Asia

Australia

Yarnteen Ltd

The second year of Yarnteen's Indigenous Youth Futures (IYF) project will train 4,700 people and benefit 20,000 other individuals through 260 community technology centers . IYF training involves the creative use of technology in a program that offers young aboriginal women and men job opportunities while fostering cultural pride. IYF provides mentoring to encourage a strong sense of personal empowerment and the best chance of long-term employment outcomes. The ultimate goal of IYF is to help narrow the gap between the 32.7 percent unemployment rate for indigenous youth (age 15–24) and the general population’s unemployment rate of 12.8 percent.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh Friendship Education Society

Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (BFES) seeks to bring IT skills training to rural communities, especially to youth and women, to increase their job prospects at an expanding number of telecenters, various government entities, and private enterprises in Bangladesh and abroad. The project will facilitate micro-credit for trainees to encourage them to start IT-based entrepreneurial ventures to generate income and further employment. This project will train 6,600 people and indirectly benefit 13,000 over three years through 10 community technology learning centers.

Asia

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) will open three community technology centers (CTC) in the cities of Wenchuan and Deyang, near the epicenter of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, to help disaster-stricken families rebuild their livelihood through IT skills training and micro-credit programs. CFPA will establish an information network focused on reconstruction, agricultural technology, market information, and job opportunity. The program will also encourage communities to take a positive and active role in the market, such as starting their own small businesses, while preserving traditional industry to alleviate poverty. CTCs and CTC vans will train 3,100 people and benefit 40,000 others in the next year, raising the total to 8,600 people trained and 100,000 people benefited in two years.

Fuping Development Institute

Fuping Development Institute (FDI) will establish two community technology learning centers (CTLC) near the 2008 earthquake epicenter in Wenchuan County and Dayi County in the Sichuan Province, as well as four centers in villages adjoining Gansu Province. The six CTLCs will train people to apply IT skills to develop small eco-agriculture and eco-tourism businesses to alleviate poverty and to help in reconstruction. The two main target groups include community leaders, with the goal of enabling them to provide better service and information to the public; and young adults, most of whom seek jobs in nearby big cities like Chengdu. IT skills training will enhance their employment opportunities, enabling them to return part of their income to their affected hometowns. In Gansu, Fuping will work in four poverty-stricken and severely damaged villages to establish smaller CTLCs, each with 15 computers. The Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Reduction of Gansu Province selected these villages as part of reconstruction and poverty alleviation pilot programs. Approximately 8,700 people will be trained within the two-year program, and 100,000 community residents will benefit from the information services and access to the CTLCs.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

The Hong Kong Council of Social Services (HKCSS) will be the principal grantee and partner with four sub-grantees to set up seven community technology learning centers (CTLC) to drive workforce development and strengthen nongovernmental organization IT capacity in Hong Kong. HKCSS continues to be the key trusted advisor to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on policy issues related to the social welfare sector. The targeted beneficiaries of this grant are unemployed youth aged 15–25, who are not enrolled in full-time education; unemployed and low income adults aged 25 and above with low skill and education levels; new arrivals from mainland China; and migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. Building on the success of previous Community Technology Skills Program (CTSP) grants, this project will train 16,400 people over the three-year period, with 5,100 people trained in the first year. Approximately 19,000 people could benefit from using the IT facilities over three years. Supporting services include job skills training, counseling, job matching, employment, and referral. Hotline and helpdesk services are also provided.

India

Aide et Action

Aide et Action is an international development organization working in India to improve general living conditions of rural and urban communities by supporting integrated development projects. iLead, the flagship program, offers market-oriented training in new and emerging occupations to educationally and economically marginalized, vulnerable youth between 18 and 25 years of age. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will strengthen the basic IT skills training component of the program and help train 54,180 youth at 82 iLead centers and benefit an additional 108,360 youth over a three-year period. Of those trained, 80 percent are targeted to be placed in jobs in the expanding sectors of the economy, such as IT-enabled services, retail, customer relations, and hospitality.

CAP Foundation

The CAP Foundation’s mission is to build safer, healthier, and more productive communities of young people capable of supporting self-directed growth and positive citizenship. The grant will support an innovative approach to improve training and employment opportunities for youth from underprivileged backgrounds, including unskilled and semi-skilled workers, traditional artisans and craftspeople, people with disabilities, and refugees. The project offers participants IT skills, life skills, and technical skills in the form of e-learning modules delivered over the Internet. A total of 36,000 people will be trained over three years at 30 community technology learning centers (CTLC) in 12 states in India. Seventy-five percent of the CTLC graduates are targeted to be placed in jobs. Beyond those receiving the training, the project will also benefit another 40,000 individuals from underserved segments.

Mahila SEWA Trust

The goal of Mahila SEWA Trust is to organize poor women who work in the informal sector of the economy to achieve full employment and self-reliance. With the help of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP) grant, in 2005 SEWA set up 50 community technology learning centers (CTLC) in Gujarat state to train women and rural communities in IT skills. The second phase of this grant will support 10 of the existing CTLCs and promote IT microenterprises to help these businesses become financially sustainable. A total of 3,000 people will be trained over one year and connections with recruiters will be strengthened to help place the trainees in jobs. Another 7,000 people are expected to benefit indirectly.

Japan

The National Council of Women's Centers

This National Council of Women's Centers (NCWC) project, the third phase of the Nationwide Unlimited Potential (UP) program, seeks to promote self-sustainability for disadvantaged women by enhancing their employability through IT skills training and employment support. The project, implemented in 2006, involves 36 member centers of NCWC as community technology learning centers in 29 cities throughout Japan. To achieve a national scale, the project benefits 34 centers and 90 women's support organizations. This new phase adds rural women and unemployed young women to its target population, and enhances the partnership with local government, businesses, and other related organizations. Approximately 800 disadvantaged women are expected to be trained in the first year, with 25,150 more women benefitting from the program. After three years, this project could train a total of 5,440 women and benefit 63,450 women.

Malaysia

Yayasan Salam Malaysia

The focus of this grant is employability and entrepreneurship for underserved women and youth. Yayasan Salam Malaysia currently has 10 Community Technology Centers funded and will develop nine more within the next few years to help train 1,500 people and benefit 4,000 others. The women will be provided job opportunities with specific project partners or will become entrepreneurs. The youth will venture into targeted IT businesses to help develop the communities in which they live. The Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Development is a project partner.

YWCA Kuala Lumpur

Building on the success of prior grants, the Young Women's Christian Organization (YWCA) of Malaysia remains committed to providing information and communications technology skills training to underserved women and improving their employability potential. This grant will train 120 women and benefit 300 more in the first year. By the end of three years, the project will have trained a total of 1,025 women, and benefited another 900 women through five community technology learning centers. The YWCA has a proven track record of assisting their vocational training graduates in finding jobs; their job placement target is 60 to 80 percent. This grant will provide more formal arrangements with an increased number of potential employers within relevant industries targeted in the YWCA training.

New Zealand

2020 Communications Trust

2020 Communications Trust has been working to provide New Zealand families in low-income communities with the necessary computer skills to support their children's learning, empower parents to become active participants in the online world, and eliminate social, geographic, and economic exclusion. This grant will fund a program to train and subsequently mentor 4,800 adults in information and communications technology and benefit 9,600 more in eight cities and towns throughout New Zealand. The project will support eight community technology learning centers (in the first year of this three-year grant) and eventually contribute to the establishment of twelve new CTLCs in three years.

Philippines

Visayan Forum Foundation

This three-year grant will help fund the expansion of the STEP-UP (Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons through Unlimited Potential) program, originally launched in 2006. The program will establish 30 additional community technology learning centers (CTLC) throughout the Philippines, particularly in the war-torn Mindanao area, with the additional focus on entrepreneurship training and microfinance for the existing 25 CTLCs. The objective is to prepare beneficiaries for the workforce and give them better economic opportunities. Furthermore, Visayan Forum Foundation will work with the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, the top HR association in the Philippines, for additional employability courses and possible internships for the trainees. The project aims to train 41,100 people and reach 205,500 people from 2009 through 2012.

Republic of Korea

Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers

The Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers pilot project focuses on IT education for seniors (aged 55 and above), including the Senior Online Business Start-up Academy courses in entrepreneurship and how to set up online businesses. The 10-week courses will also help trainees network and share their IT business best practices and experience. The project will establish five new community technology learning centers to train 250 people and benefit 1,000 people in one year.

Young Professionals Institute of Korea

The Dare to Dream - Entrepreneurship and IT Education for North Korean Refugee Youth project will provide entrepreneurship and IT skills training to North Korean refugee youth and their families living in South Korea. More than half of the young students have difficulty in securing employment due to dropping out of school and/or lack of necessary job-related skills. Microsoft Korea is the first company in Korea to support the IT skills education of the refugee population. This project will reach 3,640 people over three years through three new community technology learning centers established near Seoul.

Singapore

RSVP Singapore -The Organization of Senior Volunteers

In Singapore, the market size of the aging population (people aged 45 to 70) is close to 1 million, about 22 percent of the total population. Empowering seniors with IT skills to enhance their employability is aligned with the Singapore government's call to have seniors work as long as they can. To achieve this goal, seniors must keep their skills up to date and relevant to the market needs. The government has also provided incentives and schemes to encourage companies to employ seniors. This grant will enable RSVP to provide training to seniors who have few or no IT skills. Over three years, RSVP aims to train 3,000 seniors and benefit 6,000 other seniors. RSVP will also work closely with the Work Development Agency, the government agency that oversees industrial certification, to have the IT program certified.

Sri Lanka

InfoShare (Guarantee) Ltd.

InfoShare aims to help people who are working for social change by providing them with the technology, tools, support, and skills they need to have a greater impact. Building on the success of a previous grant, this grant will fund the development of an industry-specific information and communications technology skills curriculum for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. This workforce development project is an extension of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential project and is aimed at building on the existing infrastructure, training centers, and industry ties to address skills deficiencies in the BPO sector. InfoShare will also focus on developing public private partnerships for skills training programs, and on job training and job placement for youth engaged in these industries. The project is targeted at underprivileged rural youth and will train 8,100 people and reach 16,200 people over three years.

Taiwan

Electronic Commerce Business Association

Building on prior grants, the grant to Electronic Commerce Business Association (ECBA) supports the second phase of the successful Women UP program focused on the employability and entrepreneurship of adult women, also known as Women UP 2.0. This project is designed to support the government’s goal of increasing employability opportunities for women with 100,000 new jobs for women in the next four years. Women UP 2.0 aims to increase women's employment opportunities in nonprofit organizations under the government's employment programs, and to improve their knowledge and skills in information and communications technology (ICT). Another program objective is to provide an alternative ICT training module focused on entrepreneurship skills for women who want to start their own businesses and apply for the government's micro-loan support. In the first year of this project, 1,200 people will be trained and 16,200 people reached in remote communities nationwide. At the end of three years, a total of 51,800 people could be reached.

Thailand

Kenan Foundation Asia

The Kenan Foundation Asia project, Building Employability Through Technology and Entrepreneurship Resources (BETTER), is based on building information and communications technology and entrepreneurship skills for high-demand jobs in Thailand. The project will be piloted in 20 centers in 20 provinces over three years and will be expanded nationwide. In all, the project will train 40,230 people and reach about 107,540 people.

Europe

Austria

Oesterreichische Caritas-Zentrale

As many as 200,000 socially disadvantaged Austrian women live in poverty and are unlikely to be able to afford a computer or learn basic technology skills. IT skill training has the potential to help these women enter the labor market. Through the Caritas-Microsoft Computer-Alphabet for Women project (whose mission is to help marginalized individuals improve their lives), new opportunities for women in social need are being created in Vienna, Styria, and Burgenland. Funding from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will continue to support the Computer-Alphabet project in partnership with the Austrian Labor Market Service’s Ministry for Women and Fujitsu-Siemens. In 2009, 220 women will be trained and a new "computer-kiosk" will enable an additional 2,000 individuals and job seekers to benefit.

Belgium

UP-DoIT Partnership

Eight percent of women in Belgium between the ages of 25 and 49 are unemployed. Of these women, the non-European residents have a much higher unemployment rate than their European counterparts. In response to growing issues of immigrant social exclusion and long-term immigrant unemployment, eleven organizations united in 2006 under the Do It initiative to offer programs in both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking regions of Belgium. Through their combined training resources and network of over 70 community technology centers around the country, the project, led by Interface 3, will provide IT skills training to an additional 3,500 people in 2009. This is the sixth year that Microsoft Unlimited Potential has supported this successful program with funding, curriculum, and software.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Research and Organizational Development Association

The Research and Organizational Development Association (RODA) is implementing a Computer Literacy for Social Inclusion project that addresses the need for computer literacy among the underserved in Bosnian society. RODA’s mission is to develop and increase the technology skills of citizens for active participation in the knowledge economy. With Microsoft funding, RODA will work over the next year to decrease the number of unemployed people in Canton Sarajevo by helping the most vulnerable social groups improve IT skills and increase their competiveness in the labor force.

Bulgaria

iCentres Association

The iCentres Association in Bulgaria is working hard to make its workforce competitive by spreading digital literacy throughout the population. Through the iCentres project, training in core IT skills is provided to a broad set of target groups in Bulgaria with particular focus on the unemployed and disabled. This project, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, builds upon the successful training of more than 58,000 people in basic technology skills and English. ICentres relies on a national network of more than 115 telecenters established through collaboration with the Bulgarian Government, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Microsoft. The project uses the localized Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning curriculum and the latest tools in distance education to train more than 300 trainers and 19,000 disadvantaged citizens. The ICentres network is anticipated to grow to 180 centers in the next year.

Czech Republic

Charta 77 Foundation

The Czech Republic has made positive strides in creating an information technology in the economy over the past years. Despite improvements, there are still a significant number of socially or economically disadvantaged communities that have very limited access to information technology or the skills to use it well. The Charta 77 Foundation’s PCs Against Barriers program provides socially excluded citizens, such as people with disabilities or the elderly, with information and communications technology skills and infrastructure to improve their economic and social opportunities. Building on a strong and long-term cooperation, Charta 77 and Microsoft will extend the PCs Against Barriers effort by creating a network of additional community technology centers (CTCs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to train a broader portion of the community. This project aims to train more than 10,000 people in the next three years with 36 NGOs as active participants in the network.

Denmark

Foreningen Nydansker

The Association for New Danes' (FND) overall purpose is to aid new Danes, or recently settled immigrants in four Copenhagen suburbs, to integrate into the labor market. In spite of an excellent social welfare system, this group does not currently benefit from information and communications technology skills training in their community. FND will work in close collaboration with Red Cross Youth and KAB (an umbrella nongovernmental organization for social housing areas in the Copenhagen area that provides the training premises in all suburbs). Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will support training of master trainers who will train volunteer trainers at the four centers. Trainees will also receive specific job-searching skills and, where feasible, mentoring support to improve their prospects for entering the job market. FND’s goal is to expand from 4 to 30 training centers.

Estonia

Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Estonia still confronts challenges in matching skilled talent to employers' needs. Young graduates, even after finishing university studies, often lack the expertise that companies seek. As a result, unemployment among young people is exceptionally high. The Estonian Chamber of Commerce is acutely aware of this problem and focuses on supporting training that will result in more jobs for new graduates. In cooperation with the State Labor Market Board, the Chamber is sponsoring IT training for graduates who need additional skills to secure employment. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the program will extend training to disadvantaged students, ensuring that the opportunities provided are available to those who most need additional support to get ahead in the knowledge economy.

Finland

Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities

In Finland, 10 percent of the people have a disability that hampers their everyday life, and only 17 percent of these people are employed. The ARGOW project in Finland is successfully demonstrating how creative solutions and combined resources can significantly reduce the digital divide's effect on people with disabilities. ARGOW unites four national nongovernmental organizations that represent people with disabilities: the Finnish Association of People with Mobility Disabilities, the Finnish MS Society, the Kynnysry/Threshold Association, and the Finnish Federation for the Visually Impaired. Through an innovative mobile classroom and a network of 37 community learning centers, the project aims to train 5,000 people with disabilities in IT skills and to reach people in the most remote areas of the country. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide funding for a train-the-trainers program and will provide guidance to disabled youth through training, education, and employment.

France

Association pour le Droit à L'Initiative Économique

Founded in 1989 by Maria Novak, ADIE(Association pour le droit à l'initiative économique) has helped establish over 35,000 small businesses in France. Microsoft and ADIE implemented a training program, L'informatique en 3 Clics, for micro-entrepreneurs to develop a basic command over IT tools and to acquire the necessary skills for their jobs. After three years, the program has become an integral part of the support services ADIE provides its clients, and an additional 1,200 people will be trained in 43 centers around France in 2009. Through the training, small-business owners learn to produce professional-quality quotes and invoices, streamline their communications with clients and vendors, and use the Internet for tasks such as inventory control and Web site development. Microsoft will continue to support the project in 2009.

Agence Nouvelle des Solidarités Actives

ANSA was founded in 2006 to reduce poverty in France and to combat social exclusion. ANSA is currently active in 17 regions and aims to create employment opportunities for disadvantaged populations through technology skills training conducted in collaboration with community and municipal organizations throughout the country. ANSA activities are fully integrated in the government's program to foster employability and promote increased social inclusion. Now entering the second year of Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the program will build upon six initiatives linked to new technologies being developed with local government. These activities range from computer refurbishment, training, and work experience for the unemployed. The most effective measures in helping people find employment will be adopted and replicated at the national level.

Association Emmaüs

Established in 1953, Emmaüs is a nongovernmental organization renowned throughout France for its work combating social exclusion and improving the lives of the poor and homeless. With 40 centers across the Paris region, Emmaüs has developed daily care centers, temporary accommodation, and housing facilities, as well as literacy training, health care, food, and programs for young people and families. In 2003, Microsoft France and Emmaüs began a partnership to open a computer-learning center in one of the Emmaüs centers in Paris. The center provides free and continuous public access and offers basic technology skills training, assistance in finding jobs, and guidance on administrative paperwork. Microsoft has since worked in partnership with Emmaüs to open 14 new community technology centers supported by volunteer trainers at Emmaüs centers around the Paris area. The project’s 2009 goal is to create six new centers and train 3,000 people.

Germany

IT Bildungsnetz e.V.

In November 2006, Bill Gates, along with the Federal Minister for Economics and Technology, officially launched the IT Fitness Initiative in Germany. This cross-industry initiative—which is led by Microsoft and managed by Bildungsnetz (IT Education Net)—aims to provide IT skills training to 4 million unemployed and disadvantaged people in Germany by 2010. Now in the second phase of implementation, IT Fitness will broaden training offerings to benefit nongovernmental organizations in Germany that serve disadvantaged individuals from migrant or unemployed backgrounds, helping them to find work, retain a job, or transition to a new job. In 2009, through a partnership with Caritas Germany, a network of 50 training centers will be equipped and trainers trained to provide the necessary e-skills to help marginalized job seekers reintegrate the workforce. The training model will also include an online learning framework for classroom needs to help track progress and certification and help scale the training to other centers over time.

Greece

Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society

To assist new immigrants and the unemployed in Greece, the Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society(HePIS) and Microsoft are working together to bring IT skills training to several communities throughout the country. By providing digital literacy in collaboration with other partners and municipalities, this project seeks to train more than 780 people and provide basic skills to several additional community members in the next two years. Unlimited Potential centers will offer immigrants free training seminars and certification based on the European Computer Drivers License standard on the use of computers.

Hungary

Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation

The Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation (NIOK), an umbrella entity for 20 member organizations of the countrywide Civil Centre Service Center network (CISZOK), with publicly available computer centers in every Hungarian county, is in a unique position to remedy the problem of digital exclusion in Hungary. Serving as an advisor to Hungarian nongovernmental organizations and coupled with CISZOKs, NIOK provides support for a countrywide basic IT skills training program. Over the past two years of this program, training courses have been in extremely high demand, especially in rural areas. With Microsoft support, over the life of this three-year project, approximately 20,000 people will be reached.

Ireland

Digital Communities

Inner city Dublin has long been associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and long-term unemployment. Through an initiative supported by the Dublin City Council and the Dublin Institute of Technology, a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide support to the Digital Communities program. This program offers high quality IT skills training and employer-recognized accreditation to young people, adults, and immigrants at 25 community technology centers throughout the inner city and disadvantaged suburbs of Dublin. The largest program of its kind in Ireland, the Digital Communities program will expand to five additional centers and offer training through accredited courses to another 1,100 people to provide them with the valuable skills they need to find employment.

