The Boys and Girls Club of Westminster was awarded a $15,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation on Feb. 2 that will used to support technology education at the after-school program.

"What Comcast does is sponsor what's called our My.Future program, which is our computer literacy program for our students," said Erin Bishop, marketing director for the Boys and Girls Club. "A lot of these kids, they are growing up on tablets now. That's how they work on the computer and that's how they access the internet. They don't necessarily have computers and laptops at home, and there is only so much you can do on a tablet."

The My.Future program teaches children how to use word processors, create PowerPoint presentations and other computer skills necessary to become good, 21st century learners, according to Bishop. Take the new Common Core Curriculum in the public schools, for instance, and all the testing that goes along with it.

"A lot of that testing is done on the computers, and what we have seen is that some of our kids — because they come from a more at risk background and haven't had as much exposure to computer literacy — they struggle taking the test," Bishop said. "They don't know how to toggle back and forth on a screen to get from one page to another. Sometimes it's really just the basics like that we are able to teach them."

At present, Bishop said, about 110 children come to the Boys and Girls Club each weekday, but there are only 14 computers available or the My.Future program, making it difficult to rotate all the young pupils through the computer literacy program. The funds from Comcast will be used, in part, to purchase new computers, and associated technology and software.

"What we've had to do up till now is to just run that My.Future program with our elementary school students," she said. "What we are hoping to be able to do is to expand it so we can include middle-schoolers as well."

The Boys and Girls Club of Westminster is also in the process of renovating a new, larger building at 71 E. Main St., and Bishop said the club expects to move into the larger space for the 2017-2018 school year, when there will be both more space and more computers so that more student can benefit from My.Future.

The Comcast Foundation has been supporting the Boys and Girls Club's My.Future program for the past four years through annual grants like the one given on Feb. 2, according to Bishop.

"We use that funding from Comcast to run the entire program. To have a program facilitator who's identifying what those needs are and making sure the kids are learning and are up to speed with what they need to know," she said. "They have been fabulous partners of ours."

jon.kelvey@carrollcountytimes.com

410-857-3317

twitter.com/CCT_Health