Housing NSW tenants established the Glebe Community Development Project so the local community could access computers and computer training.
Mark Hodge, Gaylene Harkin and Annie Atkinson saw that many families in the Glebe community were disadvantaged by not having access to computers – tenants were missing out on jobs, falling behind in school work, and were held back by barriers such as low income, disability, age and language.
After intensive lobbying for a community computer room, the group found committed partners in Housing NSW, The University of Sydney, The Salvation Army and TAFE Outreach to help make the project happen. Housing NSW contacted WorkVentures, which provided 12 quality refurbished Pentium 4 PC systems to the project at a low cost.
The upgraded Glebe Computer Project opened on 10 April 2008 and has made a great contribution to the local community. Tenants are:
The centre is looking for more volunteers and wants to run more training and PC access sessions, plus make the centre available to other community groups.
Ally de Pree-Raghavan from Sydney University said: “The tenants should be recognised for their great efforts in making the project happen. The centre is run by tenants for tenants. Everyone is welcome and the centre provides a safe and friendly environment for tenants to come to learn pathways to education and employment.”