Enable Ireland

The Enable Ireland partnership with Microsoft began in 2000 and continues to work to bring technology to people with disabilities in a country where almost 70 percent of those with disabilities are unemployed. In 2007, the first national assistive technology training center in the country was launched by Enable Ireland with the endorsement of the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment. In 2009, Enable Ireland will continue to offer assistive technology training to more than 700 people per year and benefit 3,500 others. It will also act as a training hub for other centers around the country. The establishment of this center will improve the reach of assistive technology, help empower and promote the independence of trainees, and promote awareness among potential employers for both social and economic inclusion. The partnership has been recognized by a number of CSR awards over the last few years and most recently was identified by Business in the Community as a case study of outstanding practice. Enable Ireland was also nominated in 2008 as a finalist by the EU e-inclusion program for their accessibility work.

Italy

Fast Track to IT

Across the religious divide in disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland, technology is playing a key role in bringing women together to help them enter the labor market. Only 58 percent of women are employed in Northern Ireland. Through the Fast Track to IT (FIT) training initiative that has been successfully running in the Republic of Ireland for several years, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will extend the program in Northern Ireland in six new areas. FIT is working with local nongovernmental organizations and government agencies to replicate their training model, targeting long-term unemployed in community technology centers and training institutions across Northern Ireland. The 2009 grant will ensure training for approximately 1,000 long-term unemployed and improve their opportunities for employment.

Associazione degli Interessi Metropolitani

In Italy and across Europe, there is a large population of aging citizens, and organizations are working to eliminate the digital divide that can result when older citizens lack IT skills and knowledge. Through its Internet Saloons in Milan and Venice, AIM provides seniors with basic IT skills training to help them participate in the information society. When surveyed, past program participants indicated that IT skills training made daily living easier, enabling them to do things such as shop and bank online. Now in its sixth year of sustained funding from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, the training has been very popular. With this new grant, AIM will train 6,500 people in 2009. Building on its success to date, the Internet Saloon will also offer training to other underserved groups such as people seeking employment and women.

Coordinamento Nazionale delle Comunità di Accoglienza

Disadvantaged people who receive technology skills training have a better chance of entering the job market as well as improved social opportunities. CNCA(Coordinamento Nazionale delle Comunità di Accoglienza) is a federation that coordinates the work of more than 250 associations in communities throughout Italy. These associations assist people burdened by poverty and inequality by helping them to integrate into mainstream society. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant for 2009 will support the expansion of this program to 40 centers and will continue to train people in remote locations by using teachers who travel with computers. The continued partnership with the Adecco Foundation will provide valuable support, mentoring and technology skills training for women to improve opportunities for employment.

Fondazione Mondo Digitale

Immigration is an important trend in Western Europe and particularly in Italy, where most of the 3 million migrants arrived in the last decade. Support services are not always ideally adapted to help migrants secure employment or training tailored to their needs. In 2009, through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, Fondazione Mondo Digitale will implement a customized digital literacy training program to help refugees and asylum seekers, hosted by the Municipality of Rome at the Aeneas refugee center, to acquire the necessary technology skills to find a job. Closely supported by the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Job Orientation Center of the Municipality of Rome, 400 migrants will receive end-to-end support through language and technology skills training, legal advice, personal training, and health care assistance to better assure their autonomy and employment prospects when starting their new lives in Italy.

Latvia

Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association

The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association's (LIKTA) Latvia@World project seeks to enable each member of the community throughout Latvia to benefit from information technologies and the new knowledge economy. Microsoft, the Latvian government, municipalities, and other IT industry members have supported the effort to help people overcome the digital divide and social exclusion through basic IT skills training, and to promote access to public and private business services available on the Internet. The project will focus training on small business entrepreneurs and strengthening the self-sustaining network of community technology centers to reach 45,000 people over the next three years. An e-certificate, issued by LIKTA and the Secretariat of E-Government Affairs, will be provided to promote state level e-skills program development.

Association of People with Disabilities and Their Friends APEIRONS

Only about 10 percent of Latvia’s disabled population is employed. The Association of People with Disabilities and Their Friends' (APEIRONS) Open Door project aims to create educational, employment, and social opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled young people and adults through free computer access, increased computer literacy, and IT skills development. APEIRONS cooperates with partners and supporters in all regions of Latvia, including local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the country's largest technology association, LIKTA, to ensure IT training meets everyone’s needs. APEIRONS manages an E-accessibility Center that provides training and consulting on-site, by phone, and by e-mail to both direct beneficiaries and people and organizations that work with the disabled. This year, together with Microsoft and other partners, APEIRONS will develop online training to provide broader opportunity for disabled people to socialize, develop confidence in their IT skills, and find work.

Lithuania

Association "Langas i Ateiti" and Window to the Future

The Lithuanian information and knowledge economy has developed rapidly in recent years. However, more than half of Lithuania's population does not have access or the skills to use technology. The mission of Window to the Future (W2F) is to help bridge the digital divide by promoting the use of the Internet to stimulate economic growth and improve the standard of living of Lithuanians. The project focus under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program is to empower people to use technology to acquire the information to compete in the labor market. It is anticipated that over 20,000 Lithuanians will benefit from this project in 2009.

Luxembourg

Fondation Caritas Luxembourg

Caritas, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding for the past five years provides asylum seekers and long-term unemployed in Luxembourg with computer and Internet access, and IT skills training through four community technology centers. The aim of this program is to minimize the digital divide and the isolation many experience when they are disconnected from their communities and to provide them with the technology skills required to find employment. In addition to receiving basic IT training, beneficiaries can access public information resources, search for a job online and communicate with family in their home countries. Through the additional support of Employability Alliance partners State Street and Randstad, a job workshop provides essential knowledge to find employment. The Caritas program has trained more than 1,000 people since 2006 and benefited many more.

Malta

Community Empowerment Organization

The Community Empowerment Organization (CEO) focuses on increasing accessibility to technology and technology training among audiences in Malta that shy away from the use of technology and who, due to their economic, physical, or social status, do not use technology to its full potential. The organization gives particular attention to people with disabilities, women, the elderly, and other people who are at risk of being excluded from the information society. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) CEO has organized 10 community technology centers together with NGOs in different localities in Malta and Gozo to offer the use of computers and Internet facilities and serve as training centers promoting IT literacy. In partnership with Microsoft and community organizations such as the Physically Handicapped Rehabilitation Fund (PHRF), participants learn basic IT skills that complement job counseling or other skills courses offered. In the next few years, CEO will continue to expand the program to support skills development throughout the country, with a goal of reaching an additional 10 communities and ensuring that all citizens have the opportunity to use IT for economic and social advancement.

Netherlands

Stichting Eigenwijks

In some Amsterdam suburbs, immigrants and their families make up nearly 60 percent of the population. Many do not speak Dutch and do not have marketable skills, which creates high unemployment and increases the isolation of this population. The DubbelKlik (or Double Click) program addresses these issues by training volunteers from immigrant organizations to help people in their community acquire technology skills. Microsoft has funded the program for five years. Its 2009 Unlimited Potential grant will help the project expand to new community technology centers around Amsterdam working in collaboration with local governments, and to two new cities working in tandem with town municipalities. The program allows people with little education and knowledge of Dutch to master technology basics and new language skills. In 2009, the project will train approximately 750 people in community technology centers.

Norway

Seniornett Norway

Norway has a rapidly aging population that is at risk of becoming isolated with no IT knowledge. The mission of Seniornett is to connect seniors to the information society and provide those who are still employed with the necessary IT skills to help extend their working lives. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding and Microsoft software donations, Seniornett delivers a train-the-trainer program and will help create an additional 40 training clubs in 2009. Seniornett will also continue in their more recent in-company training initiative for those over 50 still in the workforce to ensure they master the IT tools and knowledge required to do their jobs. Working in partnership with the Norwegian pensioners association, Seniornett has a goal of establishing 500 training clubs throughout Norway by 2011. Over three years, using creative solutions such as a mobile classroom, the project will work to empower 5,000 Norwegian seniors to participate in the information society.

Poland

Foundation Supporting Physically Disabled Mathematicians and IT Specialists

Poland has undergone a great transformation over the last decade; almost half of all households are equipped with a computer today, but a significant digital gap must be addressed. In partnership with Microsoft, the Foundation Supporting Disabled Mathematicians and IT Specialists is bringing technology skills and knowledge to disadvantaged communities. The network of 404 "e-Centers" across Poland will provide free access to computers and the Internet, and a platform for life-long education through 51 e-learning courses and group training sessions. People all across Poland will gain access to quality content that will enable them to supplement knowledge or acquire new skills, including soft skills and vocational qualifications. In the first year of this project, more than 53,000 people finished IT e-learning training and other courses supporting vocational skills.

Portugal

Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential program has supported the Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries (CITEVE) of Portugal, the technological arm of the textile industry, for four years in its initiative to help provide new skills to workers in the textile industry and those who have become unemployed due to the decline in the industry across Europe. The goal of this program is to empower individuals by providing IT skills training to help increase new employment prospects in a region where the textile industry has traditionally had a strong presence. Now in its fifth year of supporting the program, the 2009 Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help increase IT training and provide new skills to workers in other declining industries in Portugal—namely the metal, cork, ceramics, and glass industries. Supported by mobile training units, the initiative will contribute to creating economic prosperity in new regions of the country. The project, supported by town municipalities, regional employment agencies, and the Ministry of Work and Social Solidarity, demonstrated a successful 40 percent job placement rate in 2008 after the first two years of training.

Programa Escolhas

Helping disadvantaged youth in Portugal discover and broaden the choices available to them is the driving force behind Escolhas. Escolhas, also supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Commission for Refugees and Immigrants, provides technology skills training to youth in underserved areas of the country to help them become positive contributors to society and the economy. The training program is now available in 111 centers throughout Portugal and has trained more than 3,500 people in the first two years. Professional instructors for the train-the-trainer program ensure consistent and quality training in all centers. A strong focus on accreditation also helps prepare graduates for the job market. The 2009 Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will continue to fund the train-the-trainer program and the e-learning platform to support the trainers and centers.

Romania

Civitas Foundation for Civil Society

The Civitas Foundation for Civil Society, founded in 1992, was established to stimulate citizens’ involvement in decision-making and local governance, including human rights protection, civic education, and environmental protection. To advance its mission, Civitas has partnered with employers in the Transylvania region to identify job opportunities in the area, including projects like the Transylvania Autoroute and sectors like agro-tourism, wood processing, and construction. Twelve Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills centers, offering IT skills training and computer and Internet access, serve as places for meeting and learning, and centers to mobilize community members. Community members, particularly the youth, can acquire new skills and knowledge, learn of employment opportunities in the target sectors, and use the advantages of information technology to prosper.

Education for an Open Society Romania

Education for an Open Society (EOS) is a nonprofit organization that promotes an open society and sustainable development in Romania by helping young people acquire social and economic entrepreneurial skills and receive technology training. EOS helps the underserved identify job opportunities or improve their skills in jobs they already hold. This effort, now several years old, first provided IT access in disadvantaged areas at public centers. EOS then deployed trainers to centers to offer IT fundamentals courses. Now, through this new effort, EOS is assisting centers to adapt curricula and services to meet employers' requests. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP) grant will expand the work initiated in three centers located in Timisoara and help connect another 35 centers in a national network of training centers across Romania. The grant is projected to provide training for 8,000 people in the next three years.

Russia

Project Harmony International Inc.

Improving economic opportunity for disadvantaged groups is a critical challenge for communities throughout the vast Russian Federation. The advantages that IT knowledge provides in competing for jobs and work-place advancement are especially valuable assets for those who want and need to improve their economic prospects in our increasingly knowledge-based economy. The Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) project, initiated by Project Harmony (PH) International and Microsoft Russia, brings e-skills training and support to underserved communities throughout the country, thereby changing the economic prospects for thousands of people who have not yet had access to the potential that technology offers. Through a network of locally hosted, supported, and committed IDEA Centers managed in partnership with libraries, universities, and other nonprofits, and with the support of regional and municipal authorities, IDEA learning centers provide critical e-skills to the communities. Every month, each center provides 26 hours of free training in Unlimited Potential curriculum and capacity-building themes designed to best suit the target population in that specific community, providing the most relevant trainings possible. Over the three-year program, the IDEA network has grown to 59 centers throughout Russia—many of them self-sustaining—and IDEA centers have trained more than 42,500 participants and benefited more than 207,000 people in Russia. In 2009, approximately 16,500 people will learn the skills necessary to increase their employability, and more than 70,000 will benefit from the project activities.

Serbia

International Aid Network

After more than a decade of economic and social decline, Serbia is now on the right path to join the EU and fully participate in the modern world. But the past has left a lot of scars on Serbian society. Thousands of refugees and internally displaced people still present major challenges, needing reintegration and services to help them become economically productive. The International Aid Network (IAN) in Serbia is working hard to educate refugees and other socially vulnerable groups, giving them a chance for a new beginning. IAN supports these individuals by teaching them to use information technologies and acquire other skills so that they can create new opportunities for themselves. By helping IAN in its education programs with software and donations, Microsoft is actively participating in creating opportunity for these people. IAN provides courses on computers, social skills, entrepreneurship, and the English language. More than 2,500 people have participated.

Slovakia

P-MAT

In Slovakia, digital literacy among people over 40 is low. These people are still of productive age, but within the larger economic transformation of the country, mastery of modern communication technologies has become critical to their economic vitality. The project 40UP helps people over the age of 40 improve their computer skills and use IT in their professional lives. New IT skills help these individuals overcome barriers that they encounter when looking for a new or better job. Courses organized by the nonprofit P-MAT, with the support of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, provide opportunity to learn basic or higher-level skills for using the Windows operating system, e-mail, the Internet, and the Microsoft Office system programs, and to work with digital photographs and video. The program trains approximately 3,700 participants per year.

Slovenia

The Youth Information and Counseling Center of Slovenia

The Youth Information and Counseling Center of Slovenia (MISSS), an accomplished youth development organization, focuses on promoting the social inclusion of the disenfranchised and underserved people. It has, through its unique approach, identified information technology skills as a way to help individuals and communities reach a new level of personal development. Through basic computer skills training efforts, MISSS raises the computer skills level and, consequently, the employability and social inclusion of the people it serves. This project seeks to train more than 3,500 people in three years across seven regions in Slovenia to improve employability of the underserved, including young unemployed, senior citizens, and immigrants from former Yugoslav republics. An additional 15,000 will benefit from access and services provided through the network of 11 centers across Slovenia.

Spain

Fundación Esplai

Connect Now is a national initiative in Spain driven by Fundacion Esplai that focuses on increasing digital literacy among the most disadvantaged social groups. The goal of this initiative is to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged people and to broaden the information society to all. The program reaches beneficiaries through an existing community technology center network and the school infrastructure. The project combines two programs. The first, Conecta e-inclusion, is a program for young people, women, and immigrants who are part of the Red Conecta network, which was running in 286 centers and associated networks across Spain by June 2008. The second, Young Conecta, is a program specifically for young people and is based on a service learning plan used in high schools. By successfully partnering with Microsoft Unlimited Potential, nongovernmental organizations, local government and national government, and by applying a consistent methodology for delivering quality IT skills training throughout the network, Connect Now made a strong impact with more than 157,000 people trained in the first three years. It is on track to train an additional 218,000 people over the next three years.

Switzerland

Association Joker

Everybody deserves another chance in life—which is what prompted the Joker Card project in Switzerland. In response to a high unemployment rate in the French-speaking Canton de Vaud, the federal government invited Microsoft, Association Arches, Caritas, Migros, and other organizations to support an initiative aimed at the social and economic integration of unemployed people in the region through a technology skills training program. An initial contribution from Microsoft supports a refurbished computer loan program to benefit the unemployed. In 2007, Microsoft funded a technology skills training program to help the unemployed, migrant, and disadvantaged youth gain the IT skills needed for the job market. In the second year of the project, work experience and job skills coaching were added, and a network of 11 relay centers or cybercafés provided an additional support network for the unemployed individuals. There are now more than 50 partners supporting the Joker Initiative.

Ukraine

Project Harmony International Inc.

The IDEA (Information Dissemination and Equal Access) Ukraine program partners with local nonprofits and regional employment agencies to build better job skills and employment prospects for thousands of low income, unemployed, or otherwise disadvantaged people. Project Harmony (PH) International will establish a network of 24 IDEA centers throughout Ukraine by 2011, reaching more than 28,500 people. Each of the centers will be hosted by an organization that is recognized in its region for its commitment to providing marginalized groups with job skills training, informational resource support and community collaboration. In addition to the Unlimited Potential curriculum, the centers will provide community-specific training in applications of technology; full Internet access (provided at the cost of the center); an array of workstations, scanners, and printers; and support from an educational coordinator. The centers will also cooperate closely with local social service groups, including the regional employment agency, to assist center beneficiaries to find work opportunities.

United Kingdom

Age Concern England

In Western Europe, there are limited workforce opportunities for unemployed people over 50. As a part of the Black Country project, Age Concern England’s (ACE) mission is to address unemployment in the Black Country region by supporting people older than 50 through a digital inclusion network, and by promoting micro-entrepreneurship through the PRIME initiative. The PRIME initiative is a charity linked to Age Concern, which strives to help those people older than 50 consider options for self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship. In supporting this goal, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will be used to run community workshops on self-employment and to ensure appropriate IT skills training is delivered. The program will help recruit mentors for potential micro-entrepreneurs and will track progress of people who are starting small businesses.

Black Country Consortium

The Black Country Consortium (BCC) project is a long-term commitment to help develop a stronger knowledge economy by improving the skills of the current labor force and providing basic skills to those unemployed in the Black Country. Through a network of 50 community technology centers, disadvantaged communities are receiving technology skills training in the Black Country region. The project, supported by Microsoft over the last three years, ultimately aims to enable job growth and sustained economic opportunity in this economically depressed region. BCC works closely with its many partners to promote skills training, economic opportunity, and employability across the region.

The Royal National Institute of the Blind

Seventy-five percent of blind and visually impaired people are unemployed in the United Kingdom. As part of the Black Country project, RNIB’s mission is to empower blind or partially sighted people to improve employment opportunities through IT skills training. In 2009, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will support training trainers, making training centers accessible, and providing employer awareness training on disabilities in the workplace.

Latin America

Argentina

Fundación CDI Educacion Digital

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology to encourage active citizenship in low-income communities. CDI partners with community-based organizations to train local educators, who then provide IT training to underserved communities. Since it first partnered with CDI in 1999, Microsoft has helped CDI establish and expand its presence across Latin America through cash grants and software donations. In 2009, CDI expects to set up ten community technology centers with the Buenos Aires Government, one in Antarctica, and nine in other provinces, reaching over 8,500 individuals, including people with disabilities, homeless children, and indigenous populations.

Fundación Equidad

Fundación Equidad is a nongovernmental organization that promotes social equality and economic development through information and communications technology (ICT). Equidad's activities include providing ICT training to underserved communities while promoting best practices in the use of ICT for development. Microsoft first supported Equidad in 2004 to establish a community technology center in Buenos Aires, which provides IT and job skills to unemployed youth and adults, and again in 2006 with the "Reciclar" project. This new project, "Technology for the Work and Digital Education", is also a technology training program that aims to reach underserved communities. It provides recycled PCs (donated by companies and refurbished by young people) to other nonprofit organizations, which, in turn, use them for IT skills training. In addition to running computer-recycling workshops to train unemployed youth, and donating the computers to eligible organizations, Fundacion Equidad provides technical assistance to IT trainers from those organizations, using Microsoft curricula for digital literacy courses. Equidad intends to serve more than 300 community technology centers across Argentina in the next two years.

Brazil

Associação Telecentro de Informação e Negócios

The mission of the Associação Telecentro de Informação e Negócios (ATN) is to develop and make available tools, methods, and applications for telecenters to create a sustainable operating model. To accomplish this goal, ATN has developed a strong relationship with academic groups at the University of Brasilia, in particular with the Technology Development Center (CDT), to provide high-quality content and to train managers and instructors of 1,500 telecenters that belong to the Information and Business Telecenters Network.

Committee for Democracy in Information Technology

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology to encourage active citizenship in low-income communities. Through its Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools (ITCRS), CDI partners with community-based organizations to train local educators, who then provide IT training to underserved communities. Since it first partnered with CDI in 1999, Microsoft has helped CDI establish its presence throughout Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Colombia. This 2009 grant will be used to organize an annual meeting of the CDI Network to promote integration among the leaders. The goals are to exchange experiences and show best practices to strengthen the network and obtain better results. The event is expected to benefit 753 Technology and Civic Engagement Schools that serve 70,000 students from low-income communities per year and more than 130,000 people that access the centers for other services.

Comunitas - Parcerias para o Desenvolvimento Solidário

Comunitas is a nonprofit organization that strives to strengthen civil society and promote social development throughout Brazil. Since 2005, Microsoft has supported Comunitas to help strengthen its network of 52 community technology centers and to support an e-learning program. In 2007, Microsoft, in partnership with the city government of São Paulo, contributed to strengthening the Rede Jovem (Youth Network) project through support for five additional community technology centers in the city of São Paulo. In 2009, the Rede Jovem program will continue to serve underprivileged youth, providing them with the IT and job skills necessary to gain employment and become more competitive in the labor market. It is expected to reach more than 5,000 youth.

