From the Duke News Service

December 1, 1999

In a new program honoring Duke University's 75th anniversary, GTE and Duke are working together to promote literacy in Durham's West End neighborhood.

GTE Directories has given Duke's Office of Community Affairs a $25,000 grant to enhance computer initiatives underway in the university's neighborhood partnership program. In recognition of Duke's anniversary, GTE is featuring Duke on the cover of its Yellow Pages directory this year to celebrate the university's milestone. The grant was announced at a ceremony at the West End Community Center Wednesday, at which an oversized mock-up of the directory was presented to Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane.

Keohane said the computer literacy initiative is a good example of the kind of partnerships the community and Duke are developing together. "The success of this project is a result of the hard work of West End community leaders such as Ronnie McKoy and Juanita McNeil, who have a vision for their community and a commitment to make that vision a reality," Keohane said. "The focus on computer literacy for the children and others in the West End is an important component of that vision and fits wonderfully with GTE's national leadership role in advancing literacy. I'm grateful to GTE for making this gift in recognition of Duke's 75th anniversary."

Knowing that computer literacy is an increasingly crucial component of education, Duke has donated hundreds of computers, along with technology support and training, to area schools and several neighborhood community centers, including the West End Community Center. The GTE gift will be used to help pay for computer Internet hook-ups and computers for a new West End Teen Center at 705 Kent St. The Teen Center was purchased for the West End Community Center in September by Duke, with a grant from The Duke Endowment. It is scheduled to open early in 2000. The GTE gift also will fund the purchase of a new van to transport children who live in the West End and some of Duke's other partner neighborhoods, as well as students who tutor or mentor them.

"Through our considerable experience with tutoring and mentoring programs, we've found that a lack of transportation can hinder their success," said Michael Palmer, director of Duke's Office of Community Affairs. "Computers and mentors do no good if we can't get children to them. A van will greatly help us drive children to and from community centers and activities. It will also shuttle Duke tutors between campus and neighborhood schools. Some 300 Duke students tutor local children in a variety of volunteer programs."

Steve Toler, GTE's regional director of public affairs, said his company is proud to help celebrate Duke's 75th anniversary by helping to make Durham neighborhoods even better places to live.

"Literacy, which includes computer literacy, is a focus of GTE," Toler said. "We need to make sure that the information age includes all our citizens. This program with Duke is one of the things we're doing to help make that happen."

McKoy, director of the West End Community Center, said Duke already has helped upgrade the computer laboratory where children work on homework assignments after school. Keohane and her husband, Bob, have even donated their personal computers to the center, which serves about 60 young people in after-school programs, McCoy said.

About 70 percent of the children in the neighborhood program come from single-parent homes in West End, McKoy said. The majority do not own computers. The GTE-Duke gift will help the teens in the new teen center have enough computer capacity to build Web pages and run new software. "It will help make them more competitive," McKoy said.

Duke's Office of Community Affairs coordinates the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative, which was launched in 1996 to focus Duke resources on helping to improve the quality of life in 12 neighborhoods near campus and supporting the seven public schools that serve those neighborhoods. Duke has pledged to raise $10 million to support its partnerships with the community as part of its Campaign for Duke.

The GTE directories with the Duke cover will begin delivery to Durham residents and businesses next week.

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