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Grove Neighborhood Network is first
and foremost a resource for the
residents of
Island
Grove Village Apartments.
We are part of HUD's
Neighborhood Networks
initiative, which really is an
organized way of describing and, to
some extent, defining a whole bunch
of computer learning centers that
more often than not have little in
common with one another beyond goals
and objectives.
Each Neighborhood
Network is established according to
the needs of the clients/residents,
the abilities (or whim) of whoever
is setting it up, and the property's
ability to address a wild range of
technological and funding issues.
IGV has been pretty adept at the
adjustments, collecting a few
awards,
some positive
press,
and the remarkable
support of
our community.
As we have been
welcomed and endorsed by our
community for the work we try to do,
our greatest accomplishments lie in
how we try to welcome and endorse
our clients when they walk in our
door. Think about it: you're
in your late 20's or early 30's,
you're facing a layoff from your
lousy job, you don't have a high
school diploma, and your track
record at earning your GED is spotty
at best. We figure that if you
could have succeeded at the
traditional classroom model, you
would have done so a long time ago.
So, we're
different. We like it that
way. And nearly 1,700 adults
visiting a total of more than 20,000
times seem to like that we're
different.
We don't have
classes, clients (as we call them)
don't sit in assigned seats and
don't have to raise their hands
before speaking. There's
always a pot of coffee and some kind
of social gathering at the tables in
the Community Room. They make
friends with the other clients and
hang out together sometimes; often
they support one another away from
TGNN.
It's the kind of
place you would not have dropped out
of in the 11th grade, if places like
Neighborhood Networks had been
around way back when.
So, what does this
all mean? Well, we have a
Mission
Statement, but what really
drives us is the commitment it takes
to be in your late 20's and
stumbling through life without a GED
or decent job skills or absolutely
no idea of how to push a mouse
around a pad.
And we love
sharing what little we've learned,
so drop
us a line if you don't find what
you're looking for in these pages.
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