Fundacao Fundetec

Fundação Fundetec is a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to improving living standards and social equality by using technology. The purpose of this project is to teach the beneficiaries how to refurbish computers, which will then be leased to low-income population and to public school teachers who do not have computers. With the mercantile leasing, the project aims to become self-sustainable, therefore generating resources for the maintenance and expansion of its activities. Because there is a large demand for qualified professionals to maintain and repair computers and printers, the project is dedicated to offering the participants improved possibilities of digital and professional inclusion by qualifying them for the job market. The beneficiaries also receive a monthly scholarship grant and are awarded a certificate upon completing the project's scheduled activities. In 2009, the organization expects to reach more than 2,000 people.

Instituto Ayrton Senna

Instituto Ayrton Senna (IAS) is a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities for underserved children, teenagers, and adults, to help them develop their potential as citizens and enter the modern workforce. This project, Comunidade Conectada ("Connected Community"), is part of a multi-year grant that has established five community technology centers throughout Brazil. The technology centers have been implemented in disadvantaged communities to promote citizenship and social development through the use of information and communications technology. With the continued support of Microsoft, IAS will strengthen the existing centers and will help other nongovernmental organizations effectively use the Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum. IAS expects to reach more than 80,000 individuals in 2009.

Instituto Crescer para Cidadania

Instituto Crescer para Cidadania develops social responsibility programs for companies and institutions The purpose of this project is to train instructors to better use the Microsoft curricula to support the Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP). The project is intended to reach more than 1,000 people in 2009.

Oxigenio

Oxigenio is a nonprofit organization that promotes social inclusion by helping underserved and disadvantaged communities use information and communications technology to build and exercise social responsibility. The goal of the project is to train and benefit: 1,500 nongovernmental organizations, to multiply the Digital and Social Inclusion concept to other groups and organizations; 148 city governments, giving opportunities to low-income young people so that they can become part of their country's economic development in a productive and complete way; 15,000 Teachers/Multipliers, selected by organizations that were already trained; 978,000 young people, who will receive the knowledge reproduced by their teachers, so that they can also extend the digital inclusion concept to other young people.

Servas

The mission of Servas is to promote and implement programs and social projects, in partnership with public and private sectors, to improve the living conditions of the population in the State of Manas Gerais. With this project, Servas will recycle electronic waste, build computers from refurbished parts, and promote public policy and development of technologies that support reuse and recycling. The project will train 80 underserved in assembly and maintenance of the computers and donate the computers to increase digital inclusion.

Chile

Asociacion de Telecentros Activos de Chile A.G.

The Chilean Association of Active Telecenters (ATACH) uses information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the development of underserved communities. ATACH includes a network of 137 telecenters, and many of its partners have been pioneers in decreasing the digital divide in Chile. The purpose of the project is to provide information and communications technology skills for entrepreneurs, unemployed, and employed from different regions of Chile. In 2009, the goal is to train 5,000 men and women in 50 telecenters using Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum.

Columbia

Amici di Bambini

This project will create three community technology centers (CTC) to reach populations far from Columbia’s main cities that have been significantly affected by violence. During the first year, a CTC will be created in Granada; during the second, one will be created in Villavicencio; and during the third, one will be created in Chocó. These populations have few or no social and economic alternatives, and the youth are at risk of joining the illegal paramilitary groups. In 2009, the organization will benefit 1,030 people.

Fundacion Gaia Amazonas

This project will create Amazon Centers for Learning and Technology in the Amazon forest region of Colombia, to give indigenous populations access to technology, support their working activities, and preserve their culture. Gaia Amazonas, a Colombian nongovernmental organization, has been providing the indigenous people with legal, technical, and financial support for more than 15 years. Access to most communities is only possibly along the rivers in canoes with small outboard engines, so there is limited information and communications technology at the community level.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States, mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, government agencies, and academic institutions to reduce extreme poverty and to promote democracy in the Americas. The Mi Llave program trains displaced persons and demobilized soldiers in information and communications technology (ICT) and provides them with technical, entrepreneurial, and vocational training. With this grant, the Trust aims to establish one new community technology center in Medellín, for a total of 11 community technology centers in Columbia by the end of 2009. In 2009, the Trust expects to train at least 1,100 participants in ICT skills and civic education and have 11,000 potential users.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, government agencies, and academic institutions to reduce extreme poverty and to promote democracy in the Americas. Microsoft Unlimited Potential has partnered with The Trust for a regional project known as the Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA). With this grant, the Trust will open two new centers in Popayán and Pasto and strengthen the eight existing ones for a total of 10 in Columbia by the end of 2009. In 2009, the centers are expected to train at least 2,425 participants in information and communications technology and civic education and have 7,150 potential users.

Costa Rica

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills (CTS) support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust currently has one center in Costa Rica. With this new grant and the support of the US Department of Labor (DOL), the Trust will open two new centers by December 2009. The centers will train trainers in specific applications for people with disabilities, improve existing training materials or introduce new ones, and increase awareness among the government, local businesses, and universities on the condition of people with disabilities. The Trust expects to train 300 people have 2,000 potential users in 2009.

Dominican Republic

Fundación Taigüey

Fundación Taigüey is a nonprofit organization based in the rural village of La Ciénaga, in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. Its mission is to "promote, assess, implement, and/or guide social transformation processes at the community level, promoting participation and appropriated technologies." The Center of Excellence for Community Telecenter Sustainability and Social Impact project will contribute to the sustainable development of the poorest communities in the Dominican Southwest (the most impoverished and marginalized part of the country) by supporting its partners’ existing technology access centers (community telecenters). The organization intends to service 50 centers in 2009, reaching more than 25,000 people.

Ecuador

Fundacion Crisfe

Fundación Crisfe, established in 1994, seeks to finance projects that promote public access to quality educational services and adequate housing. This project, the Citizen's Beacon of Knowledge, will increase the technology skills training capacity of different provinces in Ecuador, through 38 community-based technology learning centers. In addition, Crisfe will provide training related to the small business sector to approximately 350 community members. Through its network of community technology centers, the organization expects to reach more than 45,000 individuals.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has established two community technology centers in 2007. Ecuador will have established one new center by December 2008 and a fourth one in 2009 to provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The project will reach more than 4,600 people in 2009.

El Salvador

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), it will establish one new community technology center in El Salvador by the end of 2009 for a total of seven CTCs created since the beginning of the program. Training will be offered to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The project will reach more than 8,000 people in 2009.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust will establish one new community technology center for a total of seven by the end of 2009 to provide information and communications technology (ICT) access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The center will train at least 1,050 people in ICT skills and civic education and will have 7,000 users. During 2009, POETA Guatemala will specifically address the needs of at-risk youth, who are highly susceptible to violence, exploitation, and crime as a result of poverty, lack of formal schooling, and the inability to find employment.

Guatemala

Asociación Agape de El Salvador

Agape Association of El Salvador helps the most vulnerable sectors of society improve their standard of living and make a positive contribution to the development of their environment. The purpose of this project is to contribute to the construction of a culture of peace in El Salvador by promoting labor training rights, employment, self- employment, and the development of skills. Agape Association expects to provide training for 1,440 people from the rural and poor urban zones in the Usulután department, in southeast El Salvador, to improve their competitiveness in the labor market.

Mexico

Cooperative for Education

Cooperative for Education (COED) is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in rural Guatemala by creating self-sustaining textbook, library, and computer center projects in impoverished community schools. It strives to improve both traditional and technological literacy and lay the cornerstones for greater economic development and empowerment. In 2009, COED will use Microsoft funding to establish six more computer technology centers with plans to reach more than 11,400 people. The centers will be located in community schools so as to maximize the use of each center. The centers will provide classes for students during the day and will be available for use by community members during evenings and weekends.

Asociación Promujer de México A.C.

Asociación Promujer de México is part of the ProMujer International network, a women's development organization whose mission is to provide Latin America's poorest women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-lending, business training, and health care support. ProMujer establishes sustainable microfinance institutions that offer credit and training programs geared to the needs of poor, undereducated women who operate a small business or would like to open one. Currently the organization serves approximately 15,000 women at more than 700 communal banks, covering more than 27 different communities in four different states (Hidalgo, Puebla, Queretaro, Estado de Mexico). ProMujer now offers basic IT skills to integrate female loan recipients into the modern economy and to give them new tools to improve their businesses. With Microsoft support, ProMujer will continue strengthening the six computer technology centers established in 2007 and 2008, and add three more centers.

Committee for Democracy in Information Technology MEXICO

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) is a nongovernmental organization that fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology. Through its Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools (ITCRS), CDI partners with community organizations to train local educators who then provide IT training to underserved communities. In 2004, Microsoft Unlimited Potential partnered with CDI Mexico to launch a new program called "Basic IT Skills for the Unemployed." This included a grant to establish 12 community technology centers (CTCs) that provided training to 5,280 people in 2004. In 2005 and 2006, Microsoft funded an initiative to strengthen CDI's activities in the state of Oaxaca and an initiative focusing on promoting digital inclusion in the community of Tlalpan ("CiberTlalpan"), one of the poorest districts in Mexico City. CDI and the district government partnered to develop 20 community technology centers. In addition to providing IT training, these CTCs serve as a space to train instructors, conduct computer refurbishing workshops, and provide technical assistance to other NGOs. This year, CDI will continue strengthening the existing CTCs and create six more.

Cemefi

Cemefi has fourteen community technology centers (CTCs) in four states of the Mexican Republic that provide technology access and training to disadvantaged people in rural and urban areas. In 2009, Cemefi will create four new CTCs and will strengthen four existing ones, through the support of local organizations, to build IT capacity, provide IT access for underserved communities, and improve their job opportunities. Cemefi will focus on the southeastern states of Mexico, one of the country’s poorest regions. In 2009, Cemefi will reach approximately 7,000 people using the existing and new CTCs.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft Unlimited Potential – Community Technology Skills (UP-CTS) support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has 10 community technology centers in Mexico in partnership with CECATI, Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud (IMJ), and Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey. They provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the greater community. With this funding, the Trust will establish three additional centers. The project will reach 18,000 people in 2009.

Panama

Movimiento Social y Cultural Nueva Generación

This project will promote the personal growth and development of young adults towards a secure and healthy life. They will receive basic and advanced training in information and communications technology to help them find a good job. The courses will be delivered in the community-based technology learning centers that the organization has in Chorrillo, Santa Ana, and Curundú. In 2009, the organization expects to reach more than 1,100 people.

Peru

Pro Mujer, Inc.

Pro Mujer Peru (PMP) is part of the Pro Mujer International network, a women's development organization whose mission is to provide Latin America's poorest women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-lending, business training, and health care support. PMP establishes sustainable microfinance institutions that offer credit and training programs that are geared to the needs of poor, undereducated women who either operate a small business or would like to open one. Currently, the organization serves about 43,600 women, covering more than 13 communities in southern Peru. PMP will offer basic IT skills to help integrate female loan recipients into the modern economy and, at the same time, allow them to share those new tools with other women's networks. With Microsoft support, PMP will establish one community technology center in Puno and expects to train more than 150 people and benefit 43,575 in 2009.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through support from Microsoft for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust currently has two community technology centers in Peru that provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the greater community. With this grant, the Trust will open two additional centers by the end of 2009. The centers will train at least 600 participants in information and communications technology and civic education, and will have 3,400 users.

Puerto Rico

Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico

The Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico, with Microsoft funding, intends to develop a training program for young adults. One program goal is to train young adults and prepare them for employment. Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico expects to reach 3,300 youth in the first year.

Trinidad and Tobago

Servol

In 1994, Servol established three Hi Tech Centers to teach computer literacy. In the following years, with the help of Microsoft, Servol has established computer labs in its skill training centers, exposing more young people to computer literacy. With this grant, Servol will upgrade and expand the Barataria Hi Tech Center, one of the original centers built in 1994, to train young people so that they can compete in the job market and offer services in their communities. The organization expects to reach 450 people in 2009.

Uruguay

Fundación A Ganar

The A Ganar Unlimited Potential Youth Using Information Technology to Gain Employment Opportunities project will train youth in the essential IT skills needed to gain employment in today's market. The project is a key component of the A Ganar (Soccer and Team Sports Partnership Model for Youth Employment) program, which is based on the premise that team sports are an effective vehicle for developing the employability skills (teamwork, effective communication, respect, discipline, focus on results, and continued self-development) needed in today's global economy. A key project component is to equip youth with the essential IT skills needed to gain employment which, combined with other employability and technical skills, will open a door into the competitive job market. In 2009, the organization expects to reach about 400 youth.

Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (ICD)

This project will foster social and economic development in Uruguay by promoting IT skills training in underserved communities. This initiative aims to eliminate the digital divide and promote social inclusion by training disadvantaged young in IT skills to help them find employment. The program will reach more than 2,000 people in this first.

Venezuela

A.C. Fundación Venezuela Sin Límites

The mission of Venezuela sin Límites is to channel resources efficiently to empower associated social development organizations in Venezuela. Through this grant, the organization intends to create a Web portal to bring the power of technology to social development organizations dedicated to improving the living conditions of people at risk and in situations of vulnerability and social exclusion. The Web portal, based on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform, is expected to enable effective collaboration of social development organizations, communities, and social allies. In 2009, the organization expects to connect and provide virtual service to 100 social partners in Venezuela and other Latin-American countries, more than 300 nongovernmental organizations registered for social development, between 300 and 400 volunteers, and approximately 350 other people who either contribute or benefit.

OPCION

The Community Component for Microentrepreneurs in Community Banking Programs project will teach technology skills to low-income individuals interested in starting or expanding a business. Although microfinance institutions or community banking programs offer the financial aid and promote capacity building workshops in management issues, this project will build knowledge and tools to help microenterprises grow their productivity and improve operations. In 2009, the project expects to reach more than 800 people.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has established three community technology centers in Venezuela that provide ICT access and training to people with disabilities, at risk youth, and the greater community. With this new grant, the Trust will open one new center by the end of 2009. The centers will train at least 600 people in information and communications technology and civic education, and will have 4,000 users.

Middle East and Africa

Bahrain

Bahrain Internet Society

This project will train Bahraini citizens to use technology as a means of communication and access to government services. The project will also improve the employability and career progression objectives of the average Bahraini citizen by training them in technology skills required in today’s job market. The project will train 2,000 Bahraini citizens in 2008 and 2009.

Cameroon

Association for Support to Women Entrepreneurs

The Association for Support to Women Entrepreneurs(ASAFE) is implementing an information and communications technology project to reduce poverty, increase literacy levels, improve livelihood, and narrow the IT gap between the developed world and Cameroon.

Egypt

Integrated Care Society

In Egypt, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) make up 98 percent of businesses and contribute significantly to the economy. Despite these figures, SMEs are faced with increasing challenges of competition, high costs, and sustainability. To address these challenges, Integrated Care Society (ICS) seeks to give young Egyptians the tools and knowledge to become productive members of society by helping them enhance their technology skills for the current job market, or by helping them establish their own small enterprises. This project is working to help 3,000 entrepreneurs own profitable and growing businesses. The impact of this project will help create new jobs. The project will reach 3,000 entrepreneurs and train more than 1,100 master trainers. The SME portal will provide entrepreneurs with the ability to access resources, collaborate, and provide support.

Neareast Foundation

Although progress has been made towards the empowerment of women in Egypt, women remain marginalized from participating fully in Egyptian society and the economy. This project aims to help women find employment through an intensive nine-month training program in IT, business, leadership, and English skills—core areas that employers are seeking in potential employees. This program is holistic and relevant, leaving beneficiaries equipped with a skill set that significantly enhances their employability, in particular through the work experience gained during the program. The program also provides women with the opportunities to establish their own business through micro-credit.

United Nations Development Program Egypt

This project is part of a national initiative to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) in micro, small, and medium enterprises (M/SME) to improve their productivity and efficiency. The failure rate of M/SMEs in Egypt is quite high: approximately 90 percent fail. The project provides 3,000 SMEs with training in the latest Microsoft technologies, making their businesses more efficient and competitive. It provides information and communications technology tools for M/SMEs through the development, upgrade, and localization of ICT curricula. The initiative and the project build on strong public-private partnerships that include the Ministry of Communication and IT, Ministry of Trade and Industries, Industry Modernization Center, Trade Chambers, a host of intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations, and private sector partners.

Gulf Region

Women in Technology and the Institute of International Education

Women in Technology (WIT) is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and implemented in collaboration with more than 50 local partners in nine countries/regions: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Since its inception in one country—Yemen—in 2005, and its near immediate success and tangible impact, WIT has continued to expand in the region over the past two and a half years, reaching more than 4,500 women to date, and will reach 10,000 by 2010. WIT is generously supported through funding from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) of the U.S. Department of State, and by Microsoft through its Community Technology Skills Program. The primary goals of WIT are to:

» Provide substantial capacity building to partner organizations to expand their reach, sustainability, and ability to serve women. » Create a strong base of women with vital IT and professional development skills, allowing them to gain access to new careers and training opportunities. » Empower WIT participants to play an integral role in shaping their country's future.

Iraq

International Rescue Committee, Inc.

The International Rescue Committee program will provide Iraqi youth with accelerated learning opportunities which are designed to help them develop marketable information, computer, and technology skills, in addition to life, business, and work-readiness skills. This program will empower individuals, promote education, and foster local communities.

Israel

Tapuah

This project focuses on three underserved groups in Israeli society: new immigrants, Arabs, and ultra-orthodox Jews. The program includes training in basic computer skills, and also the life skills needed to successfully enter the work force and improve employability. It has the potential to decrease poverty and unemployment rates among the relevant communities and to empower them for the long-run.

Tapuah

This project will promote socioeconomic change and create job opportunities for young Arab women at risk. The project is based on a valuable partnership, including government ministry and other governmental units. With Microsoft involvement, it will be a three-sector partnership in which funding and other project input and elements are divided among the partners. Given this partnership, the project has potential for both sustainability and future expansion.

Tapuah

This project provides unemployed women the tools to improve their employment status. The project teaches IT skills relevant to the workforce (via the Unlimited Potential curriculum) and soft skills such as resume writing and online job searches, and it includes an empowerment workshop.

Tapuah

This project is based on a partner infrastructure of major players in the social arena in Israel meant to address Digital Inclusion (DI) challenges on a national level. It has been running successfully from FY06 with the involvement, funding, and collaboration of numerous nongovernmental organizations and partnerships with other private sector companies. The project has successfully addressed the DI needs of youth and children from different communities and sectors of Israeli society. It has evolved as a pilot for addressing DI issues on a national level—to be further examined in the future.

Jordan

International Youth Foundation

Microsoft will partner with World Bank to fund the International Youth Foundation, which will be dedicated to an employability program in Jordan. This program will focus on IT skills training, life skills training, and job placement. This program is similar to programs offered in Morocco, Pakistan, India, and Egypt.

Shabakat Al Ordon (NetCorps Jordan)

The project aims to build the capacities of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Lebanon. The project focuses on the services and manufacturing sectors in the governorates of South Lebanon, Nabatieh, Mt. Lebanon, and North Lebanon by introducing them to new technologies and business practices, and by helping them improve their sales and marketing management.

Kenya

Strathmore Educational Trust

The Informal Sector Business Institute (ISBI) project offers training in information and communications technology, business, and life skills to micro entrepreneurs to help them benefit more from their entrepreneurial efforts. ISBI is planning to set up a center in Uganda. ISBI has a strong focus on employability, providing entrepreneurial and business skills to the informal sector. Beneficiaries are people who have started businesses but lack the requisite skills to run and sustain them.

The African Centre for Women, Information and Communications Technology

The African Center for Women, Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT) projects train women entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs with the skills that will help them improve their efficiency and competitiveness. ACWICT centers also hold events such as career days, workshops, media briefings, and seminars for women who do not generally receive such assistance.

Ugunja Community Resource Centre

The Ugunja Community Resource Center (UCRC) is working to enhance the livelihoods of the people who live in the Siaya District of Nyanza Province in Kenya through better use of technology. Technology training is being used to improve health standards, business opportunities, agricultural practices, and social networking. The project aims to share local resources, document local history and culture, and facilitate communication between community members and organizations. UCRC has grown from a social development organization to an economically sustainable organization that provides consulting services to local government agencies—including the police—to develop technology-based products and solutions to fight crime. An estimated 4,500 community members will benefit from this program over the next three years, with a special focus on people with disabilities.

Kuwait

Kuwait Economic Society

Kuwait Economic Society (KES) was established in 1970 with the objective of promoting economic growth and reform within the Kuwait economy. Project EMPOWER’s goal is to empower women and help young people find jobs and career opportunities by bridging the IT skills gap. The program will offer the target groups training that correspond to the needs of employers and society, and will empower them to play an active role in society. EMPOWER will add nine community technology centers, and with the two additional centers it will create this year, EMPOWER will graduate approximately 700 people in 2009.

