The Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson’s My.Future Program at the Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse is working to give students in Southern Arizona a competitive edge when entering adulthood and the workforce. This digital skills program allows Club members to participate in various projects to gain new knowledge in areas such as digital art, video editing, photography, design and more.
The program is a part of an intensified focus on utilizing activities linked to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.). The platform gives access to over 300 on-demand and live learning sessions, hosted by Boys & Girls Club staff and partners. Through experiential learning, members can participate and create to earn points and badges.
In our community, many live below the poverty line and don’t have reliable and consistent access to computers,” said Adam Ortiz, Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse director, Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson. “At the Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse, we’re able to provide an internet connection, the My.Future Program and have up-to-date computer equipment, all that are helpful to our members and critical to their learning.”
The My.Future program is funded by the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation, and is just one of the ways Comcast supports programs that uplift diverse communities and provide equitable access to technology and the economic mobility that it brings. In addition to the $20,000 grant to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Arizona, in the last three years Comcast has invested more than $1.1 million in cash and in-kind donations to Arizona nonprofits.
Investing in digital skills programs offered by trusted community organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson is one way we’re advancing digital equity,” said Leigh Branston, General Manager for Comcast in Southern Arizona. “We want to help build a future where the next generation of innovators have the skills and confidence they need to reach their full potential.”
“We’ve definitely seen the benefits of this grant,” said Adam Ortiz, Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse Director, Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson. “With the support of the Comcast Foundation, we are able to ask our kids and see what they would like to see or use and implement programming based on their feedback. It also helps us reach out to more youth as well.”
As the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson works to bridge the gap for youth in Southern Arizona, Comcast is working to minimize the digital divide. For more than a decade, Comcast has offered the largest and most comprehensive internet adoption program, Internet Essentials, providing low-cost high-speed internet to households that qualify along with subsidized computers and access to digital skills training. Through the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program, eligible households can receive Internet Essentials service for free.
