Tenderloin Tech Lab once again found itself the beneficiaries of University of San Francisco’s benevolence. Associate Dean Chris Brooks and Professor Jung brought about 8 students from USF to help in switching out our old computers to the newly refurbished, donated computers.

The computers that the Tech Lab has had in the two and a half years it has been in operation were originally from USF. With the increase in demand by our growing clientele and the opportunity to obtain newer, quicker machines, our Computer Training Program Coordinator, Ryan Castanos, seized the opportunity to improve our resources.

Tenderloin Tech Lab Staff, USF faculty and students, and Tenderloin Tech Lab volunteers came in to help in the switchover along with some spring cleaning. The Tech Lab will be closed this week to tie up loose ends and make sure the lab is operational. We are also using this opportunity to install a new door to our hardware lab where more classes will be taught. The Tech Lab will continue to strive for improvement and offering the best possible service to our clients.

3 weeks of classes, 4 years of experience between them, and a collective average of typing 45 words per minute, 3 volunteers.

Ann L, Peter S, and Joe P have been our faithful volunteers who teach our Basic Computer Skills class month in and month out. This is our most in demand class and regularly fills up every month. Whether it is because there is such a need for the course or because they are stand out instructors, we do not know. A big thank you to these three and all of our volunteers at the Tenderloin Tech Lab! More volunteers to be featured in the future …

Most people associate St. Anthony’s with food. But our programs also help put people to work.

The Tenderloin Technology Lab, conducted with San Francisco Network Ministries, offers computer classes at every level from introductory to computer technician. The Tech Lab helps use technology to find a job.

St. Anthony’s Clothing Program collects, inspects, and prepares used clothing for families sending their children to school and unemployed guests looking for a job.

Our Free Medical Clinic’s pediatrics program helps parents stay at work by helping them keep their children healthy.

Residents of our drug and alcohol rehabilitation program get their first work experience in St. Anthony Dining Room and get job coaching to learn not only how to find a job, but also how to hold one.

And as people who have lost their jobs come to the end of their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, St. Anthony Dining Room is helping to take pressure off their budgets by providing hot, nutritious meals.

St. Anthony’s is more than a charity. Today’s guests are tomorrow’s work force.

Yesterday the Tech Lab was bestowed 4 volunteers from the AALS. These volunteers helped individuals in our Basic Computer Skills Class and in our Job Search Workshop. A number of our regular clients were able to create e-mail accounts and resumes, edit cover letters, and enhance their computer skills.

Last week, one of the Tenderloin Technology Lab’s most dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, Shirshendu (Shir) Chakrabarti, graduated with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of San Francisco. Over the past year and a half of Shir’s volunteer service here at the Tenderloin Technology Lab the staff has watched him struggle through important classes and vital examinations. More impressively, we have witnessed him consume countless cups of coffee and hot coco at an almost alarming rate. Thanks to Shir’s dedication and commitment at the Tenderloin Technology Lab, there are a long list of accomplishments and improvements. Only the epic enthusiasm that stems from the personality of an individual like Shirshendu, could our accomplishments have been reached.

Shir’s parents reside in India and were not able to make the long trip out to California for their son’s graduation so Karl, Chris and Ryan set aside time from their work schedules to spend a few hours with Shirshendu in an effort to loudly cheer him on during his graduation ceremony. Many pictures were taken during the event in order to provide Shir’s parents with concrete evidence of their only son actually graduating.
What does the future hold for Shirshendu Chakrabarti? We at the TTL can be certain that this young man’s future will be full of happiness, prosperity and service to others.

On the 13th of December, neighborhood children of various ages descended upon the St. Anthony Dining Room for the annual Kid’s Party. Children came from the Kroc Center, the Boys and Girls Club, Hamilton Family Housing, De Marillac Academy, and other organizations to join in playing copious amount of games, eating delectable food items, and meeting Santa.