Liberia

Center For Women and Children Empowerment, Inc.

The Center For Women and Children Empowerment (CEWCE) offers IT skills training to women and children to improve their employability. In Liberia, which continues to rebuild after years of civil war, IT skills will provide twenty-first–century capacity to spur economic growth and engender sustainable development.

Mali

AFRIKLINKS

AFRIKLINKS is a nongovernmental organization whose goal is to provide information and communications technology (ICT) support, including training, monitoring, and evaluation; VSAT and network installation; and help-desk and online support. In this second phase of the project, AFRIKLINKS will train and provide additional support to young people who want to develop businesses in agriculture in northern Mali. AFRIKLINKS intends to replicate this project in Senegal.

Mauritius

SOS Poverty

SOS Poverty initiatives focus on a number of issues in Mauritius, including welfare programs to distribute food, furniture, and clothing; social leadership training to develop new social workers; and IT skills training for unemployed and underemployed young people. The ICT Training Project provides technology training facilities and basic computer and life skills training to help unemployed and underemployed youth and women find jobs. Through the support of the government and the British Council, and also Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, SOS Poverty strives to reach 6,000 youth in the next three years.

Morocco

Ateliers Sans Frontieres Maroc

This project provides the needed tools to help nongovernmental organizations operating in Morocco better perform and serve their communities. For this phase of the project, the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software will be provided for the 2,560 computers that will be delivered to 320 nongovernmental organizations, along with 32 master trainers. A total of 640 trainers will be trained on Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum, enabling them to access computers and the Internet, improve their IT skills, and build organizational capacity.

PlaNet Finance Maroc

PlaNet Finance Morocco, as a member of the PlaNet Finance international network, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting poverty through the development and enhancement of the microfinance sector. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, this project will provide micro-entrepreneurs with computers and related training. It will also build an information and communications technology infrastructure that will serve micro-entrepreneurs and help them in their business.

Nigeria

Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Center

Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Centers' (BIITC) mission is to contribute to the creation of a knowledge-based information society in Nigeria by providing people with the technology skills they need today. The project offers its beneficiaries training that promotes entrepreneurship and links to relevant organizations and individuals that will support their endeavors. This project supports the empowerment of women and the visually impaired.

Fantsuam Foundation

Fantsuam Foundation focuses on education and integrated information and communications technology and business skills in Nigeria’s rural areas. The project offers a wide range of skills and has grown with Microsoft support to provide access to information that positively impacts the lives of the people in the communities which they serve. The project offers skills, support, and funding to program participants.

Oman

AMIDEAST/Oman

This project will enable young women to acquire the skills and confidence to enter the workforce and to use their employment as a stepping stone for acquiring increased status and rights. AMIDEAST/Oman will implement a four-month skills and knowledge enrichment program for 30 secondary school graduates. The students will be trained in career-related communication and leadership skills and in vocational skills directly relevant to local needs. Using practical training that includes role-playing and project work, the program will provide specific job-hunting strategies and action plans for entering the work force. Program content will also include material to build more general life skills, such as personal budgeting, knowledge of legal rights for women in Oman, and strategies for navigating personal relationships. After completing the program, participants will be entitled to continue using AMIDEAST's library and computers to expand their job search (if they have not obtained employment upon graduation), to receive coaching and mentoring from AMIDEAST staff, and to form an alumni support and networking group.

Pakistan

Aga Khan Foundation

The current project is located in the remote and isolated mountain communities in the Karakoram-Hindukush region of Northern Pakistan. It aims to empower youth by helping lessen unemployment, improve skills, and increase job opportunities. The objective is to test and perfect a replicable community-based model that provides IT facilities and services in marginalized and poor areas and allows local communities to manage these systems within the resources available. The project will include various training programs based on existing Unlimited Potential and Digital Literacy curriculums. A Train the trainers program will develop a group of master trainers who will train the program participants. Funds will be used to provide operational and management support to the community technology centers at the community and regional levels.

South Africa

Library Business Corners

Library Business Corners is a nongovernmental organization that strives to raise awareness among rural communities that self-employment is an option to generate income and wealth. Local libraries serve as user-friendly locations where existing and prospective small business entrepreneurs can obtain information. The Cape Access initiative was started in 2004 by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, in partnership with the Library Business Corners and community-based organizations called e-Community Forums, to accelerate socio-economic development. Microsoft is supporting this initiative through training the e-Community managers, whose role is to ensure that IT is used to help alleviate poverty, to help them run their Community Access Center effectively, and to ensure that they understand the impact and possibilities that information technology has to change people's lives.

QuadPara Association of South Africa

People with disabilities in South Africa emerge from schools for the disabled without having the skills that can lead to gainful employment in the labor market. The mission of QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) is to ensure that this designated group is given back their dignity through projects that will help them regain their self worth. Microsoft has partnered with QASA to set up Community Access Centers that focus on people with disabilities. To date, they have helped put 150 such people in gainful employment and thus enabled them to contribute to the economy of the country.

SANGONeT

SANGONeT's mission is to support the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT) in civil society organizations in southern Africa by providing quality services and initiatives. At the end of this project, telecenters will be certified as training centers and will be in a position to issue certificates. This will encourage more people to come to the centers for training and help make these centers self-sufficient. Microsoft is partnering with SANGONet and the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa to ensure that people trained at telecenters will have the entry-level IT skills needed to get into jobs, such as the telecenter market. The project will initially benefit 188 telecenter managers. At the end of three years, it will have benefited 500,000 people.

South African Graduates Development Association

This project trains out-of-school youth and unemployed graduates in IT skills, helping the youth to be more competitive in today’s job market.

Tunisia

Association for the Promotion of Employment for the Disabled Persons

The Association for the Promotion of Employment for the Disabled Persons (BASMA), with the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, will establish a program to provide IT skills training to underserved people through education and job creation. The program will help empower people with disabilities to contribute to the Tunisian knowledge economy. This project can be scaled for other countries and for use within the different ministries. The program is in line with the vision and long-term commitment of Microsoft through Unlimited Potential to provide relevant, accessible IT to underserved people by transforming education and enabling jobs and opportunities.

Turkey

Youth Association for Habitat

Youth for Habitat is an international youth network working in partnership with the United Nations. The network was established during the 1995 Copenhagen Social Development Summit with the participation of 300 youth organizations with diverse religious, racial, cultural, and national backgrounds. Building on the first and second phases of Empowerment of Youth through Improved e-Governance in Turkey, and Empowerment of Youth for the e-Transformation in Turkey, these projects aim to train socially disadvantaged people in basic information and communications technology skills, increase digital literacy and create employment. The project gives special emphasis to youth between the ages of 15 and 25, and also young women. Focus group training for disabled nongovernmental employees or public organization staff may also be provided.

United Republic of Tanzania

Mkombozi

The Mkombozi project focuses on teaching computer refurbishment skills to young adults to enable them to earn a living. The project has 28 school-based community technology centers in Tanzania. Mkombozi operates school-based computer training centers that seek to increase computer literacy in schools and provide access for the community during non-school hours. The organization will increase its offerings to promote other job skills in the communities it serves. The project is increasing the use of information and communications technology in education and also provides community access to computers.

Western Region

California

Jewish Vocational Service

With support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Business Basics Program at Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) provides increased access to computers and skills training to the disadvantaged jobseekers of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Business Basics continuum of technology access, relevant training, and individualized employment support is designed to address the major barrier of limited computer skills directly, which is a daunting obstacle to employment and economic advancement for people without the ability to update their technological proficiency. With more than 30 years of experience in workforce development, JVS achieves results by empowering people to improve their situation for themselves, their families, and the San Francisco community.

Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, Inc.

The Career Learning Center (CLC) at Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties provides customized training and educational services to the tri-county service area participants who are referred for services and to Goodwill's own employees (35 percent of the Goodwill workforce has participated in these services). Through Microsoft grant support, participants are trained on basic computer skills and business software applications, which help them obtain permanent jobs with sustainable wages and the potential for career advancement.

The Stride Center

This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support The Stride Center, which helps men and women of all ages who are unemployed or under-employed and living in poverty achieve economic self-sufficiency by training them to begin vibrant, viable careers in information technology. Graduates are able to move away from public assistance, and, equally important but less tangible, participants are becoming role models for their families and their communities, showing that success is possible.

Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC)

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding provides APALC with the necessary tools to assist families and communities in building strong partnerships with school districts. It helps to bridge and connect communities—many that include immigrant families who are unfamiliar with U.S. educational systems—with their schools to support their students and, in turn, strengthen and support communities.

Brotherhood Crusade

With Microsoft support, the Workforce Development/Job Training program of The Brotherhood Crusade provides specialized career training and job placement for long-term unemployed residents with multiple barriers to obtaining career employment. Participants include single mothers, non-custodial parents, parolees, homeless individuals, and long-term public assistance recipients in the South Los Angeles area. Upon successful completion of the program, participants are placed in good-paying, high-demand jobs commensurate with their training.

PUENTE Learning Center

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding at PUENTE Learning Center in Los Angeles provides workforce development programs that prepare students for meaningful careers, encourages them to understand that they have choices in life, and offers the tools to help them break the cycle of poverty and underachievement. This grant will support the Job Training, Computer Support Specialist, ESL, Diploma Plus, and GED Preparation programs for adults, and Computer Repair courses for high-school students and adults.

Fashion Business Inc.

With Microsoft sponsored job-skills training, low-income workers in Los Angeles County can acquire skills that support the growing use of computer technologies in the manufacturing sector. These skills will increase the marketability of participants as potential apparel workers. Computer and technology skills also help graduates transition into positions at the California Living Wage, further increasing their life-long earning potential. The continued education provides graduates with a sense of accomplishment and improved self-confidence as it relates to their careers.

Idaho

Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County

The Career Technology Program, funded by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, provides real-world technology learning for disadvantaged youth to help them explore ways to strengthen their future by pursuing careers in technology. It also allows them an opportunity to work on projects that give back directly to their communities.

Nevada

Goodwill of Southern Nevada, Inc.

Goodwill will provide the Microsoft Learn It & Earn It! Office Training Program to unemployed and under-employed trainees to help prepare them for successful employment in the job market. Training will provide students with the necessary skills required by local computer and customer service employers. The training includes such as computer fundamentals, Microsoft Office basics, Internet searches, customer service, keyboarding, and telephone etiquette. This training will create a life-long investment for career advancement.

Oregon

Centro Cultural

With the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, Centro Cultural enables the local low-income Latino community members to develop and enhance skills that help improve the quality of their lives. The skills they learn enable them improve and expand job performance, understand the significance of computers in their family's future, improve their English skills, find useful community information, and connect with other communities.

Utah

Sorenson Unity Center

The Sorenson Unity Center helps young people and adults translate their business and creative ideas into marketable skills. Support from Microsoft will provide funding for various multimedia and IT instructors for the youth and adult program and provide professional development for staff. The long-term goal of the project is to help individuals enter the economic and social mainstream with competency and confidence to use technology.

Washington

Workforce Development Council of Seattle – King County

The Workforce Development Council (WDC) projects connect businesses and job seekers by providing the necessary resources and tools for successful employment, lifelong learning, and business development. Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding supports WDC technology implementation and training efforts across the state to ensure a strong and vital economy.

The Seattle Foundation

The Seattle Foundation—an integrated working group of state, city, foundation, and education champions for success for potential workers and employers—has an ambitious plan to change the way the local community provides underserved working adults access to education and training. This, in turn, will work to strengthen the local labor market and provide community members a second chance to gain skills that will help them get jobs that pay well enough to support a family.

Goodwill Industries of Seattle/King County

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will allow Goodwill to provide technology skills training for low-income unemployed and underemployed adults within the nine local job training and education sites (JTEs). The goal of the JTE is to ensure the success of the graduates in the competitive employment market by offering training in the latest workplace tools.

Central Region

Illinois

Lumity

With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, Lumity's overall goal remains to enhance the workforce development system in the Chicago area, providing increased access to technology and digital literacy training that will improve clients' job readiness, employment options, and long-term results.

YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

Technology is integrated across the Model YWCA program, in which members will identify goals and priorities, participate in online learning, and support communities through a custom-built Empowerment Portal. They will also acquire advanced technology skills and job skills while working with a YWCA Empowerment Coach. YWCA clients will be exceptionally prepared to secure careers with high growth potential, better salaries and benefits, and increased lifelong earnings.

Chicago Urban League

Using Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the Chicago Urban League Workforce Diversity Program hopes to expand its existing computer training center and increase in the number of participants enrolling in Microsoft training and certification classes. The League's Entrepreneurship Center will provide computer and technology training to African-American small businesses, and the Parental Engagement Program will help families develop skills, including résumé and letter writing, spreadsheet creation, and conducting Internet job searches.

Michigan

Focus: HOPE

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will create the Microsoft Scholars fund for students in the Information Technologies Center programs. Low-income students will be able to apply for these scholarships into programs at Focus: HOPE. The scholarships will be granted based on academic performance, attendance, and attitude.

Missouri

JESS, Inc.

A computer technology center for JESS will provide computer-assisted instruction for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and will increase vocabulary, recognition of symbols, social interaction, and identification of written words. The program will develop a one-stop system for individuals with disabilities and assist and prepare people with quality training and career guidance for the computer driven workplace.

Nebraska

Aurora Technology Center

The Aurora Technology Center has experienced much growth in the past few years, and the latest addition to the facility is a digital video production lab, which will allow local companies to create promotional videos and customized training materials for local workforce development training. This continued support will allow the Aurora Technology Center to continue the mission that is critical to the economic development in the area.

South Dakota

YWCA Cass Clay

The Empowerment Through Technology project will further the mission of the YWCA by creating opportunities for social and economic empowerment for the women and children served by this program. With Microsoft support, access to computers, Microsoft software, and YWCA training courses and supportive services will help prepare women to maintain employment and become self sufficient. Additionally, the program will focus on young girls in the region and provide opportunities through the TechGYRLS program to broaden their knowledge and interest in technology.

Texas

Central Dallas Ministries

The Path2Success program will provide pre-employment education and training for unemployed and under-employed persons living in Dallas, Texas, and the surrounding Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area. The program is designed to equip participants with the hard job skills and soft job skills (with a special focus on technology education and certification in Microsoft Office) that they need to secure long-term, living-wage jobs.

Skillpoint Alliance

With funding from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Community Technology Training Center (CTTC) program is building an expanded computer lab located within the Skillpoint Alliance offices. The expansion of services will allow the CTTC program to provide more low-cost training to unemployed and under-employed Central Texas residents.

Houston Public Library Foundation

The WeCAN Works (WCW) program provides a solution to the pressing need to develop a more skilled and prepared workforce in Houston, Texas. The components of the program address workforce readiness, GED recovery and dropout prevention through sustainable education and employment solutions. The WeCAN Works program strives to build the workforce by providing underserved populations with support to attain educational credentials and technical skills that are critical to the job market.

Eastern Region

Florida

Jacksonville Urban League, Inc.

The Community Partnership Program (CPP) provides workforce development training and job placement assistance to its customers, with help from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential. CPP uses innovative employment skills testing, job search technique training, employment skills training, job coaching, computer training, and job placement assistance.

ELEVATE Miami

Miami Dade College (MDC) and the City of Miami come together to form ELEVATE Miami, a program that is set to harness the transformative power of technology to help workforce-aged individuals obtain technological training in park-based sites accessible to all. Microsoft Unlimited Potential is educating our citizens by providing training programs that familiarize and promote competency in the use of technology.

Georgia

Women's Employment Opportunity Project, Inc.

The Women's Employment Opportunity Project, Inc. (WEOP) program has been operating for five years in partnership with the City of Atlanta Workforce Development in providing computer training. The major program goals include developing innovative training programs to empower community residents and nonprofit organizations on the use of technology to increase economic self-sufficiency, employment opportunities, and microenterprise development.

Massachusetts

SkillWorks

With the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the SkillWorks project of The Boston Foundation is increasing the resources of education and skills training to Boston residents with low and moderate incomes. The goal is to create a system that helps low-skill and low-income residents attain family-sustaining jobs, and to help employers find and retain skilled employees.

Center for Women & Enterprise

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning Center in Worcester will be a one-stop location for women entrepreneurs to access free technology resources and to receive technology programs and services. The project will duplicate existing results from similar projects in Providence and Boston, by installing a Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning Center in the office in Worcester, Massachusetts. Expanding reach in Worcester will increase the CWE's capacity to provide educational and training opportunities to underserved women, helping them to realize their dreams of economic self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship.

New York

The Academy for Career Development, Inc.

Through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, the Academy for Career Development hopes to connect the pre-existing Community Technology Centers to the distance-learning network, and provide underserved neighborhoods and families with the Fundamental Computer Skills Training needed in today's job market.

Henry Street Settlement

The project will build on the successful outcomes of past Microsoft grants in support of our ATTAIN Computer Lab. The lab offers a series of free, instructor-led basic computer skills and Microsoft Office classes for the community. Classes in intermediate/advanced skills are also available, as is preparation for the Microsoft Office certification exam. ATTAIN uses the Microsoft Digital Literacy and Unlimited Potential curricula. The Henry Street Settlement serves the Lower East side community of New York by bridging the digital divide and providing access to core training and employment services to improve the lives of members of our community.

Madison Square Boys & Girls Club

A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help Madison Square Boys & Girls Club recruit and retain qualified staff, enhance basic computer skills, and increase the number of participants served with additional hours of technology instruction each week. Madison also plans to host a periodic special event called TechFest (a virtual technology fair) where participants will demonstrate their newly-acquired skills. Having strong entry-level skills prepares Club participants for employment in the technology-driven workforce, resulting in economic sustainability and enhanced quality of life.

Per Scholas, Inc.

Funding from Microsoft Unlimited Potential will enable Per Scholas to open a new training center in Brooklyn and to enhance the existing Computer Technician Training Program. The Per Scholas training program will provide tuition-free, industry specific vocational training; life skills; and support services that prepare unemployed and under-employed adults for lucrative careers in the field of information technology.

Year Up New York City

With the support of Microsoft, Year Up will make a lasting and meaningful impact on the lives of young adults. The Microsoft donation will support the continued education of students' academic experience at Year Up NYC. As Year Up NYC expands the number of students it serves, the quality of academic programming and curriculum must meet current IT industry standards and practices. Year UP NYC prepares its students for success at their corporate apprenticeships.

NPower NY

This grant from Microsoft Unlimited Potential will support the Technology Service Corps program, run by NPower NY. This program supports the technical training of innovative young New Yorkers who, upon graduation, seek promising careers in the IT field, and it provides local nonprofits with highly skilled and enthusiastic talent.

North Carolina

Iredell Statesville Community Enrichment Corporation

A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant enabled the Iredell Community Technology Institute’s CTLC to open lab number 4, run in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Piedmont. Low-income and underserved communities are benefitting from the training designed to prepare students to meet future the job market demands with a special emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, coupled by robust tools that include the Unlimited Potential curriculum and basic computer skills.

Rhode Island

Year Up Providence

This is a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant. Year Up is ready to complete phase two of its strategic plan, in which students will receive full-time training in development technical skills, professional skills, and communication skills. Staff advisors and volunteer mentors are available to support and provide guidance in the successful completion of courses to enable entry-level work in desktop support and help desk roles.

Washington, DC

Year Up, Washington, D.C.

At the Year UP program in Washington, D.C., the number of students has increased and the infrastructure has been upgraded with additional hardware. With support from Microsoft in accessing software and training for Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, and other products, Year UP will incorporate these new technologies into its curriculum and provide its students with a solid head start.

American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)

As a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential funded program, the AAPD Federal IT Internship Program is designed to enhance students' skills and interest in IT careers and increase placement in IT jobs for interns who complete the program, demonstrating to prospective employers that students with disabilities are solid workforce prospects.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation

Through the partnership between Microsoft Unlimited Potential and the AARP Foundation, the technology skills gaps of the older adult population will be addressed and pilot projects in Seattle and New York will start to resolve barriers that prevent older workers from achieving success in the workplace and at home.

West Virginia

Mission West Virginia, Inc.

The Build It, Keep It, Share It Program (BIKISI) received a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant to support education in underserved and unemployed local communities. Without Microsoft support, Mission West Virginia would not be able to fund training in Digital Literacy. With more than 1,500 people having received their Digital Literacy certificates in the last year alone, this program provides a beneficial training opportunity for local residents.

