Community Investment
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Sun Employees' Personal Commitment to the West Dallas Community
Sun Microsystems' employees in Dallas have volunteered and donated money to benefit West Dallas Community Centers' (WDCC) youth and families (http://www.westdallas.org/). This United Way organization serves children who live in the West Dallas area, which has been identified as one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States. Sun employees motivate West Dallas youth to expand their computer knowledge and life experiences to lead their communities in the future. With a Partnership Grant from the Sun Microsystems Foundation, they developed two computer labs for WDCC's free after school educational programs. Additionally, Sun employees have sponsored and adopted youth in many special youth projects and mentoring events. The Sun Foundation awarded a Partnership grant to ONEDallas, Sun Dallas' community service organization. ONEDallas organizes approximately one quarter of their 400-person site to help WDCC. Employees of all levels contribute their time and money to support this site-based imitative. "It's important for us to be good corporate citizens, however, the West Dallas Community Centers Partnership is successful because of the Dallas employees' heart felt response to the children."" Joe Womack said. Grace Carleton, a Sun employee and also a WDCC board member, said, " I support West Dallas Community Centers because I have witnessed the impact the centers have on the lives of the children; it's nothing less than profound. Working with WDCC helps me make a difference in a child's life."" The WDCC's Educational Study Centers serve 1,200 students from first grade to high school, five days a week. Sun employees teach computer classes, and provide support and advice to West Dallas youth. Many families in West Dallas do not have computers in their homes. Access to computer labs has increased the youth's computer skills, and assisted with their homework assignments. All young people in the computer club have their own personal e-mail addresses, and access to Enhanced Life Skills Training through the use of Technical Education. The centers have developed special economic development groups, clubs and their own personal activity programs and flyers. This was the first technology Partnership grant awarded by the Sun Foundation. The grant was awarded primarily because of the strong Sun employee support for installing the computer lab, and WDCC's commitment to dedicate a network administrator for ongoing lab maintenance. The grant consisted of the lab; and Solaris network administration training for the center's network administrator. The two computer labs include V 880, Sunblade 100, 30 Sun Rays and DSL Services. Sun's employees assisted with installation, hardware set-up, and system administration training. The total value of the computer labs is $75,500. Sun volunteers have completed a variety of projects in addition to the computer labs for the West Dallas Community Centers. Examples include:
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