Michael Ramage
Executive Director of Connected Tennessee

I would like to invite you to watch an inspiring video about “Computers 4 Kids,” a program just launched by Connected Tennessee.   You will hear the story of Lotez Holloway, a foster care child who has been in six homes in five years, but retains his enthusiasm and drive for educational excellence. “At school these days, basically you need a computer to get along,” Holloway says. “It’s like your pencil now.”

Through the Computers 4 Kids program, Connected Tennessee and its partners are placing 1,000 computers in the homes of underprivileged children each year for the next three years.   Why are we doing this?   Simple.   Students need a computer at home in order to succeed at school.  

Of course, a computer at home is of limited value without access to broadband service. Connected Tennessee is implementing Tennessee’s “Trail to Innovation,” a comprehensive broadband deployment and adoption plan slated to leverage state, federal and private investment aimed at blanketing Tennessee with high-speed Internet as well as improving the use of technology and the Internet.   That’s good for Tennessee and good for our students.

Mark Bengel, Chief Information Officer for the State of Tennessee, put it this way: “With the Computers 4 Kids program, we are able to give some of these deserving kids their own computer to help them build the skills that will be critical to their future success as they enter either college or the work place.   This is not a hand out, but a hand up for kids who have met the criteria of need and proven their desire to help themselves by maintaining a strong grade point average in school.”

Connected Tennessee is a nonprofit organization that develops and implements effective strategies for closing the digital divide in Tennessee.   We coordinate the Computers 4 Kids project with the State of Tennessee, the Department of Children’s Services and the Department of Human Services.   In the pilot phase of the project, computers were distributed to group homes throughout the state.   The second phase, now underway, will award 3,000 computers in the next three years to children across Tennessee meeting certain academic and behavioral requirements.

Computers 4 Kids is based on Connected Nation’s No Child Left Offline (NCLO) initiative, a comprehensive program to help underprivileged children overcome the digital divide.   To date, NCLO has helped to place approximately 2,000 computers into the hands of underprivileged families and organizations that serve them.

With all of these great groups and dedicated people working together on Computers 4 Kids, we know that promising young people like Lotez Holloway now have a much better hope of competing in a global economy.   All they need are the right tools. In the words of Lotez Holloway: “It’s hard to ever try when you feel like no one’s there for you and no one cares. Now it feels like someone’s there.”

We’re happy that through the Computers 4 Kids program, we can be there for Lotez, and other deserving kids across Tennessee.