Asia

Australia

Yarnteen Ltd

The second year of Yarnteen's Indigenous Youth Futures (IYF) project will train 4,700 people and benefit 20,000 other individuals through 260 community technology centers . IYF training involves the creative use of technology in a program that offers young aboriginal women and men job opportunities while fostering cultural pride. IYF provides mentoring to encourage a strong sense of personal empowerment and the best chance of long-term employment outcomes. The ultimate goal of IYF is to help narrow the gap between the 32.7 percent unemployment rate for indigenous youth (age 15–24) and the general population’s unemployment rate of 12.8 percent.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh Friendship Education Society

Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (BFES) seeks to bring IT skills training to rural communities, especially to youth and women, to increase their job prospects at an expanding number of telecenters, various government entities, and private enterprises in Bangladesh and abroad. The project will facilitate micro-credit for trainees to encourage them to start IT-based entrepreneurial ventures to generate income and further employment. This project will train 6,600 people and indirectly benefit 13,000 over three years through 10 community technology learning centers.

Asia

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) will open three community technology centers (CTC) in the cities of Wenchuan and Deyang, near the epicenter of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, to help disaster-stricken families rebuild their livelihood through IT skills training and micro-credit programs. CFPA will establish an information network focused on reconstruction, agricultural technology, market information, and job opportunity. The program will also encourage communities to take a positive and active role in the market, such as starting their own small businesses, while preserving traditional industry to alleviate poverty. CTCs and CTC vans will train 3,100 people and benefit 40,000 others in the next year, raising the total to 8,600 people trained and 100,000 people benefited in two years.

Fuping Development Institute

Fuping Development Institute (FDI) will establish two community technology learning centers (CTLC) near the 2008 earthquake epicenter in Wenchuan County and Dayi County in the Sichuan Province, as well as four centers in villages adjoining Gansu Province. The six CTLCs will train people to apply IT skills to develop small eco-agriculture and eco-tourism businesses to alleviate poverty and to help in reconstruction. The two main target groups include community leaders, with the goal of enabling them to provide better service and information to the public; and young adults, most of whom seek jobs in nearby big cities like Chengdu. IT skills training will enhance their employment opportunities, enabling them to return part of their income to their affected hometowns. In Gansu, Fuping will work in four poverty-stricken and severely damaged villages to establish smaller CTLCs, each with 15 computers. The Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Reduction of Gansu Province selected these villages as part of reconstruction and poverty alleviation pilot programs. Approximately 8,700 people will be trained within the two-year program, and 100,000 community residents will benefit from the information services and access to the CTLCs.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

The Hong Kong Council of Social Services (HKCSS) will be the principal grantee and partner with four sub-grantees to set up seven community technology learning centers (CTLC) to drive workforce development and strengthen nongovernmental organization IT capacity in Hong Kong. HKCSS continues to be the key trusted advisor to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on policy issues related to the social welfare sector. The targeted beneficiaries of this grant are unemployed youth aged 15–25, who are not enrolled in full-time education; unemployed and low income adults aged 25 and above with low skill and education levels; new arrivals from mainland China; and migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. Building on the success of previous Community Technology Skills Program (CTSP) grants, this project will train 16,400 people over the three-year period, with 5,100 people trained in the first year. Approximately 19,000 people could benefit from using the IT facilities over three years. Supporting services include job skills training, counseling, job matching, employment, and referral. Hotline and helpdesk services are also provided.

India

Aide et Action

Aide et Action is an international development organization working in India to improve general living conditions of rural and urban communities by supporting integrated development projects. iLead, the flagship program, offers market-oriented training in new and emerging occupations to educationally and economically marginalized, vulnerable youth between 18 and 25 years of age. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will strengthen the basic IT skills training component of the program and help train 54,180 youth at 82 iLead centers and benefit an additional 108,360 youth over a three-year period. Of those trained, 80 percent are targeted to be placed in jobs in the expanding sectors of the economy, such as IT-enabled services, retail, customer relations, and hospitality.

CAP Foundation

The CAP Foundation’s mission is to build safer, healthier, and more productive communities of young people capable of supporting self-directed growth and positive citizenship. The grant will support an innovative approach to improve training and employment opportunities for youth from underprivileged backgrounds, including unskilled and semi-skilled workers, traditional artisans and craftspeople, people with disabilities, and refugees. The project offers participants IT skills, life skills, and technical skills in the form of e-learning modules delivered over the Internet. A total of 36,000 people will be trained over three years at 30 community technology learning centers (CTLC) in 12 states in India. Seventy-five percent of the CTLC graduates are targeted to be placed in jobs. Beyond those receiving the training, the project will also benefit another 40,000 individuals from underserved segments.

Mahila SEWA Trust

The goal of Mahila SEWA Trust is to organize poor women who work in the informal sector of the economy to achieve full employment and self-reliance. With the help of a Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP) grant, in 2005 SEWA set up 50 community technology learning centers (CTLC) in Gujarat state to train women and rural communities in IT skills. The second phase of this grant will support 10 of the existing CTLCs and promote IT microenterprises to help these businesses become financially sustainable. A total of 3,000 people will be trained over one year and connections with recruiters will be strengthened to help place the trainees in jobs. Another 7,000 people are expected to benefit indirectly.

Japan

The National Council of Women's Centers

This National Council of Women's Centers (NCWC) project, the third phase of the Nationwide Unlimited Potential (UP) program, seeks to promote self-sustainability for disadvantaged women by enhancing their employability through IT skills training and employment support. The project, implemented in 2006, involves 36 member centers of NCWC as community technology learning centers in 29 cities throughout Japan. To achieve a national scale, the project benefits 34 centers and 90 women's support organizations. This new phase adds rural women and unemployed young women to its target population, and enhances the partnership with local government, businesses, and other related organizations. Approximately 800 disadvantaged women are expected to be trained in the first year, with 25,150 more women benefitting from the program. After three years, this project could train a total of 5,440 women and benefit 63,450 women.

Malaysia

Yayasan Salam Malaysia

The focus of this grant is employability and entrepreneurship for underserved women and youth. Yayasan Salam Malaysia currently has 10 Community Technology Centers funded and will develop nine more within the next few years to help train 1,500 people and benefit 4,000 others. The women will be provided job opportunities with specific project partners or will become entrepreneurs. The youth will venture into targeted IT businesses to help develop the communities in which they live. The Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Development is a project partner.

YWCA Kuala Lumpur

Building on the success of prior grants, the Young Women's Christian Organization (YWCA) of Malaysia remains committed to providing information and communications technology skills training to underserved women and improving their employability potential. This grant will train 120 women and benefit 300 more in the first year. By the end of three years, the project will have trained a total of 1,025 women, and benefited another 900 women through five community technology learning centers. The YWCA has a proven track record of assisting their vocational training graduates in finding jobs; their job placement target is 60 to 80 percent. This grant will provide more formal arrangements with an increased number of potential employers within relevant industries targeted in the YWCA training.

New Zealand

2020 Communications Trust

2020 Communications Trust has been working to provide New Zealand families in low-income communities with the necessary computer skills to support their children's learning, empower parents to become active participants in the online world, and eliminate social, geographic, and economic exclusion. This grant will fund a program to train and subsequently mentor 4,800 adults in information and communications technology and benefit 9,600 more in eight cities and towns throughout New Zealand. The project will support eight community technology learning centers (in the first year of this three-year grant) and eventually contribute to the establishment of twelve new CTLCs in three years.

Philippines

Visayan Forum Foundation

This three-year grant will help fund the expansion of the STEP-UP (Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons through Unlimited Potential) program, originally launched in 2006. The program will establish 30 additional community technology learning centers (CTLC) throughout the Philippines, particularly in the war-torn Mindanao area, with the additional focus on entrepreneurship training and microfinance for the existing 25 CTLCs. The objective is to prepare beneficiaries for the workforce and give them better economic opportunities. Furthermore, Visayan Forum Foundation will work with the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, the top HR association in the Philippines, for additional employability courses and possible internships for the trainees. The project aims to train 41,100 people and reach 205,500 people from 2009 through 2012.

Republic of Korea

Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers

The Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers pilot project focuses on IT education for seniors (aged 55 and above), including the Senior Online Business Start-up Academy courses in entrepreneurship and how to set up online businesses. The 10-week courses will also help trainees network and share their IT business best practices and experience. The project will establish five new community technology learning centers to train 250 people and benefit 1,000 people in one year.

Young Professionals Institute of Korea

The Dare to Dream - Entrepreneurship and IT Education for North Korean Refugee Youth project will provide entrepreneurship and IT skills training to North Korean refugee youth and their families living in South Korea. More than half of the young students have difficulty in securing employment due to dropping out of school and/or lack of necessary job-related skills. Microsoft Korea is the first company in Korea to support the IT skills education of the refugee population. This project will reach 3,640 people over three years through three new community technology learning centers established near Seoul.

Singapore

RSVP Singapore -The Organization of Senior Volunteers

In Singapore, the market size of the aging population (people aged 45 to 70) is close to 1 million, about 22 percent of the total population. Empowering seniors with IT skills to enhance their employability is aligned with the Singapore government's call to have seniors work as long as they can. To achieve this goal, seniors must keep their skills up to date and relevant to the market needs. The government has also provided incentives and schemes to encourage companies to employ seniors. This grant will enable RSVP to provide training to seniors who have few or no IT skills. Over three years, RSVP aims to train 3,000 seniors and benefit 6,000 other seniors. RSVP will also work closely with the Work Development Agency, the government agency that oversees industrial certification, to have the IT program certified.

Sri Lanka

InfoShare (Guarantee) Ltd.

InfoShare aims to help people who are working for social change by providing them with the technology, tools, support, and skills they need to have a greater impact. Building on the success of a previous grant, this grant will fund the development of an industry-specific information and communications technology skills curriculum for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. This workforce development project is an extension of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential project and is aimed at building on the existing infrastructure, training centers, and industry ties to address skills deficiencies in the BPO sector. InfoShare will also focus on developing public private partnerships for skills training programs, and on job training and job placement for youth engaged in these industries. The project is targeted at underprivileged rural youth and will train 8,100 people and reach 16,200 people over three years.

Taiwan

Electronic Commerce Business Association

Building on prior grants, the grant to Electronic Commerce Business Association (ECBA) supports the second phase of the successful Women UP program focused on the employability and entrepreneurship of adult women, also known as Women UP 2.0. This project is designed to support the government’s goal of increasing employability opportunities for women with 100,000 new jobs for women in the next four years. Women UP 2.0 aims to increase women's employment opportunities in nonprofit organizations under the government's employment programs, and to improve their knowledge and skills in information and communications technology (ICT). Another program objective is to provide an alternative ICT training module focused on entrepreneurship skills for women who want to start their own businesses and apply for the government's micro-loan support. In the first year of this project, 1,200 people will be trained and 16,200 people reached in remote communities nationwide. At the end of three years, a total of 51,800 people could be reached.

Thailand

Kenan Foundation Asia

The Kenan Foundation Asia project, Building Employability Through Technology and Entrepreneurship Resources (BETTER), is based on building information and communications technology and entrepreneurship skills for high-demand jobs in Thailand. The project will be piloted in 20 centers in 20 provinces over three years and will be expanded nationwide. In all, the project will train 40,230 people and reach about 107,540 people.

Europe

Austria

Oesterreichische Caritas-Zentrale

As many as 200,000 socially disadvantaged Austrian women live in poverty and are unlikely to be able to afford a computer or learn basic technology skills. IT skill training has the potential to help these women enter the labor market. Through the Caritas-Microsoft Computer-Alphabet for Women project (whose mission is to help marginalized individuals improve their lives), new opportunities for women in social need are being created in Vienna, Styria, and Burgenland. Funding from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will continue to support the Computer-Alphabet project in partnership with the Austrian Labor Market Service’s Ministry for Women and Fujitsu-Siemens. In 2009, 220 women will be trained and a new "computer-kiosk" will enable an additional 2,000 individuals and job seekers to benefit.

Belgium

UP-DoIT Partnership

Eight percent of women in Belgium between the ages of 25 and 49 are unemployed. Of these women, the non-European residents have a much higher unemployment rate than their European counterparts. In response to growing issues of immigrant social exclusion and long-term immigrant unemployment, eleven organizations united in 2006 under the Do It initiative to offer programs in both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking regions of Belgium. Through their combined training resources and network of over 70 community technology centers around the country, the project, led by Interface 3, will provide IT skills training to an additional 3,500 people in 2009. This is the sixth year that Microsoft Unlimited Potential has supported this successful program with funding, curriculum, and software.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Research and Organizational Development Association

The Research and Organizational Development Association (RODA) is implementing a Computer Literacy for Social Inclusion project that addresses the need for computer literacy among the underserved in Bosnian society. RODA’s mission is to develop and increase the technology skills of citizens for active participation in the knowledge economy. With Microsoft funding, RODA will work over the next year to decrease the number of unemployed people in Canton Sarajevo by helping the most vulnerable social groups improve IT skills and increase their competiveness in the labor force.

Bulgaria

iCentres Association

The iCentres Association in Bulgaria is working hard to make its workforce competitive by spreading digital literacy throughout the population. Through the iCentres project, training in core IT skills is provided to a broad set of target groups in Bulgaria with particular focus on the unemployed and disabled. This project, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, builds upon the successful training of more than 58,000 people in basic technology skills and English. ICentres relies on a national network of more than 115 telecenters established through collaboration with the Bulgarian Government, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Microsoft. The project uses the localized Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning curriculum and the latest tools in distance education to train more than 300 trainers and 19,000 disadvantaged citizens. The ICentres network is anticipated to grow to 180 centers in the next year.

Czech Republic

Charta 77 Foundation

The Czech Republic has made positive strides in creating an information technology in the economy over the past years. Despite improvements, there are still a significant number of socially or economically disadvantaged communities that have very limited access to information technology or the skills to use it well. The Charta 77 Foundation’s PCs Against Barriers program provides socially excluded citizens, such as people with disabilities or the elderly, with information and communications technology skills and infrastructure to improve their economic and social opportunities. Building on a strong and long-term cooperation, Charta 77 and Microsoft will extend the PCs Against Barriers effort by creating a network of additional community technology centers (CTCs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to train a broader portion of the community. This project aims to train more than 10,000 people in the next three years with 36 NGOs as active participants in the network.

Denmark

Foreningen Nydansker

The Association for New Danes' (FND) overall purpose is to aid new Danes, or recently settled immigrants in four Copenhagen suburbs, to integrate into the labor market. In spite of an excellent social welfare system, this group does not currently benefit from information and communications technology skills training in their community. FND will work in close collaboration with Red Cross Youth and KAB (an umbrella nongovernmental organization for social housing areas in the Copenhagen area that provides the training premises in all suburbs). Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will support training of master trainers who will train volunteer trainers at the four centers. Trainees will also receive specific job-searching skills and, where feasible, mentoring support to improve their prospects for entering the job market. FND’s goal is to expand from 4 to 30 training centers.

Estonia

Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Estonia still confronts challenges in matching skilled talent to employers' needs. Young graduates, even after finishing university studies, often lack the expertise that companies seek. As a result, unemployment among young people is exceptionally high. The Estonian Chamber of Commerce is acutely aware of this problem and focuses on supporting training that will result in more jobs for new graduates. In cooperation with the State Labor Market Board, the Chamber is sponsoring IT training for graduates who need additional skills to secure employment. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the program will extend training to disadvantaged students, ensuring that the opportunities provided are available to those who most need additional support to get ahead in the knowledge economy.

Finland

Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities

In Finland, 10 percent of the people have a disability that hampers their everyday life, and only 17 percent of these people are employed. The ARGOW project in Finland is successfully demonstrating how creative solutions and combined resources can significantly reduce the digital divide's effect on people with disabilities. ARGOW unites four national nongovernmental organizations that represent people with disabilities: the Finnish Association of People with Mobility Disabilities, the Finnish MS Society, the Kynnysry/Threshold Association, and the Finnish Federation for the Visually Impaired. Through an innovative mobile classroom and a network of 37 community learning centers, the project aims to train 5,000 people with disabilities in IT skills and to reach people in the most remote areas of the country. This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide funding for a train-the-trainers program and will provide guidance to disabled youth through training, education, and employment.

France

Association pour le Droit à L'Initiative Économique

Founded in 1989 by Maria Novak, ADIE(Association pour le droit à l'initiative économique) has helped establish over 35,000 small businesses in France. Microsoft and ADIE implemented a training program, L'informatique en 3 Clics, for micro-entrepreneurs to develop a basic command over IT tools and to acquire the necessary skills for their jobs. After three years, the program has become an integral part of the support services ADIE provides its clients, and an additional 1,200 people will be trained in 43 centers around France in 2009. Through the training, small-business owners learn to produce professional-quality quotes and invoices, streamline their communications with clients and vendors, and use the Internet for tasks such as inventory control and Web site development. Microsoft will continue to support the project in 2009.

Agence Nouvelle des Solidarités Actives

ANSA was founded in 2006 to reduce poverty in France and to combat social exclusion. ANSA is currently active in 17 regions and aims to create employment opportunities for disadvantaged populations through technology skills training conducted in collaboration with community and municipal organizations throughout the country. ANSA activities are fully integrated in the government's program to foster employability and promote increased social inclusion. Now entering the second year of Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the program will build upon six initiatives linked to new technologies being developed with local government. These activities range from computer refurbishment, training, and work experience for the unemployed. The most effective measures in helping people find employment will be adopted and replicated at the national level.

Association Emmaüs

Established in 1953, Emmaüs is a nongovernmental organization renowned throughout France for its work combating social exclusion and improving the lives of the poor and homeless. With 40 centers across the Paris region, Emmaüs has developed daily care centers, temporary accommodation, and housing facilities, as well as literacy training, health care, food, and programs for young people and families. In 2003, Microsoft France and Emmaüs began a partnership to open a computer-learning center in one of the Emmaüs centers in Paris. The center provides free and continuous public access and offers basic technology skills training, assistance in finding jobs, and guidance on administrative paperwork. Microsoft has since worked in partnership with Emmaüs to open 14 new community technology centers supported by volunteer trainers at Emmaüs centers around the Paris area. The project’s 2009 goal is to create six new centers and train 3,000 people.

Germany

IT Bildungsnetz e.V.

In November 2006, Bill Gates, along with the Federal Minister for Economics and Technology, officially launched the IT Fitness Initiative in Germany. This cross-industry initiative—which is led by Microsoft and managed by Bildungsnetz (IT Education Net)—aims to provide IT skills training to 4 million unemployed and disadvantaged people in Germany by 2010. Now in the second phase of implementation, IT Fitness will broaden training offerings to benefit nongovernmental organizations in Germany that serve disadvantaged individuals from migrant or unemployed backgrounds, helping them to find work, retain a job, or transition to a new job. In 2009, through a partnership with Caritas Germany, a network of 50 training centers will be equipped and trainers trained to provide the necessary e-skills to help marginalized job seekers reintegrate the workforce. The training model will also include an online learning framework for classroom needs to help track progress and certification and help scale the training to other centers over time.

Greece

Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society

To assist new immigrants and the unemployed in Greece, the Hellenic Professionals Informatics Society(HePIS) and Microsoft are working together to bring IT skills training to several communities throughout the country. By providing digital literacy in collaboration with other partners and municipalities, this project seeks to train more than 780 people and provide basic skills to several additional community members in the next two years. Unlimited Potential centers will offer immigrants free training seminars and certification based on the European Computer Drivers License standard on the use of computers.

Hungary

Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation

The Nonprofit Information and Training Centre Foundation (NIOK), an umbrella entity for 20 member organizations of the countrywide Civil Centre Service Center network (CISZOK), with publicly available computer centers in every Hungarian county, is in a unique position to remedy the problem of digital exclusion in Hungary. Serving as an advisor to Hungarian nongovernmental organizations and coupled with CISZOKs, NIOK provides support for a countrywide basic IT skills training program. Over the past two years of this program, training courses have been in extremely high demand, especially in rural areas. With Microsoft support, over the life of this three-year project, approximately 20,000 people will be reached.

Ireland

Digital Communities

Inner city Dublin has long been associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and long-term unemployment. Through an initiative supported by the Dublin City Council and the Dublin Institute of Technology, a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will provide support to the Digital Communities program. This program offers high quality IT skills training and employer-recognized accreditation to young people, adults, and immigrants at 25 community technology centers throughout the inner city and disadvantaged suburbs of Dublin. The largest program of its kind in Ireland, the Digital Communities program will expand to five additional centers and offer training through accredited courses to another 1,100 people to provide them with the valuable skills they need to find employment.

Enable Ireland

The Enable Ireland partnership with Microsoft began in 2000 and continues to work to bring technology to people with disabilities in a country where almost 70 percent of those with disabilities are unemployed. In 2007, the first national assistive technology training center in the country was launched by Enable Ireland with the endorsement of the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment. In 2009, Enable Ireland will continue to offer assistive technology training to more than 700 people per year and benefit 3,500 others. It will also act as a training hub for other centers around the country. The establishment of this center will improve the reach of assistive technology, help empower and promote the independence of trainees, and promote awareness among potential employers for both social and economic inclusion. The partnership has been recognized by a number of CSR awards over the last few years and most recently was identified by Business in the Community as a case study of outstanding practice. Enable Ireland was also nominated in 2008 as a finalist by the EU e-inclusion program for their accessibility work.

