CCNY & PARTNERS RECEIVE $1.7M TO BOOST HARLEM COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY ACCESS    

            The City College of New York, along with the Harlem Partnership Center (HPC) and the New York Department of Education (DOE), has received a $1.7 million dollar grant to provide technology training for parents and students in the DOE’s Region 10.

            Dubbed “Harlem Access,” the funding from the 21^st Century Grant consortium is over five years and will support the Harlem Community Access Technology Program, which will be officially launched on Thursday, March 18.

            CCNY/HPC and the New York Department of Education will co-host the launch reception from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Harlem Renaissance Technology Center, located at 425 West 123^rd Street.  The Center is on the 6^th floor.

            “The Harlem Community Access Technology Program will use 54 state-of-the-art computers to provide free information technology training, job preparation, entrepreneurial development and parent/child learning tools to parents with children in Region 10, which comprises School Districts 3, 5, and 6,” said William A. Rogers, Director of CCNY’s Office of Urban and Governmental Affairs.

            Mr. Rogers’ office was instrumental in establishing HPC in collaboration with the Columbia/Barnard Center for Urban Policy in 1994.  A two-year U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Partnership Center (COPC) grant provided the seed money.

            HUD’s support was part of its program aimed at motivating colleges and universities to develop community partnership centers that would support local economic empowerment initiatives.

            The Harlem Partnership Center was created to provide computer training, technical business assistance and community partnership education programs to residents in Upper Manhattan.

            Headed by Eugene Williams, a business development expert who is the Center’s president, HPC became an independent not-for-profit organization with the help of Columbia Law School and the CCNY Office of Urban and Governmental Affairs in 2000.

            Mr. Williams is also CEO of the Harlem Business and Technology Assistance Center (HTBAC) another brainchild of CCNY and its partners as part of their goal to help develop Harlem.

            HTBAC’s mission is to create and coordinate urban partnerships focused on technology and business assistance support service, using a network of partners made up of the major players in the revitalization of Upper Manhattan.

            Mr. Williams was educated at Malcolm-King College in Harlem, and the New School for Social Research, where he received a B.A. in Business Administration and an M.A. in Human Resources Management.

            He has worked extensively in the Harlem community over the past 24 years, serving as Executive Director of the Uptown Chamber of Commerce for over 10 years.  Among his various responsibilities was organizing the annual Harlem Week Celebration.

            In 1990, Mr. Williams was chosen by Pace University to develop a Harlem Small Business Center.  His primary goal was to demonstrate the need for business technical assistance in Upper Manhattan.  Mr. Williams was successful in creating outreach programs, conducting one-on-one counseling and presenting seminars on timely business issues to local business owners and entrepreneurs.

            Because of his success, he was asked to coordinate this Harlem effort on a full time basis.  Between 1991 and 1997, Mr. Williams assisted over 1500 entrepreneurs and was responsible for over $5 million dollars in economic impact.  During this time over 500 jobs were created and more than 300 others saved.

            Mr. Williams earned recognition for his work by being named the 1997 Small Business Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration.

            He has served on the Commission for African-American Males and currently sits on the board of the Manhattan Borough Development Corp.   An adjunct professor at Touro College, and Bronx Community College, Mr. Williams is General Manager of Williams & Associates, a management consulting firm.