This week, the PCF Western Suburbs crew installed their first Community Center Lab in Coatesville, Pa.

Ashwin and Srikar, who head up the PCF Western Suburbs chapter, identified the Program to support and solicited the equipment donations that were used (in part) to support the program. Additional support was provided by PCF.

The recipient program is called the “Coatesville Kids to College” program, which is headed up by Mr. Keith Wilburn and is housed in the Olivet United Methodist Church building in Coatesville, PA. PCF provided them with 8 laptops and an iMac desktop.

Coatesville Kids to College provides a pipeline of promise from pre-k to college. The program includes full-day preschool; after-school programs for elementary, middle, and high school students, and full-day summer enrichment programs. Programing targets children and youth living below the economic poverty line and aims to provide necessary supports for them to be successful in school and ultimately attend and graduate from college

The computers will have multiple uses for the elementary students. Students will use them to do research for homework assignments and school projects. In addition there are a number of educational online programs that our students use to enhance their reading and math skills. Finally, computers will be used for computer classes that our staff will run which will teach them the basics of how to use different programs

This was the first lab set up by Srikar and Ashwin. As part of the effort, they learned refurbishing and imaging skills from PCF’s Jan Deruiter. Now that they got their first taste of the process, from soliciting donations to refurbishing and installing the computers, they hope to successfully set up many more  mini-labs!