Italy

Fast Track to IT

Across the religious divide in disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland, technology is playing a key role in bringing women together to help them enter the labor market. Only 58 percent of women are employed in Northern Ireland. Through the Fast Track to IT (FIT) training initiative that has been successfully running in the Republic of Ireland for several years, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will extend the program in Northern Ireland in six new areas. FIT is working with local nongovernmental organizations and government agencies to replicate their training model, targeting long-term unemployed in community technology centers and training institutions across Northern Ireland. The 2009 grant will ensure training for approximately 1,000 long-term unemployed and improve their opportunities for employment.

Associazione degli Interessi Metropolitani

In Italy and across Europe, there is a large population of aging citizens, and organizations are working to eliminate the digital divide that can result when older citizens lack IT skills and knowledge. Through its Internet Saloons in Milan and Venice, AIM provides seniors with basic IT skills training to help them participate in the information society. When surveyed, past program participants indicated that IT skills training made daily living easier, enabling them to do things such as shop and bank online. Now in its sixth year of sustained funding from the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, the training has been very popular. With this new grant, AIM will train 6,500 people in 2009. Building on its success to date, the Internet Saloon will also offer training to other underserved groups such as people seeking employment and women.

Coordinamento Nazionale delle Comunità di Accoglienza

Disadvantaged people who receive technology skills training have a better chance of entering the job market as well as improved social opportunities. CNCA(Coordinamento Nazionale delle Comunità di Accoglienza) is a federation that coordinates the work of more than 250 associations in communities throughout Italy. These associations assist people burdened by poverty and inequality by helping them to integrate into mainstream society. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant for 2009 will support the expansion of this program to 40 centers and will continue to train people in remote locations by using teachers who travel with computers. The continued partnership with the Adecco Foundation will provide valuable support, mentoring and technology skills training for women to improve opportunities for employment.

Fondazione Mondo Digitale

Immigration is an important trend in Western Europe and particularly in Italy, where most of the 3 million migrants arrived in the last decade. Support services are not always ideally adapted to help migrants secure employment or training tailored to their needs. In 2009, through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, Fondazione Mondo Digitale will implement a customized digital literacy training program to help refugees and asylum seekers, hosted by the Municipality of Rome at the Aeneas refugee center, to acquire the necessary technology skills to find a job. Closely supported by the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Job Orientation Center of the Municipality of Rome, 400 migrants will receive end-to-end support through language and technology skills training, legal advice, personal training, and health care assistance to better assure their autonomy and employment prospects when starting their new lives in Italy.

Latvia

Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association

The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association's (LIKTA) Latvia@World project seeks to enable each member of the community throughout Latvia to benefit from information technologies and the new knowledge economy. Microsoft, the Latvian government, municipalities, and other IT industry members have supported the effort to help people overcome the digital divide and social exclusion through basic IT skills training, and to promote access to public and private business services available on the Internet. The project will focus training on small business entrepreneurs and strengthening the self-sustaining network of community technology centers to reach 45,000 people over the next three years. An e-certificate, issued by LIKTA and the Secretariat of E-Government Affairs, will be provided to promote state level e-skills program development.

Association of People with Disabilities and Their Friends APEIRONS

Only about 10 percent of Latvia’s disabled population is employed. The Association of People with Disabilities and Their Friends' (APEIRONS) Open Door project aims to create educational, employment, and social opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled young people and adults through free computer access, increased computer literacy, and IT skills development. APEIRONS cooperates with partners and supporters in all regions of Latvia, including local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the country's largest technology association, LIKTA, to ensure IT training meets everyone’s needs. APEIRONS manages an E-accessibility Center that provides training and consulting on-site, by phone, and by e-mail to both direct beneficiaries and people and organizations that work with the disabled. This year, together with Microsoft and other partners, APEIRONS will develop online training to provide broader opportunity for disabled people to socialize, develop confidence in their IT skills, and find work.

Lithuania

Association "Langas i Ateiti" and Window to the Future

The Lithuanian information and knowledge economy has developed rapidly in recent years. However, more than half of Lithuania's population does not have access or the skills to use technology. The mission of Window to the Future (W2F) is to help bridge the digital divide by promoting the use of the Internet to stimulate economic growth and improve the standard of living of Lithuanians. The project focus under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program is to empower people to use technology to acquire the information to compete in the labor market. It is anticipated that over 20,000 Lithuanians will benefit from this project in 2009.

Luxembourg

Fondation Caritas Luxembourg

Caritas, supported by Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding for the past five years provides asylum seekers and long-term unemployed in Luxembourg with computer and Internet access, and IT skills training through four community technology centers. The aim of this program is to minimize the digital divide and the isolation many experience when they are disconnected from their communities and to provide them with the technology skills required to find employment. In addition to receiving basic IT training, beneficiaries can access public information resources, search for a job online and communicate with family in their home countries. Through the additional support of Employability Alliance partners State Street and Randstad, a job workshop provides essential knowledge to find employment. The Caritas program has trained more than 1,000 people since 2006 and benefited many more.

Malta

Community Empowerment Organization

The Community Empowerment Organization (CEO) focuses on increasing accessibility to technology and technology training among audiences in Malta that shy away from the use of technology and who, due to their economic, physical, or social status, do not use technology to its full potential. The organization gives particular attention to people with disabilities, women, the elderly, and other people who are at risk of being excluded from the information society. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) CEO has organized 10 community technology centers together with NGOs in different localities in Malta and Gozo to offer the use of computers and Internet facilities and serve as training centers promoting IT literacy. In partnership with Microsoft and community organizations such as the Physically Handicapped Rehabilitation Fund (PHRF), participants learn basic IT skills that complement job counseling or other skills courses offered. In the next few years, CEO will continue to expand the program to support skills development throughout the country, with a goal of reaching an additional 10 communities and ensuring that all citizens have the opportunity to use IT for economic and social advancement.

Netherlands

Stichting Eigenwijks

In some Amsterdam suburbs, immigrants and their families make up nearly 60 percent of the population. Many do not speak Dutch and do not have marketable skills, which creates high unemployment and increases the isolation of this population. The DubbelKlik (or Double Click) program addresses these issues by training volunteers from immigrant organizations to help people in their community acquire technology skills. Microsoft has funded the program for five years. Its 2009 Unlimited Potential grant will help the project expand to new community technology centers around Amsterdam working in collaboration with local governments, and to two new cities working in tandem with town municipalities. The program allows people with little education and knowledge of Dutch to master technology basics and new language skills. In 2009, the project will train approximately 750 people in community technology centers.

Norway

Seniornett Norway

Norway has a rapidly aging population that is at risk of becoming isolated with no IT knowledge. The mission of Seniornett is to connect seniors to the information society and provide those who are still employed with the necessary IT skills to help extend their working lives. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding and Microsoft software donations, Seniornett delivers a train-the-trainer program and will help create an additional 40 training clubs in 2009. Seniornett will also continue in their more recent in-company training initiative for those over 50 still in the workforce to ensure they master the IT tools and knowledge required to do their jobs. Working in partnership with the Norwegian pensioners association, Seniornett has a goal of establishing 500 training clubs throughout Norway by 2011. Over three years, using creative solutions such as a mobile classroom, the project will work to empower 5,000 Norwegian seniors to participate in the information society.

Poland

Foundation Supporting Physically Disabled Mathematicians and IT Specialists

Poland has undergone a great transformation over the last decade; almost half of all households are equipped with a computer today, but a significant digital gap must be addressed. In partnership with Microsoft, the Foundation Supporting Disabled Mathematicians and IT Specialists is bringing technology skills and knowledge to disadvantaged communities. The network of 404 "e-Centers" across Poland will provide free access to computers and the Internet, and a platform for life-long education through 51 e-learning courses and group training sessions. People all across Poland will gain access to quality content that will enable them to supplement knowledge or acquire new skills, including soft skills and vocational qualifications. In the first year of this project, more than 53,000 people finished IT e-learning training and other courses supporting vocational skills.

Portugal

Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential program has supported the Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industries (CITEVE) of Portugal, the technological arm of the textile industry, for four years in its initiative to help provide new skills to workers in the textile industry and those who have become unemployed due to the decline in the industry across Europe. The goal of this program is to empower individuals by providing IT skills training to help increase new employment prospects in a region where the textile industry has traditionally had a strong presence. Now in its fifth year of supporting the program, the 2009 Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help increase IT training and provide new skills to workers in other declining industries in Portugal—namely the metal, cork, ceramics, and glass industries. Supported by mobile training units, the initiative will contribute to creating economic prosperity in new regions of the country. The project, supported by town municipalities, regional employment agencies, and the Ministry of Work and Social Solidarity, demonstrated a successful 40 percent job placement rate in 2008 after the first two years of training.

Programa Escolhas

Helping disadvantaged youth in Portugal discover and broaden the choices available to them is the driving force behind Escolhas. Escolhas, also supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Commission for Refugees and Immigrants, provides technology skills training to youth in underserved areas of the country to help them become positive contributors to society and the economy. The training program is now available in 111 centers throughout Portugal and has trained more than 3,500 people in the first two years. Professional instructors for the train-the-trainer program ensure consistent and quality training in all centers. A strong focus on accreditation also helps prepare graduates for the job market. The 2009 Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will continue to fund the train-the-trainer program and the e-learning platform to support the trainers and centers.

Romania

Civitas Foundation for Civil Society

The Civitas Foundation for Civil Society, founded in 1992, was established to stimulate citizens’ involvement in decision-making and local governance, including human rights protection, civic education, and environmental protection. To advance its mission, Civitas has partnered with employers in the Transylvania region to identify job opportunities in the area, including projects like the Transylvania Autoroute and sectors like agro-tourism, wood processing, and construction. Twelve Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills centers, offering IT skills training and computer and Internet access, serve as places for meeting and learning, and centers to mobilize community members. Community members, particularly the youth, can acquire new skills and knowledge, learn of employment opportunities in the target sectors, and use the advantages of information technology to prosper.

Education for an Open Society Romania

Education for an Open Society (EOS) is a nonprofit organization that promotes an open society and sustainable development in Romania by helping young people acquire social and economic entrepreneurial skills and receive technology training. EOS helps the underserved identify job opportunities or improve their skills in jobs they already hold. This effort, now several years old, first provided IT access in disadvantaged areas at public centers. EOS then deployed trainers to centers to offer IT fundamentals courses. Now, through this new effort, EOS is assisting centers to adapt curricula and services to meet employers' requests. The Microsoft Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP) grant will expand the work initiated in three centers located in Timisoara and help connect another 35 centers in a national network of training centers across Romania. The grant is projected to provide training for 8,000 people in the next three years.

Russia

Project Harmony International Inc.

Improving economic opportunity for disadvantaged groups is a critical challenge for communities throughout the vast Russian Federation. The advantages that IT knowledge provides in competing for jobs and work-place advancement are especially valuable assets for those who want and need to improve their economic prospects in our increasingly knowledge-based economy. The Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) project, initiated by Project Harmony (PH) International and Microsoft Russia, brings e-skills training and support to underserved communities throughout the country, thereby changing the economic prospects for thousands of people who have not yet had access to the potential that technology offers. Through a network of locally hosted, supported, and committed IDEA Centers managed in partnership with libraries, universities, and other nonprofits, and with the support of regional and municipal authorities, IDEA learning centers provide critical e-skills to the communities. Every month, each center provides 26 hours of free training in Unlimited Potential curriculum and capacity-building themes designed to best suit the target population in that specific community, providing the most relevant trainings possible. Over the three-year program, the IDEA network has grown to 59 centers throughout Russia—many of them self-sustaining—and IDEA centers have trained more than 42,500 participants and benefited more than 207,000 people in Russia. In 2009, approximately 16,500 people will learn the skills necessary to increase their employability, and more than 70,000 will benefit from the project activities.

Serbia

International Aid Network

After more than a decade of economic and social decline, Serbia is now on the right path to join the EU and fully participate in the modern world. But the past has left a lot of scars on Serbian society. Thousands of refugees and internally displaced people still present major challenges, needing reintegration and services to help them become economically productive. The International Aid Network (IAN) in Serbia is working hard to educate refugees and other socially vulnerable groups, giving them a chance for a new beginning. IAN supports these individuals by teaching them to use information technologies and acquire other skills so that they can create new opportunities for themselves. By helping IAN in its education programs with software and donations, Microsoft is actively participating in creating opportunity for these people. IAN provides courses on computers, social skills, entrepreneurship, and the English language. More than 2,500 people have participated.

Slovakia

P-MAT

In Slovakia, digital literacy among people over 40 is low. These people are still of productive age, but within the larger economic transformation of the country, mastery of modern communication technologies has become critical to their economic vitality. The project 40UP helps people over the age of 40 improve their computer skills and use IT in their professional lives. New IT skills help these individuals overcome barriers that they encounter when looking for a new or better job. Courses organized by the nonprofit P-MAT, with the support of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential program, provide opportunity to learn basic or higher-level skills for using the Windows operating system, e-mail, the Internet, and the Microsoft Office system programs, and to work with digital photographs and video. The program trains approximately 3,700 participants per year.

Slovenia

The Youth Information and Counseling Center of Slovenia

The Youth Information and Counseling Center of Slovenia (MISSS), an accomplished youth development organization, focuses on promoting the social inclusion of the disenfranchised and underserved people. It has, through its unique approach, identified information technology skills as a way to help individuals and communities reach a new level of personal development. Through basic computer skills training efforts, MISSS raises the computer skills level and, consequently, the employability and social inclusion of the people it serves. This project seeks to train more than 3,500 people in three years across seven regions in Slovenia to improve employability of the underserved, including young unemployed, senior citizens, and immigrants from former Yugoslav republics. An additional 15,000 will benefit from access and services provided through the network of 11 centers across Slovenia.

Spain

Fundación Esplai

Connect Now is a national initiative in Spain driven by Fundacion Esplai that focuses on increasing digital literacy among the most disadvantaged social groups. The goal of this initiative is to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged people and to broaden the information society to all. The program reaches beneficiaries through an existing community technology center network and the school infrastructure. The project combines two programs. The first, Conecta e-inclusion, is a program for young people, women, and immigrants who are part of the Red Conecta network, which was running in 286 centers and associated networks across Spain by June 2008. The second, Young Conecta, is a program specifically for young people and is based on a service learning plan used in high schools. By successfully partnering with Microsoft Unlimited Potential, nongovernmental organizations, local government and national government, and by applying a consistent methodology for delivering quality IT skills training throughout the network, Connect Now made a strong impact with more than 157,000 people trained in the first three years. It is on track to train an additional 218,000 people over the next three years.

Switzerland

Association Joker

Everybody deserves another chance in life—which is what prompted the Joker Card project in Switzerland. In response to a high unemployment rate in the French-speaking Canton de Vaud, the federal government invited Microsoft, Association Arches, Caritas, Migros, and other organizations to support an initiative aimed at the social and economic integration of unemployed people in the region through a technology skills training program. An initial contribution from Microsoft supports a refurbished computer loan program to benefit the unemployed. In 2007, Microsoft funded a technology skills training program to help the unemployed, migrant, and disadvantaged youth gain the IT skills needed for the job market. In the second year of the project, work experience and job skills coaching were added, and a network of 11 relay centers or cybercafés provided an additional support network for the unemployed individuals. There are now more than 50 partners supporting the Joker Initiative.

Ukraine

Project Harmony International Inc.

The IDEA (Information Dissemination and Equal Access) Ukraine program partners with local nonprofits and regional employment agencies to build better job skills and employment prospects for thousands of low income, unemployed, or otherwise disadvantaged people. Project Harmony (PH) International will establish a network of 24 IDEA centers throughout Ukraine by 2011, reaching more than 28,500 people. Each of the centers will be hosted by an organization that is recognized in its region for its commitment to providing marginalized groups with job skills training, informational resource support and community collaboration. In addition to the Unlimited Potential curriculum, the centers will provide community-specific training in applications of technology; full Internet access (provided at the cost of the center); an array of workstations, scanners, and printers; and support from an educational coordinator. The centers will also cooperate closely with local social service groups, including the regional employment agency, to assist center beneficiaries to find work opportunities.

United Kingdom

Age Concern England

In Western Europe, there are limited workforce opportunities for unemployed people over 50. As a part of the Black Country project, Age Concern England’s (ACE) mission is to address unemployment in the Black Country region by supporting people older than 50 through a digital inclusion network, and by promoting micro-entrepreneurship through the PRIME initiative. The PRIME initiative is a charity linked to Age Concern, which strives to help those people older than 50 consider options for self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship. In supporting this goal, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will be used to run community workshops on self-employment and to ensure appropriate IT skills training is delivered. The program will help recruit mentors for potential micro-entrepreneurs and will track progress of people who are starting small businesses.

Black Country Consortium

The Black Country Consortium (BCC) project is a long-term commitment to help develop a stronger knowledge economy by improving the skills of the current labor force and providing basic skills to those unemployed in the Black Country. Through a network of 50 community technology centers, disadvantaged communities are receiving technology skills training in the Black Country region. The project, supported by Microsoft over the last three years, ultimately aims to enable job growth and sustained economic opportunity in this economically depressed region. BCC works closely with its many partners to promote skills training, economic opportunity, and employability across the region.

The Royal National Institute of the Blind

Seventy-five percent of blind and visually impaired people are unemployed in the United Kingdom. As part of the Black Country project, RNIB’s mission is to empower blind or partially sighted people to improve employment opportunities through IT skills training. In 2009, Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will support training trainers, making training centers accessible, and providing employer awareness training on disabilities in the workplace.

Latin America

Argentina

Fundación CDI Educacion Digital

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology to encourage active citizenship in low-income communities. CDI partners with community-based organizations to train local educators, who then provide IT training to underserved communities. Since it first partnered with CDI in 1999, Microsoft has helped CDI establish and expand its presence across Latin America through cash grants and software donations. In 2009, CDI expects to set up ten community technology centers with the Buenos Aires Government, one in Antarctica, and nine in other provinces, reaching over 8,500 individuals, including people with disabilities, homeless children, and indigenous populations.

Fundación Equidad

Fundación Equidad is a nongovernmental organization that promotes social equality and economic development through information and communications technology (ICT). Equidad's activities include providing ICT training to underserved communities while promoting best practices in the use of ICT for development. Microsoft first supported Equidad in 2004 to establish a community technology center in Buenos Aires, which provides IT and job skills to unemployed youth and adults, and again in 2006 with the "Reciclar" project. This new project, "Technology for the Work and Digital Education", is also a technology training program that aims to reach underserved communities. It provides recycled PCs (donated by companies and refurbished by young people) to other nonprofit organizations, which, in turn, use them for IT skills training. In addition to running computer-recycling workshops to train unemployed youth, and donating the computers to eligible organizations, Fundacion Equidad provides technical assistance to IT trainers from those organizations, using Microsoft curricula for digital literacy courses. Equidad intends to serve more than 300 community technology centers across Argentina in the next two years.

Brazil

Associação Telecentro de Informação e Negócios

The mission of the Associação Telecentro de Informação e Negócios (ATN) is to develop and make available tools, methods, and applications for telecenters to create a sustainable operating model. To accomplish this goal, ATN has developed a strong relationship with academic groups at the University of Brasilia, in particular with the Technology Development Center (CDT), to provide high-quality content and to train managers and instructors of 1,500 telecenters that belong to the Information and Business Telecenters Network.

Committee for Democracy in Information Technology

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology to encourage active citizenship in low-income communities. Through its Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools (ITCRS), CDI partners with community-based organizations to train local educators, who then provide IT training to underserved communities. Since it first partnered with CDI in 1999, Microsoft has helped CDI establish its presence throughout Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Colombia. This 2009 grant will be used to organize an annual meeting of the CDI Network to promote integration among the leaders. The goals are to exchange experiences and show best practices to strengthen the network and obtain better results. The event is expected to benefit 753 Technology and Civic Engagement Schools that serve 70,000 students from low-income communities per year and more than 130,000 people that access the centers for other services.

Comunitas - Parcerias para o Desenvolvimento Solidário

Comunitas is a nonprofit organization that strives to strengthen civil society and promote social development throughout Brazil. Since 2005, Microsoft has supported Comunitas to help strengthen its network of 52 community technology centers and to support an e-learning program. In 2007, Microsoft, in partnership with the city government of São Paulo, contributed to strengthening the Rede Jovem (Youth Network) project through support for five additional community technology centers in the city of São Paulo. In 2009, the Rede Jovem program will continue to serve underprivileged youth, providing them with the IT and job skills necessary to gain employment and become more competitive in the labor market. It is expected to reach more than 5,000 youth.

