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| The area in which we are concentrating on is The South West Inner City Area with a population of 36,000. This area is among the most disadvantaged 10% in the country and suffers from long term unemployment (up to 80-90% in certain areas): dereliction, physical neglect, large-scale environmental decay, heavy pollution, poor infrastructure, substandard housing, lack of recreational facilities and open green spaces. The number of lone parent households is above average and so are drug users (up to 12%). Within this area, 32% of men and 37% of women have left school with no formal or primary education. 39% of the unemployed population have either no formal education or have attended primary level only: as many as 50% of adults have literacy problems |
| A significant proportion of the population of the south west inner city remains excluded from all economic activity so action plans are implemented to adapt the concept of combating social exclusion into practical actions. |
| "The core strategies from the Dublin Inner City Partnership Strategic Action Plan include the regeneration of the Community, tackling educational disadvantage and access to employment and enterprise". |
The plan for the project is to develop the first phase of a broader based community IT service and start by implementing a coordinated structured programme for the upgrading of inner-city disadvantaged Community Centres, then developing and implementing relevant teachers training programmes. It also helps to locate and evaluate appropriate educational software and provide ongoing administrative, software and technical support.
HP has already supported three community organisations for training purposes. Courses are organised for children who drop out of school at an early age, homework clubs are organised along with women's groups, men's group, drug rehabilitation, youth clubs all of which have incorporated IT. |
| "As of today, equipment and cash grant with a total value of USD 135,000 consisting of 80 PCs, 3 servers, 15 peripherals and project management fee over 3 years". |
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) is a higher educational institution who appointed a community education links coordinator whose role is to identify, develop and co-ordinate various initiatives in regard to disadvantaged communities and also aid in future policy in this regard. One of the initiatives of the Community Link programme is the Dublin Inner City Schools Computerisation Project (DISC). HP takes part of the project, partnering with the National Centre for Technology and Education and the Dublin Inner City Partnership, an organisation responding to long-term unemployment at local level and 40 schools.
The DISC project through the DIT will continue to work with schools and community groups in the inner city, upgrading their computer facilities. |
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