Out In The Mountains : News - Outright Changes Leadership

      R.U.1.2? Community Center has been awarded $27,000 to establish the David Bohnett Cyber Center at the agency. A third of the grant is in cash, the rest in "top of the line" equipment, according to executive director Christopher Kaufman.
      "This technology will improve the quality of services for our community. It might even encourage straight people to come in," Kaufman said. "R.U.1.2? has a fair number of allies - perhaps one in ten - who come in or participate on some level. We also hope to promote the use of the cyber center to other agencies, such as Spectrum, the women's Rape Crisis Center, and SafeSpace."
      Kaufman said the grant proposal also includes formal classes on computer technology in the service of job training, and the use of computers for resume writing and Internet activism, among other possibilities. There's also a less formal plan for a "cyber café" to provide open access to computers that is also safe and confidential.
      For example, clients of SafeSpace, an lgbtqi anti-violence program, might use the cyber cafe to search online for resources or housing in a search for safety that would be dangerous on a home computer. Kaufman also said there would be no filters on the cyber center, unlike computers at schools, that would likely prevent youth
from getting information and resources about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
      The Bohnett Foundation was established by David Bohnett, the 47-year-old founder of GeoCities, an Internet-based media and e commerce company. GeoCities was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in 1999.
       The foundation has funded 15 cyber centers to date, according to Kaufman, primarily in large urban locations. He thinks one of the selling points of R.U.1.2?'s grant proposal was that even though it's in the center of Vermont's largest city, R.U.1.2? is considered a rural community center.
      Among the equipment that will be showing up soon are nine IBM "Think Center" computers, a printer, a scanner, software, and a three-year on-site service contract. Kaufman is confident that two of the other cyber centers - both of whom had assisted with his grant proposal - will help with the set-up by sharing the policies and procedures they've found that work for them.
      Kaufman plans to have the cyber center up and running by July 1. The major current obstacle is a lack of space at the existing headquarters. A search for new space has been underway for over a year, although the new grant is expected to energize that search.