Fundacao Fundetec

Fundação Fundetec is a Brazilian nonprofit organization dedicated to improving living standards and social equality by using technology. The purpose of this project is to teach the beneficiaries how to refurbish computers, which will then be leased to low-income population and to public school teachers who do not have computers. With the mercantile leasing, the project aims to become self-sustainable, therefore generating resources for the maintenance and expansion of its activities. Because there is a large demand for qualified professionals to maintain and repair computers and printers, the project is dedicated to offering the participants improved possibilities of digital and professional inclusion by qualifying them for the job market. The beneficiaries also receive a monthly scholarship grant and are awarded a certificate upon completing the project's scheduled activities. In 2009, the organization expects to reach more than 2,000 people.

Instituto Ayrton Senna

Instituto Ayrton Senna (IAS) is a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities for underserved children, teenagers, and adults, to help them develop their potential as citizens and enter the modern workforce. This project, Comunidade Conectada ("Connected Community"), is part of a multi-year grant that has established five community technology centers throughout Brazil. The technology centers have been implemented in disadvantaged communities to promote citizenship and social development through the use of information and communications technology. With the continued support of Microsoft, IAS will strengthen the existing centers and will help other nongovernmental organizations effectively use the Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum. IAS expects to reach more than 80,000 individuals in 2009.

Instituto Crescer para Cidadania

Instituto Crescer para Cidadania develops social responsibility programs for companies and institutions The purpose of this project is to train instructors to better use the Microsoft curricula to support the Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (UP-CTSP). The project is intended to reach more than 1,000 people in 2009.

Oxigenio

Oxigenio is a nonprofit organization that promotes social inclusion by helping underserved and disadvantaged communities use information and communications technology to build and exercise social responsibility. The goal of the project is to train and benefit: 1,500 nongovernmental organizations, to multiply the Digital and Social Inclusion concept to other groups and organizations; 148 city governments, giving opportunities to low-income young people so that they can become part of their country's economic development in a productive and complete way; 15,000 Teachers/Multipliers, selected by organizations that were already trained; 978,000 young people, who will receive the knowledge reproduced by their teachers, so that they can also extend the digital inclusion concept to other young people.

Servas

The mission of Servas is to promote and implement programs and social projects, in partnership with public and private sectors, to improve the living conditions of the population in the State of Manas Gerais. With this project, Servas will recycle electronic waste, build computers from refurbished parts, and promote public policy and development of technologies that support reuse and recycling. The project will train 80 underserved in assembly and maintenance of the computers and donate the computers to increase digital inclusion.

Chile

Asociacion de Telecentros Activos de Chile A.G.

The Chilean Association of Active Telecenters (ATACH) uses information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the development of underserved communities. ATACH includes a network of 137 telecenters, and many of its partners have been pioneers in decreasing the digital divide in Chile. The purpose of the project is to provide information and communications technology skills for entrepreneurs, unemployed, and employed from different regions of Chile. In 2009, the goal is to train 5,000 men and women in 50 telecenters using Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum.

Columbia

Amici di Bambini

This project will create three community technology centers (CTC) to reach populations far from Columbia’s main cities that have been significantly affected by violence. During the first year, a CTC will be created in Granada; during the second, one will be created in Villavicencio; and during the third, one will be created in Chocó. These populations have few or no social and economic alternatives, and the youth are at risk of joining the illegal paramilitary groups. In 2009, the organization will benefit 1,030 people.

Fundacion Gaia Amazonas

This project will create Amazon Centers for Learning and Technology in the Amazon forest region of Colombia, to give indigenous populations access to technology, support their working activities, and preserve their culture. Gaia Amazonas, a Colombian nongovernmental organization, has been providing the indigenous people with legal, technical, and financial support for more than 15 years. Access to most communities is only possibly along the rivers in canoes with small outboard engines, so there is limited information and communications technology at the community level.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States, mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, government agencies, and academic institutions to reduce extreme poverty and to promote democracy in the Americas. The Mi Llave program trains displaced persons and demobilized soldiers in information and communications technology (ICT) and provides them with technical, entrepreneurial, and vocational training. With this grant, the Trust aims to establish one new community technology center in Medellín, for a total of 11 community technology centers in Columbia by the end of 2009. In 2009, the Trust expects to train at least 1,100 participants in ICT skills and civic education and have 11,000 potential users.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, government agencies, and academic institutions to reduce extreme poverty and to promote democracy in the Americas. Microsoft Unlimited Potential has partnered with The Trust for a regional project known as the Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA). With this grant, the Trust will open two new centers in Popayán and Pasto and strengthen the eight existing ones for a total of 10 in Columbia by the end of 2009. In 2009, the centers are expected to train at least 2,425 participants in information and communications technology and civic education and have 7,150 potential users.

Costa Rica

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills (CTS) support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust currently has one center in Costa Rica. With this new grant and the support of the US Department of Labor (DOL), the Trust will open two new centers by December 2009. The centers will train trainers in specific applications for people with disabilities, improve existing training materials or introduce new ones, and increase awareness among the government, local businesses, and universities on the condition of people with disabilities. The Trust expects to train 300 people have 2,000 potential users in 2009.

Dominican Republic

Fundación Taigüey

Fundación Taigüey is a nonprofit organization based in the rural village of La Ciénaga, in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. Its mission is to "promote, assess, implement, and/or guide social transformation processes at the community level, promoting participation and appropriated technologies." The Center of Excellence for Community Telecenter Sustainability and Social Impact project will contribute to the sustainable development of the poorest communities in the Dominican Southwest (the most impoverished and marginalized part of the country) by supporting its partners’ existing technology access centers (community telecenters). The organization intends to service 50 centers in 2009, reaching more than 25,000 people.

Ecuador

Fundacion Crisfe

Fundación Crisfe, established in 1994, seeks to finance projects that promote public access to quality educational services and adequate housing. This project, the Citizen's Beacon of Knowledge, will increase the technology skills training capacity of different provinces in Ecuador, through 38 community-based technology learning centers. In addition, Crisfe will provide training related to the small business sector to approximately 350 community members. Through its network of community technology centers, the organization expects to reach more than 45,000 individuals.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has established two community technology centers in 2007. Ecuador will have established one new center by December 2008 and a fourth one in 2009 to provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The project will reach more than 4,600 people in 2009.

El Salvador

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), it will establish one new community technology center in El Salvador by the end of 2009 for a total of seven CTCs created since the beginning of the program. Training will be offered to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The project will reach more than 8,000 people in 2009.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust will establish one new community technology center for a total of seven by the end of 2009 to provide information and communications technology (ICT) access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the general community. The center will train at least 1,050 people in ICT skills and civic education and will have 7,000 users. During 2009, POETA Guatemala will specifically address the needs of at-risk youth, who are highly susceptible to violence, exploitation, and crime as a result of poverty, lack of formal schooling, and the inability to find employment.

Guatemala

Asociación Agape de El Salvador

Agape Association of El Salvador helps the most vulnerable sectors of society improve their standard of living and make a positive contribution to the development of their environment. The purpose of this project is to contribute to the construction of a culture of peace in El Salvador by promoting labor training rights, employment, self- employment, and the development of skills. Agape Association expects to provide training for 1,440 people from the rural and poor urban zones in the Usulután department, in southeast El Salvador, to improve their competitiveness in the labor market.

Mexico

Cooperative for Education

Cooperative for Education (COED) is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in rural Guatemala by creating self-sustaining textbook, library, and computer center projects in impoverished community schools. It strives to improve both traditional and technological literacy and lay the cornerstones for greater economic development and empowerment. In 2009, COED will use Microsoft funding to establish six more computer technology centers with plans to reach more than 11,400 people. The centers will be located in community schools so as to maximize the use of each center. The centers will provide classes for students during the day and will be available for use by community members during evenings and weekends.

Asociación Promujer de México A.C.

Asociación Promujer de México is part of the ProMujer International network, a women's development organization whose mission is to provide Latin America's poorest women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-lending, business training, and health care support. ProMujer establishes sustainable microfinance institutions that offer credit and training programs geared to the needs of poor, undereducated women who operate a small business or would like to open one. Currently the organization serves approximately 15,000 women at more than 700 communal banks, covering more than 27 different communities in four different states (Hidalgo, Puebla, Queretaro, Estado de Mexico). ProMujer now offers basic IT skills to integrate female loan recipients into the modern economy and to give them new tools to improve their businesses. With Microsoft support, ProMujer will continue strengthening the six computer technology centers established in 2007 and 2008, and add three more centers.

Committee for Democracy in Information Technology MEXICO

The Committee for Democracy in Information Technology (CDI) is a nongovernmental organization that fosters social inclusion by promoting the use of information and communications technology. Through its Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools (ITCRS), CDI partners with community organizations to train local educators who then provide IT training to underserved communities. In 2004, Microsoft Unlimited Potential partnered with CDI Mexico to launch a new program called "Basic IT Skills for the Unemployed." This included a grant to establish 12 community technology centers (CTCs) that provided training to 5,280 people in 2004. In 2005 and 2006, Microsoft funded an initiative to strengthen CDI's activities in the state of Oaxaca and an initiative focusing on promoting digital inclusion in the community of Tlalpan ("CiberTlalpan"), one of the poorest districts in Mexico City. CDI and the district government partnered to develop 20 community technology centers. In addition to providing IT training, these CTCs serve as a space to train instructors, conduct computer refurbishing workshops, and provide technical assistance to other NGOs. This year, CDI will continue strengthening the existing CTCs and create six more.

Cemefi

Cemefi has fourteen community technology centers (CTCs) in four states of the Mexican Republic that provide technology access and training to disadvantaged people in rural and urban areas. In 2009, Cemefi will create four new CTCs and will strengthen four existing ones, through the support of local organizations, to build IT capacity, provide IT access for underserved communities, and improve their job opportunities. Cemefi will focus on the southeastern states of Mexico, one of the country’s poorest regions. In 2009, Cemefi will reach approximately 7,000 people using the existing and new CTCs.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft Unlimited Potential – Community Technology Skills (UP-CTS) support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has 10 community technology centers in Mexico in partnership with CECATI, Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud (IMJ), and Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey. They provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the greater community. With this funding, the Trust will establish three additional centers. The project will reach 18,000 people in 2009.

Panama

Movimiento Social y Cultural Nueva Generación

This project will promote the personal growth and development of young adults towards a secure and healthy life. They will receive basic and advanced training in information and communications technology to help them find a good job. The courses will be delivered in the community-based technology learning centers that the organization has in Chorrillo, Santa Ana, and Curundú. In 2009, the organization expects to reach more than 1,100 people.

Peru

Pro Mujer, Inc.

Pro Mujer Peru (PMP) is part of the Pro Mujer International network, a women's development organization whose mission is to provide Latin America's poorest women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-lending, business training, and health care support. PMP establishes sustainable microfinance institutions that offer credit and training programs that are geared to the needs of poor, undereducated women who either operate a small business or would like to open one. Currently, the organization serves about 43,600 women, covering more than 13 communities in southern Peru. PMP will offer basic IT skills to help integrate female loan recipients into the modern economy and, at the same time, allow them to share those new tools with other women's networks. With Microsoft support, PMP will establish one community technology center in Puno and expects to train more than 150 people and benefit 43,575 in 2009.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through support from Microsoft for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust currently has two community technology centers in Peru that provide information and communications technology access and training to people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and the greater community. With this grant, the Trust will open two additional centers by the end of 2009. The centers will train at least 600 participants in information and communications technology and civic education, and will have 3,400 users.

Puerto Rico

Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico

The Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico, with Microsoft funding, intends to develop a training program for young adults. One program goal is to train young adults and prepare them for employment. Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico expects to reach 3,300 youth in the first year.

Trinidad and Tobago

Servol

In 1994, Servol established three Hi Tech Centers to teach computer literacy. In the following years, with the help of Microsoft, Servol has established computer labs in its skill training centers, exposing more young people to computer literacy. With this grant, Servol will upgrade and expand the Barataria Hi Tech Center, one of the original centers built in 1994, to train young people so that they can compete in the job market and offer services in their communities. The organization expects to reach 450 people in 2009.

Uruguay

Fundación A Ganar

The A Ganar Unlimited Potential Youth Using Information Technology to Gain Employment Opportunities project will train youth in the essential IT skills needed to gain employment in today's market. The project is a key component of the A Ganar (Soccer and Team Sports Partnership Model for Youth Employment) program, which is based on the premise that team sports are an effective vehicle for developing the employability skills (teamwork, effective communication, respect, discipline, focus on results, and continued self-development) needed in today's global economy. A key project component is to equip youth with the essential IT skills needed to gain employment which, combined with other employability and technical skills, will open a door into the competitive job market. In 2009, the organization expects to reach about 400 youth.

Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo (ICD)

This project will foster social and economic development in Uruguay by promoting IT skills training in underserved communities. This initiative aims to eliminate the digital divide and promote social inclusion by training disadvantaged young in IT skills to help them find employment. The program will reach more than 2,000 people in this first.

Venezuela

A.C. Fundación Venezuela Sin Límites

The mission of Venezuela sin Límites is to channel resources efficiently to empower associated social development organizations in Venezuela. Through this grant, the organization intends to create a Web portal to bring the power of technology to social development organizations dedicated to improving the living conditions of people at risk and in situations of vulnerability and social exclusion. The Web portal, based on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform, is expected to enable effective collaboration of social development organizations, communities, and social allies. In 2009, the organization expects to connect and provide virtual service to 100 social partners in Venezuela and other Latin-American countries, more than 300 nongovernmental organizations registered for social development, between 300 and 400 volunteers, and approximately 350 other people who either contribute or benefit.

OPCION

The Community Component for Microentrepreneurs in Community Banking Programs project will teach technology skills to low-income individuals interested in starting or expanding a business. Although microfinance institutions or community banking programs offer the financial aid and promote capacity building workshops in management issues, this project will build knowledge and tools to help microenterprises grow their productivity and improve operations. In 2009, the project expects to reach more than 800 people.

The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas, a nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States (OAS), mobilizes resources from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to reduce extreme poverty and promote democracy in the Americas. Through Microsoft support for its regional program, Partnership for Opportunities in Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), the Trust has established three community technology centers in Venezuela that provide ICT access and training to people with disabilities, at risk youth, and the greater community. With this new grant, the Trust will open one new center by the end of 2009. The centers will train at least 600 people in information and communications technology and civic education, and will have 4,000 users.

Middle East and Africa

Bahrain

Bahrain Internet Society

This project will train Bahraini citizens to use technology as a means of communication and access to government services. The project will also improve the employability and career progression objectives of the average Bahraini citizen by training them in technology skills required in today’s job market. The project will train 2,000 Bahraini citizens in 2008 and 2009.

Cameroon

Association for Support to Women Entrepreneurs

The Association for Support to Women Entrepreneurs(ASAFE) is implementing an information and communications technology project to reduce poverty, increase literacy levels, improve livelihood, and narrow the IT gap between the developed world and Cameroon.

Egypt

Integrated Care Society

In Egypt, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) make up 98 percent of businesses and contribute significantly to the economy. Despite these figures, SMEs are faced with increasing challenges of competition, high costs, and sustainability. To address these challenges, Integrated Care Society (ICS) seeks to give young Egyptians the tools and knowledge to become productive members of society by helping them enhance their technology skills for the current job market, or by helping them establish their own small enterprises. This project is working to help 3,000 entrepreneurs own profitable and growing businesses. The impact of this project will help create new jobs. The project will reach 3,000 entrepreneurs and train more than 1,100 master trainers. The SME portal will provide entrepreneurs with the ability to access resources, collaborate, and provide support.

Neareast Foundation

Although progress has been made towards the empowerment of women in Egypt, women remain marginalized from participating fully in Egyptian society and the economy. This project aims to help women find employment through an intensive nine-month training program in IT, business, leadership, and English skills—core areas that employers are seeking in potential employees. This program is holistic and relevant, leaving beneficiaries equipped with a skill set that significantly enhances their employability, in particular through the work experience gained during the program. The program also provides women with the opportunities to establish their own business through micro-credit.

United Nations Development Program Egypt

This project is part of a national initiative to integrate information and communications technology (ICT) in micro, small, and medium enterprises (M/SME) to improve their productivity and efficiency. The failure rate of M/SMEs in Egypt is quite high: approximately 90 percent fail. The project provides 3,000 SMEs with training in the latest Microsoft technologies, making their businesses more efficient and competitive. It provides information and communications technology tools for M/SMEs through the development, upgrade, and localization of ICT curricula. The initiative and the project build on strong public-private partnerships that include the Ministry of Communication and IT, Ministry of Trade and Industries, Industry Modernization Center, Trade Chambers, a host of intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations, and private sector partners.

Gulf Region

Women in Technology and the Institute of International Education

Women in Technology (WIT) is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and implemented in collaboration with more than 50 local partners in nine countries/regions: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Since its inception in one country—Yemen—in 2005, and its near immediate success and tangible impact, WIT has continued to expand in the region over the past two and a half years, reaching more than 4,500 women to date, and will reach 10,000 by 2010. WIT is generously supported through funding from the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) of the U.S. Department of State, and by Microsoft through its Community Technology Skills Program. The primary goals of WIT are to:

» Provide substantial capacity building to partner organizations to expand their reach, sustainability, and ability to serve women. » Create a strong base of women with vital IT and professional development skills, allowing them to gain access to new careers and training opportunities. » Empower WIT participants to play an integral role in shaping their country's future.

Iraq

International Rescue Committee, Inc.

The International Rescue Committee program will provide Iraqi youth with accelerated learning opportunities which are designed to help them develop marketable information, computer, and technology skills, in addition to life, business, and work-readiness skills. This program will empower individuals, promote education, and foster local communities.

Israel

Tapuah

This project focuses on three underserved groups in Israeli society: new immigrants, Arabs, and ultra-orthodox Jews. The program includes training in basic computer skills, and also the life skills needed to successfully enter the work force and improve employability. It has the potential to decrease poverty and unemployment rates among the relevant communities and to empower them for the long-run.

Tapuah

This project will promote socioeconomic change and create job opportunities for young Arab women at risk. The project is based on a valuable partnership, including government ministry and other governmental units. With Microsoft involvement, it will be a three-sector partnership in which funding and other project input and elements are divided among the partners. Given this partnership, the project has potential for both sustainability and future expansion.

Tapuah

This project provides unemployed women the tools to improve their employment status. The project teaches IT skills relevant to the workforce (via the Unlimited Potential curriculum) and soft skills such as resume writing and online job searches, and it includes an empowerment workshop.

Tapuah

This project is based on a partner infrastructure of major players in the social arena in Israel meant to address Digital Inclusion (DI) challenges on a national level. It has been running successfully from FY06 with the involvement, funding, and collaboration of numerous nongovernmental organizations and partnerships with other private sector companies. The project has successfully addressed the DI needs of youth and children from different communities and sectors of Israeli society. It has evolved as a pilot for addressing DI issues on a national level—to be further examined in the future.

Jordan

International Youth Foundation

Microsoft will partner with World Bank to fund the International Youth Foundation, which will be dedicated to an employability program in Jordan. This program will focus on IT skills training, life skills training, and job placement. This program is similar to programs offered in Morocco, Pakistan, India, and Egypt.

Shabakat Al Ordon (NetCorps Jordan)

The project aims to build the capacities of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Lebanon. The project focuses on the services and manufacturing sectors in the governorates of South Lebanon, Nabatieh, Mt. Lebanon, and North Lebanon by introducing them to new technologies and business practices, and by helping them improve their sales and marketing management.

Kenya

Strathmore Educational Trust

The Informal Sector Business Institute (ISBI) project offers training in information and communications technology, business, and life skills to micro entrepreneurs to help them benefit more from their entrepreneurial efforts. ISBI is planning to set up a center in Uganda. ISBI has a strong focus on employability, providing entrepreneurial and business skills to the informal sector. Beneficiaries are people who have started businesses but lack the requisite skills to run and sustain them.

The African Centre for Women, Information and Communications Technology

The African Center for Women, Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT) projects train women entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs with the skills that will help them improve their efficiency and competitiveness. ACWICT centers also hold events such as career days, workshops, media briefings, and seminars for women who do not generally receive such assistance.

Ugunja Community Resource Centre

The Ugunja Community Resource Center (UCRC) is working to enhance the livelihoods of the people who live in the Siaya District of Nyanza Province in Kenya through better use of technology. Technology training is being used to improve health standards, business opportunities, agricultural practices, and social networking. The project aims to share local resources, document local history and culture, and facilitate communication between community members and organizations. UCRC has grown from a social development organization to an economically sustainable organization that provides consulting services to local government agencies—including the police—to develop technology-based products and solutions to fight crime. An estimated 4,500 community members will benefit from this program over the next three years, with a special focus on people with disabilities.

Kuwait

Kuwait Economic Society

Kuwait Economic Society (KES) was established in 1970 with the objective of promoting economic growth and reform within the Kuwait economy. Project EMPOWER’s goal is to empower women and help young people find jobs and career opportunities by bridging the IT skills gap. The program will offer the target groups training that correspond to the needs of employers and society, and will empower them to play an active role in society. EMPOWER will add nine community technology centers, and with the two additional centers it will create this year, EMPOWER will graduate approximately 700 people in 2009.