This event was made possible by the hard efforts of different work units within St. Anthony’s, including the Dining Room, Clinic, Tech Lab, Client Safety Service, and Fr. Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s drug and alcohol recovery program . It may have been a Kid’s Party, but plenty of fun was to be had by parents, staff, and our benevolent friends and volunteers from Skyline College.

craigslist founder Craig Newmark joined Julien Cornil from Comcast to visit the Tenderloin Technology Lab today to see firsthand the dramatic improvement in the Tenderloin Technology Lab’s internet speed. This improvement resulted from Craig’s first tour of the Tenderloin Technology Lab and his follow up effort to connect us with the right people at Comcast.

Craig joined students in one of our daily basic computer skills classes who were learning how to navigate the features of Craigslist. Craig spoke to the class about his role in the company and answered some of the students’ questions.

Thanks to the generosity of Craig and Comcast, we at the Tenderloin Technology Lab have greatly improved our efficiency to provide residents of the Tenderloin with technology skills that increase opportunities for employment, access to essential community resources, and connections with family and friends. The Tenderloin Technology Lab is a partnership between St. Anthony Foundation and SF Network Ministries.

St. Anthony’s has a whole new team of volunteers this week as part of the annual Week of Caring.  This year we’re welcoming nearly 200 volunteers from nine different companies including Wells Fargo, Ernst & Young, Chevron, BRE Properties, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and Federal Reserve Bank, all rallying together to give back to the community.

During this week volunteers will help serve more than 13,000 meals in St. Anthony Dining Room, prepare clothes for 200 individuals and families at the Free Clothing Program and provide one-on-one guidance and support to folks coming in to learn computer skills in the Tenderloin Tech Lab.  We even have a group lending a hand in the Free Medical Clinic, (during one of our Diabetes Outliers Days, we’ll tell you more about that tomorrow).

We are so excited to be able to offer these bonding experiences to groups, and happy to have the extra hands to help out in our programs.  With the holidays coming up there will be plenty more projects and volunteer opportunities for groups, so if you’ve been trying to find an activity for your work, social or church group give St. Anthony’s a ring.

We’d love to have you.

With Labor Day passing we can now hope that the season of fall will bring San Francisco some summer weather. One thing we know for certain as we move forward is the Tenderloin Tech Lab will be hosting it’s quarterly Tech Fair on Saturday, September 25th. Beginning this week you will see fliers and postings about the event. It is always a big hit that brings out a number of volunteers, the entire staff, and many residents of the Tenderloin.

This time around we are teaching 4 classes, an increase from the 2 classes we traditionally have taught. The classes will be on Facebook, Craigslist, Yola, and Google. We will have professionals who work at Yola teaching and we hope to get some more employees from the aforementioned companies to help teach the courses.

In addition we will have individuals from Reliatech to repair computers, free of charge. Normally they are able to diagnose and/or repair between 25-40 computers. Both space and time is limited, so be sure to sign up for your spot in advanced, for both computer repair and any classes you are interested in. You can do so by e-mailing us at frontdesk@tenderlointechnologylab.org or calling, 415-592-2766.

We look forward to seeing new faces at the Tenderloin Tech Lab, so save the date 9/25/2010 @ 10AM

After the devastation that 1989 earthquake had on the Bay Bridge, rather than simply retrofit the bridge it was decided that an entirely new structure would be needed in order to protect against future quakes. On Friday, August 20th, the staff at the Tenderloin Tech Lab took a boat tour of the new Bay Bridge currently under construction. Cal Trans, the government agency responsible for overseeing the development of the bridge, hosted the half day tour.

For those who have not yet seen the sections of the new bridge that have been put in place, they are a sight to see. The ‘skyway’, a section of the bridge which extends from the Oakland mudflats, will connect to the Self-Anchored Suspension Span on the north side of Yerba Buena Island. The skyway itself is comprised of two separate highways, one northbound and one southbound, that together contain over 200 million tons of steel. It is quite an experience to witness such a remarkable thing in the process of it’s creation. The completed bridge will have two 15.5 foot pedestrian bike lanes, a new and welcome upgrade, that will finally open up movement between the East side of San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. Although the bridge is still a few years away from completion, it is an exciting moment to be able to watch the development of such an integral component of the San Francisco Bay Area.