The Verizon Tech Savvy Awards were established in 2007 by the Verizon Foundation, the National Center for Family Literacy and former First Lady of Iowa Christie Vilsack. They are designed to support sustainable programs that help parents bridge the widening gap between adults' and children’s understanding of technology. Those two generations must learn about technology together, so parents can be effective teachers and advocates to ensure that their children are literate in technology and prepared for the 21st century workforce.

2008 Tech Savvy Award Winners

The following winners were honored at the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 31.

National Winner:
Boston Digital Bridge Foundation — Technology Goes Home @ School Program
Dorchester, MA
Technology Goes Home @ School (TGH) teaches families and students how to use technology and how to integrate it into everyday activities. Students and their parents or caregivers work together to complete specialized technology training provided by the child's teacher. This training takes place in the home, either after school or on Saturdays, to ensure consistent communication and regular collaboration. To date, the program has helped more than 800 families after expanding to serve all public schools in the Boston area. For more information, visit http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/digitalbridge/index.html

East Region Winner:
Computers for Youth Foundation — Take IT Home Program
New York, NY
Take IT Home increases parents and caregivers familiarity with new media through training workshops. The program provides home computers for participants and access to free online resources. Saturday family learning workshops use a personal approach and high teacher-to-student ratio to give parents strategies for using technology tools to enhance learning at home. Family Tech Night events held on weekday evenings are designed in collaboration with teachers to supplement the school curriculum. For more information, visit http://www.cfy.org

Midwest Region Winner:
National Institute on Media and the Family — Through-u-Families Become MediaWise®
Minneapolis, MN
Through-u-Families Become MediaWise(R) is the National Institute on Media and the Family's early childhood program. It provides cutting-edge resources and education to parents and caregivers about the impact of current media trends on children's health, behavior, pre-literacy skills and school readiness. The Through-u Program educates parents and caregivers on popular technology for children and families, broadening their understanding of what it means to live in a media-saturated world. Parents tap into their own creativity when implementing media activities that are sensory and cerebral for children. For more information, visit http://www.mediafamily.org/earlychild/index.shtml

Mountain/Southwest Region Winner:
Pima Community College Foundation — Family TEC (Technical Education Curriculum)
Tucson, AZ
Family TEC (Technical Education Curriculum) has been instrumental in bridging the gap between adults' and children's understanding and use of technology. Teachers integrate technology instruction into all program components. Basic technology skills are taught through creative, student- and staff-generated projects, including: newsletters, table and graph creation to track reading, yearbook and book creation, and internet research projects. Digital storytelling is one of the primary, technology-based interactions between parents and children offered by Family TEC. For more information, visit http://cc.pima.edu/~sdahlen/

West/Northwest Region Winner:
Santa Barbara Partners in Education — Computers for Families
Santa Barbara, CA
Computers for Families (CFF) increases tech familiarity by introducing computers with Internet connection to fourth grade students and their families, and by working with teachers in 30 schools in Southern Santa Barbara County to ensure technology is being used effectively in the classroom and at home. By assigning students technology-based homework, students share with their parents what they are learning in school, thus engaging in a traditional family literacy learning model. For more information, visit
http://www.sbceo.org/~sbceocff

2007 Tech Savvy Award Winners

National Winner:
Enemy Swim Day School
Waubay, SD
Enemy Swim Day School connects generations through ICT literacy and the power of storytelling. The organization’s RealeBook project increases parents’ technology skills by teaching them to write and publish a children’s book. Because the books incorporate the Dakota language, native to the people of the Lake Traverse Reservation, the children gain a greater understanding of their heritage, increased respect for their parents and improved literacy skills.

East Region Winner:
Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative
Providence, RI
The Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative (RIFLI) uses the community library to provide ICT literacy programming to families for which English is a second language. In direct response to the growing immigrant community in Rhode Island, the program combines an ESL teacher with a technology instructor and a children’s teacher to increase tech skills while improving English comprehension skills.

Midwest Region Winner:
Iowa Central Community College
Fort Dodge, IA
The Iowa Central Community College Adult Literacy Program empowers parents to be their child’s first and best teacher. Using ICT literacy instruction, adult students learn how to use the Internet to communicate with their child’s teacher through e-mail, to gain knowledge about Web sites that their children visit, to enhance writing skills, and to improve basic computer skills for job retention.

Mountain/Southwest Region Winner:
Forrest Outreach Foundation
Addison, TX
Forrest Outreach Foundation’s Click-for-Success program seeks out the most economically disadvantaged families and brings ICT literacy instruction to them. Through weekly Computer Club classes, children improve their ICT skills. These improvements are reinforced during home visits where parents join students in using the hardware, software and Internet access provided by the program. Mentors work to establish the interconnectivity between parents and children furthering their education and skills together.

West/Northwest Region Winner:
Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation
Los Angeles, CA
Little Tokyo Service Center’s DISKovery Angelina program provides ICT training to low-income immigrant families living in and around the Angelina Apartments community. Program participants learn to use computers to navigate the challenges of everyday life, including public transportation, housing information, child care programs and legal services. Through regular “Mommy and Me” and “Papi and Me” classes, students are transformed into teachers as they instruct their children how to use computers and the Internet to access educational tools and other resources.

For a map of the award regions, click here.