T.E.C.H.-nology needs: Volunteer group aims to help children's advocacy centers

Nonprofit organizations rely on donations to serve their clients, but when such money is also used to pay for rent and electricity, less is left for its intended purpose.

Luckily for DFW nonprofits that work with abused children, one group has stepped forward to help with any computer issues that may arise. Volunteers with Technology Empowering Children to Heal have worked with the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center for several years but recently expanded their reach.

"We bring in the information technology professionals because most Children's Advocacy Centers don't have an in-house IT department," said Lisa Kilgore with T.E.C.H. "This mission of our organization is to fill in the gaps where these organizations don't have enough people or when they have technology problems that need to be solved. We want to spare their budgets so we provide free resources and equipment to help fill in those gaps."

In the last three years, T.E.C.H. volunteers have allowed the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center to reduce their out-of-pocket IT costs by 80-85 percent, Kilgore said. Volunteers carried out a complete server room overhaul, a project that would have proven costly if not for T.E.C.H., Kilgore said.

As the number of volunteers grows, the organization began looking to expand to other centers in the area. The first center outside of Dallas to receive donations from T.E.C.H. is the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County in east Plano.

"Our goal is to be able to provide the same kind of support in Collin County that we have done at the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center," Kilgore said.

While most of the T.E.C.H. volunteers work in the computer industry, they also provide services not related to computers. One such service is ensuring advocacy centers have enough staff to provide state-mandated recognizing and reporting training, which helps educate child care workers on their legal responsibilities in reporting child abuse.

"There was a new state law put in place a little over a year ago that requires anyone that works with children to have at least one and a half hours of training on recognizing and reporting the signs and symptoms of abuse," said Katy Emerson, communications manager and certified trainer at the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County. "We have six or seven trainers here at the center. We do at least one training a week, but there are times when we have five or six in a single week."

Many of the T.E.C.H. volunteers are certified trainers so they are able to help fill in when an advocacy center doesn't have enough staff to fulfill all of its training obligations.

With their connections in the technology industry, T.E.C.H. volunteers are also able to round up donations of computer equipment they then give to the advocacy centers. Emerson said equipment donations are always welcome.

"I don't have a laptop to use when I go out and do the trainings, and I have a DVD and a power point that I have to show," she said. "When I go out I have to borrow a laptop from someone in the building that isn't using it at the current moment. Because of our budget we don't have enough money to get a laptop for all of the trainers so that is where these guys come in."

For more information on T.E.C.H., including how to join, visit techvolunteer.net.

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