Aspira Association & AOL Latino Join Forces To Empower Latino Communities.

The ASPIRA Association, a leader in youth education programs throughout the country and AOL Latino announced the implementation of the initiative titled Bridging the Digital Divide for Latino Youth and Communities. This national initiative intends to enhance technological access and computer literacy among low income Latino youth and families.

“The goal of the proposed program is to increase the number of Hispanic youth and families who use computers and access the Internet at the Latino serving Community Technology Centers (CTCs) for enhancing their educational and occupational opportunities”, commented John Villamil-Casanova, Executive Vice President of the Aspira Association.

David Wellisch, Vice President and General Manager of AOL Latino said, “We are very excited to partner with the Aspira Association, a leader in youth education programs throughout the country, as part of AOL Latino’s ongoing commitment of educating our community about the importance of being online. It is very important to educate Hispanic youth and parents on the value that computers with Internet access have in helping children improve their performance in school, in turn creating better opportunities for their future”.

Ronald Blackburn-Moreno, President and CIO of the Aspira Association explained, “This initiative will be accomplished through the implementation of four components:

· Aspira will expand and enhance of 11 of the CTC’s to transform them into Model AOL Latino Youth Community Technology Centers. The Aspira Association will facilitate the process of selecting participating centers through a request for proposals (RFP) aimed towards selecting 11 Latino serving CTCs in three cities: Washington DC, Chicago and Miami.

· Aspira will provide participating centers with online technical support designed to help in the setup and maintenance of program equipment, access to training curriculum in Spanish and English, scholarship information, parents’ resources and technical help desk support.

· Implementation of the AOL Latino Families Computer Donation Program whereby AOL will provide Aspira with 20 AOL Optimized PCs, with a one year complimentary AOL Latino account. The Aspira Association will provide families at Aspira CTC’s nationwide the opportunity to win one of these computers by writing an essay describing their work and involvement with the community and how a computer with Internet access at home will help them in their education.

· Distribution of informational brochures throughout the CTC’s, highlighting the importance and convenience of being online.

Rich D’Amato, Vice President of Community Relations for AOL Inc. added “Among AOL’s community investment strategies is a commitment to leverage the power of the Internet to assist non-profit agencies, like Aspira, in delivering on their education missions. We are pleased to support programs like this one that help make the home to school technology connection by providing students with opportunities to access technology outside of the school environment.”