Liberia

Center For Women and Children Empowerment, Inc.

The Center For Women and Children Empowerment (CEWCE) offers IT skills training to women and children to improve their employability. In Liberia, which continues to rebuild after years of civil war, IT skills will provide twenty-first–century capacity to spur economic growth and engender sustainable development.

Mali

AFRIKLINKS

AFRIKLINKS is a nongovernmental organization whose goal is to provide information and communications technology (ICT) support, including training, monitoring, and evaluation; VSAT and network installation; and help-desk and online support. In this second phase of the project, AFRIKLINKS will train and provide additional support to young people who want to develop businesses in agriculture in northern Mali. AFRIKLINKS intends to replicate this project in Senegal.

Mauritius

SOS Poverty

SOS Poverty initiatives focus on a number of issues in Mauritius, including welfare programs to distribute food, furniture, and clothing; social leadership training to develop new social workers; and IT skills training for unemployed and underemployed young people. The ICT Training Project provides technology training facilities and basic computer and life skills training to help unemployed and underemployed youth and women find jobs. Through the support of the government and the British Council, and also Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, SOS Poverty strives to reach 6,000 youth in the next three years.

Morocco

Ateliers Sans Frontieres Maroc

This project provides the needed tools to help nongovernmental organizations operating in Morocco better perform and serve their communities. For this phase of the project, the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software will be provided for the 2,560 computers that will be delivered to 320 nongovernmental organizations, along with 32 master trainers. A total of 640 trainers will be trained on Microsoft Unlimited Potential curriculum, enabling them to access computers and the Internet, improve their IT skills, and build organizational capacity.

PlaNet Finance Maroc

PlaNet Finance Morocco, as a member of the PlaNet Finance international network, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting poverty through the development and enhancement of the microfinance sector. With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, this project will provide micro-entrepreneurs with computers and related training. It will also build an information and communications technology infrastructure that will serve micro-entrepreneurs and help them in their business.

Nigeria

Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Center

Chief Bola Ige Information Technology Centers' (BIITC) mission is to contribute to the creation of a knowledge-based information society in Nigeria by providing people with the technology skills they need today. The project offers its beneficiaries training that promotes entrepreneurship and links to relevant organizations and individuals that will support their endeavors. This project supports the empowerment of women and the visually impaired.

Fantsuam Foundation

Fantsuam Foundation focuses on education and integrated information and communications technology and business skills in Nigeria’s rural areas. The project offers a wide range of skills and has grown with Microsoft support to provide access to information that positively impacts the lives of the people in the communities which they serve. The project offers skills, support, and funding to program participants.

Oman

AMIDEAST/Oman

This project will enable young women to acquire the skills and confidence to enter the workforce and to use their employment as a stepping stone for acquiring increased status and rights. AMIDEAST/Oman will implement a four-month skills and knowledge enrichment program for 30 secondary school graduates. The students will be trained in career-related communication and leadership skills and in vocational skills directly relevant to local needs. Using practical training that includes role-playing and project work, the program will provide specific job-hunting strategies and action plans for entering the work force. Program content will also include material to build more general life skills, such as personal budgeting, knowledge of legal rights for women in Oman, and strategies for navigating personal relationships. After completing the program, participants will be entitled to continue using AMIDEAST's library and computers to expand their job search (if they have not obtained employment upon graduation), to receive coaching and mentoring from AMIDEAST staff, and to form an alumni support and networking group.

Pakistan

Aga Khan Foundation

The current project is located in the remote and isolated mountain communities in the Karakoram-Hindukush region of Northern Pakistan. It aims to empower youth by helping lessen unemployment, improve skills, and increase job opportunities. The objective is to test and perfect a replicable community-based model that provides IT facilities and services in marginalized and poor areas and allows local communities to manage these systems within the resources available. The project will include various training programs based on existing Unlimited Potential and Digital Literacy curriculums. A Train the trainers program will develop a group of master trainers who will train the program participants. Funds will be used to provide operational and management support to the community technology centers at the community and regional levels.

South Africa

Library Business Corners

Library Business Corners is a nongovernmental organization that strives to raise awareness among rural communities that self-employment is an option to generate income and wealth. Local libraries serve as user-friendly locations where existing and prospective small business entrepreneurs can obtain information. The Cape Access initiative was started in 2004 by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, in partnership with the Library Business Corners and community-based organizations called e-Community Forums, to accelerate socio-economic development. Microsoft is supporting this initiative through training the e-Community managers, whose role is to ensure that IT is used to help alleviate poverty, to help them run their Community Access Center effectively, and to ensure that they understand the impact and possibilities that information technology has to change people's lives.

QuadPara Association of South Africa

People with disabilities in South Africa emerge from schools for the disabled without having the skills that can lead to gainful employment in the labor market. The mission of QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) is to ensure that this designated group is given back their dignity through projects that will help them regain their self worth. Microsoft has partnered with QASA to set up Community Access Centers that focus on people with disabilities. To date, they have helped put 150 such people in gainful employment and thus enabled them to contribute to the economy of the country.

SANGONeT

SANGONeT's mission is to support the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT) in civil society organizations in southern Africa by providing quality services and initiatives. At the end of this project, telecenters will be certified as training centers and will be in a position to issue certificates. This will encourage more people to come to the centers for training and help make these centers self-sufficient. Microsoft is partnering with SANGONet and the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa to ensure that people trained at telecenters will have the entry-level IT skills needed to get into jobs, such as the telecenter market. The project will initially benefit 188 telecenter managers. At the end of three years, it will have benefited 500,000 people.

South African Graduates Development Association

This project trains out-of-school youth and unemployed graduates in IT skills, helping the youth to be more competitive in today’s job market.

Tunisia

Association for the Promotion of Employment for the Disabled Persons

The Association for the Promotion of Employment for the Disabled Persons (BASMA), with the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, will establish a program to provide IT skills training to underserved people through education and job creation. The program will help empower people with disabilities to contribute to the Tunisian knowledge economy. This project can be scaled for other countries and for use within the different ministries. The program is in line with the vision and long-term commitment of Microsoft through Unlimited Potential to provide relevant, accessible IT to underserved people by transforming education and enabling jobs and opportunities.

Turkey

Youth Association for Habitat

Youth for Habitat is an international youth network working in partnership with the United Nations. The network was established during the 1995 Copenhagen Social Development Summit with the participation of 300 youth organizations with diverse religious, racial, cultural, and national backgrounds. Building on the first and second phases of Empowerment of Youth through Improved e-Governance in Turkey, and Empowerment of Youth for the e-Transformation in Turkey, these projects aim to train socially disadvantaged people in basic information and communications technology skills, increase digital literacy and create employment. The project gives special emphasis to youth between the ages of 15 and 25, and also young women. Focus group training for disabled nongovernmental employees or public organization staff may also be provided.

United Republic of Tanzania

Mkombozi

The Mkombozi project focuses on teaching computer refurbishment skills to young adults to enable them to earn a living. The project has 28 school-based community technology centers in Tanzania. Mkombozi operates school-based computer training centers that seek to increase computer literacy in schools and provide access for the community during non-school hours. The organization will increase its offerings to promote other job skills in the communities it serves. The project is increasing the use of information and communications technology in education and also provides community access to computers.

Western Region

California

Jewish Vocational Service

With support from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Business Basics Program at Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) provides increased access to computers and skills training to the disadvantaged jobseekers of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Business Basics continuum of technology access, relevant training, and individualized employment support is designed to address the major barrier of limited computer skills directly, which is a daunting obstacle to employment and economic advancement for people without the ability to update their technological proficiency. With more than 30 years of experience in workforce development, JVS achieves results by empowering people to improve their situation for themselves, their families, and the San Francisco community.

Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, Inc.

The Career Learning Center (CLC) at Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties provides customized training and educational services to the tri-county service area participants who are referred for services and to Goodwill's own employees (35 percent of the Goodwill workforce has participated in these services). Through Microsoft grant support, participants are trained on basic computer skills and business software applications, which help them obtain permanent jobs with sustainable wages and the potential for career advancement.

The Stride Center

This Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will support The Stride Center, which helps men and women of all ages who are unemployed or under-employed and living in poverty achieve economic self-sufficiency by training them to begin vibrant, viable careers in information technology. Graduates are able to move away from public assistance, and, equally important but less tangible, participants are becoming role models for their families and their communities, showing that success is possible.

Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC)

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding provides APALC with the necessary tools to assist families and communities in building strong partnerships with school districts. It helps to bridge and connect communities—many that include immigrant families who are unfamiliar with U.S. educational systems—with their schools to support their students and, in turn, strengthen and support communities.

Brotherhood Crusade

With Microsoft support, the Workforce Development/Job Training program of The Brotherhood Crusade provides specialized career training and job placement for long-term unemployed residents with multiple barriers to obtaining career employment. Participants include single mothers, non-custodial parents, parolees, homeless individuals, and long-term public assistance recipients in the South Los Angeles area. Upon successful completion of the program, participants are placed in good-paying, high-demand jobs commensurate with their training.

PUENTE Learning Center

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding at PUENTE Learning Center in Los Angeles provides workforce development programs that prepare students for meaningful careers, encourages them to understand that they have choices in life, and offers the tools to help them break the cycle of poverty and underachievement. This grant will support the Job Training, Computer Support Specialist, ESL, Diploma Plus, and GED Preparation programs for adults, and Computer Repair courses for high-school students and adults.

Fashion Business Inc.

With Microsoft sponsored job-skills training, low-income workers in Los Angeles County can acquire skills that support the growing use of computer technologies in the manufacturing sector. These skills will increase the marketability of participants as potential apparel workers. Computer and technology skills also help graduates transition into positions at the California Living Wage, further increasing their life-long earning potential. The continued education provides graduates with a sense of accomplishment and improved self-confidence as it relates to their careers.

Idaho

Boys & Girls Clubs of Ada County

The Career Technology Program, funded by Microsoft Unlimited Potential, provides real-world technology learning for disadvantaged youth to help them explore ways to strengthen their future by pursuing careers in technology. It also allows them an opportunity to work on projects that give back directly to their communities.

Nevada

Goodwill of Southern Nevada, Inc.

Goodwill will provide the Microsoft Learn It & Earn It! Office Training Program to unemployed and under-employed trainees to help prepare them for successful employment in the job market. Training will provide students with the necessary skills required by local computer and customer service employers. The training includes such as computer fundamentals, Microsoft Office basics, Internet searches, customer service, keyboarding, and telephone etiquette. This training will create a life-long investment for career advancement.

Oregon

Centro Cultural

With the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, Centro Cultural enables the local low-income Latino community members to develop and enhance skills that help improve the quality of their lives. The skills they learn enable them improve and expand job performance, understand the significance of computers in their family's future, improve their English skills, find useful community information, and connect with other communities.

Utah

Sorenson Unity Center

The Sorenson Unity Center helps young people and adults translate their business and creative ideas into marketable skills. Support from Microsoft will provide funding for various multimedia and IT instructors for the youth and adult program and provide professional development for staff. The long-term goal of the project is to help individuals enter the economic and social mainstream with competency and confidence to use technology.

Washington

Workforce Development Council of Seattle – King County

The Workforce Development Council (WDC) projects connect businesses and job seekers by providing the necessary resources and tools for successful employment, lifelong learning, and business development. Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding supports WDC technology implementation and training efforts across the state to ensure a strong and vital economy.

The Seattle Foundation

The Seattle Foundation—an integrated working group of state, city, foundation, and education champions for success for potential workers and employers—has an ambitious plan to change the way the local community provides underserved working adults access to education and training. This, in turn, will work to strengthen the local labor market and provide community members a second chance to gain skills that will help them get jobs that pay well enough to support a family.

Goodwill Industries of Seattle/King County

Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding will allow Goodwill to provide technology skills training for low-income unemployed and underemployed adults within the nine local job training and education sites (JTEs). The goal of the JTE is to ensure the success of the graduates in the competitive employment market by offering training in the latest workplace tools.

Central Region

Illinois

Lumity

With Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, Lumity's overall goal remains to enhance the workforce development system in the Chicago area, providing increased access to technology and digital literacy training that will improve clients' job readiness, employment options, and long-term results.

YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

Technology is integrated across the Model YWCA program, in which members will identify goals and priorities, participate in online learning, and support communities through a custom-built Empowerment Portal. They will also acquire advanced technology skills and job skills while working with a YWCA Empowerment Coach. YWCA clients will be exceptionally prepared to secure careers with high growth potential, better salaries and benefits, and increased lifelong earnings.

Chicago Urban League

Using Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the Chicago Urban League Workforce Diversity Program hopes to expand its existing computer training center and increase in the number of participants enrolling in Microsoft training and certification classes. The League's Entrepreneurship Center will provide computer and technology training to African-American small businesses, and the Parental Engagement Program will help families develop skills, including résumé and letter writing, spreadsheet creation, and conducting Internet job searches.

Michigan

Focus: HOPE

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will create the Microsoft Scholars fund for students in the Information Technologies Center programs. Low-income students will be able to apply for these scholarships into programs at Focus: HOPE. The scholarships will be granted based on academic performance, attendance, and attitude.

Missouri

JESS, Inc.

A computer technology center for JESS will provide computer-assisted instruction for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and will increase vocabulary, recognition of symbols, social interaction, and identification of written words. The program will develop a one-stop system for individuals with disabilities and assist and prepare people with quality training and career guidance for the computer driven workplace.

Nebraska

Aurora Technology Center

The Aurora Technology Center has experienced much growth in the past few years, and the latest addition to the facility is a digital video production lab, which will allow local companies to create promotional videos and customized training materials for local workforce development training. This continued support will allow the Aurora Technology Center to continue the mission that is critical to the economic development in the area.

South Dakota

YWCA Cass Clay

The Empowerment Through Technology project will further the mission of the YWCA by creating opportunities for social and economic empowerment for the women and children served by this program. With Microsoft support, access to computers, Microsoft software, and YWCA training courses and supportive services will help prepare women to maintain employment and become self sufficient. Additionally, the program will focus on young girls in the region and provide opportunities through the TechGYRLS program to broaden their knowledge and interest in technology.

Texas

Central Dallas Ministries

The Path2Success program will provide pre-employment education and training for unemployed and under-employed persons living in Dallas, Texas, and the surrounding Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area. The program is designed to equip participants with the hard job skills and soft job skills (with a special focus on technology education and certification in Microsoft Office) that they need to secure long-term, living-wage jobs.

Skillpoint Alliance

With funding from Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Community Technology Training Center (CTTC) program is building an expanded computer lab located within the Skillpoint Alliance offices. The expansion of services will allow the CTTC program to provide more low-cost training to unemployed and under-employed Central Texas residents.

Houston Public Library Foundation

The WeCAN Works (WCW) program provides a solution to the pressing need to develop a more skilled and prepared workforce in Houston, Texas. The components of the program address workforce readiness, GED recovery and dropout prevention through sustainable education and employment solutions. The WeCAN Works program strives to build the workforce by providing underserved populations with support to attain educational credentials and technical skills that are critical to the job market.

Eastern Region

Florida

Jacksonville Urban League, Inc.

The Community Partnership Program (CPP) provides workforce development training and job placement assistance to its customers, with help from a Microsoft Unlimited Potential. CPP uses innovative employment skills testing, job search technique training, employment skills training, job coaching, computer training, and job placement assistance.

ELEVATE Miami

Miami Dade College (MDC) and the City of Miami come together to form ELEVATE Miami, a program that is set to harness the transformative power of technology to help workforce-aged individuals obtain technological training in park-based sites accessible to all. Microsoft Unlimited Potential is educating our citizens by providing training programs that familiarize and promote competency in the use of technology.

Georgia

Women's Employment Opportunity Project, Inc.

The Women's Employment Opportunity Project, Inc. (WEOP) program has been operating for five years in partnership with the City of Atlanta Workforce Development in providing computer training. The major program goals include developing innovative training programs to empower community residents and nonprofit organizations on the use of technology to increase economic self-sufficiency, employment opportunities, and microenterprise development.

Massachusetts

SkillWorks

With the help of Microsoft Unlimited Potential funding, the SkillWorks project of The Boston Foundation is increasing the resources of education and skills training to Boston residents with low and moderate incomes. The goal is to create a system that helps low-skill and low-income residents attain family-sustaining jobs, and to help employers find and retain skilled employees.

Center for Women & Enterprise

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning Center in Worcester will be a one-stop location for women entrepreneurs to access free technology resources and to receive technology programs and services. The project will duplicate existing results from similar projects in Providence and Boston, by installing a Microsoft Unlimited Potential Learning Center in the office in Worcester, Massachusetts. Expanding reach in Worcester will increase the CWE's capacity to provide educational and training opportunities to underserved women, helping them to realize their dreams of economic self-sufficiency through entrepreneurship.

New York

The Academy for Career Development, Inc.

Through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant, the Academy for Career Development hopes to connect the pre-existing Community Technology Centers to the distance-learning network, and provide underserved neighborhoods and families with the Fundamental Computer Skills Training needed in today's job market.

Henry Street Settlement

The project will build on the successful outcomes of past Microsoft grants in support of our ATTAIN Computer Lab. The lab offers a series of free, instructor-led basic computer skills and Microsoft Office classes for the community. Classes in intermediate/advanced skills are also available, as is preparation for the Microsoft Office certification exam. ATTAIN uses the Microsoft Digital Literacy and Unlimited Potential curricula. The Henry Street Settlement serves the Lower East side community of New York by bridging the digital divide and providing access to core training and employment services to improve the lives of members of our community.

Madison Square Boys & Girls Club

A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant will help Madison Square Boys & Girls Club recruit and retain qualified staff, enhance basic computer skills, and increase the number of participants served with additional hours of technology instruction each week. Madison also plans to host a periodic special event called TechFest (a virtual technology fair) where participants will demonstrate their newly-acquired skills. Having strong entry-level skills prepares Club participants for employment in the technology-driven workforce, resulting in economic sustainability and enhanced quality of life.

Per Scholas, Inc.

Funding from Microsoft Unlimited Potential will enable Per Scholas to open a new training center in Brooklyn and to enhance the existing Computer Technician Training Program. The Per Scholas training program will provide tuition-free, industry specific vocational training; life skills; and support services that prepare unemployed and under-employed adults for lucrative careers in the field of information technology.

Year Up New York City

With the support of Microsoft, Year Up will make a lasting and meaningful impact on the lives of young adults. The Microsoft donation will support the continued education of students' academic experience at Year Up NYC. As Year Up NYC expands the number of students it serves, the quality of academic programming and curriculum must meet current IT industry standards and practices. Year UP NYC prepares its students for success at their corporate apprenticeships.

NPower NY

This grant from Microsoft Unlimited Potential will support the Technology Service Corps program, run by NPower NY. This program supports the technical training of innovative young New Yorkers who, upon graduation, seek promising careers in the IT field, and it provides local nonprofits with highly skilled and enthusiastic talent.

North Carolina

Iredell Statesville Community Enrichment Corporation

A Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant enabled the Iredell Community Technology Institute’s CTLC to open lab number 4, run in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Piedmont. Low-income and underserved communities are benefitting from the training designed to prepare students to meet future the job market demands with a special emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, coupled by robust tools that include the Unlimited Potential curriculum and basic computer skills.

Rhode Island

Year Up Providence

This is a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant. Year Up is ready to complete phase two of its strategic plan, in which students will receive full-time training in development technical skills, professional skills, and communication skills. Staff advisors and volunteer mentors are available to support and provide guidance in the successful completion of courses to enable entry-level work in desktop support and help desk roles.

Washington, DC

Year Up, Washington, D.C.

At the Year UP program in Washington, D.C., the number of students has increased and the infrastructure has been upgraded with additional hardware. With support from Microsoft in accessing software and training for Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, and other products, Year UP will incorporate these new technologies into its curriculum and provide its students with a solid head start.

American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)

As a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential funded program, the AAPD Federal IT Internship Program is designed to enhance students' skills and interest in IT careers and increase placement in IT jobs for interns who complete the program, demonstrating to prospective employers that students with disabilities are solid workforce prospects.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation

Through the partnership between Microsoft Unlimited Potential and the AARP Foundation, the technology skills gaps of the older adult population will be addressed and pilot projects in Seattle and New York will start to resolve barriers that prevent older workers from achieving success in the workplace and at home.

West Virginia

Mission West Virginia, Inc.

The Build It, Keep It, Share It Program (BIKISI) received a multi-year Microsoft Unlimited Potential grant to support education in underserved and unemployed local communities. Without Microsoft support, Mission West Virginia would not be able to fund training in Digital Literacy. With more than 1,500 people having received their Digital Literacy certificates in the last year alone, this program provides a beneficial training opportunity for local residents.