1.
Engaging Communities of
Color
Gabryella Desporte, Program Coordinator at Latinitas

2.
Table of Contents
1. About Me
2. About Latinitas
3. About Digital Inclusion Fellowship, NTEN
4. Why We’re Here
5. What Our Parents Need
6. Digital Parents Program
7. ¿Mande? - Communicating with Community
8. It’s Your Turn
9. Conclusion + Wrap Up

3.
About Me
● Born and raised in Austin, TX
● UT Austin, Class of 2017
● Latin American Studies +
Sociology
● Frontera Digital: Understanding
Biometric Border Surveillance
and Transgender Migrants
● Loves being a mentor, learning
new technology, and trying new
things

4.
About Latinitas
● Nonprofit organization founded in 2002 in
Austin, Texas
● Mission: To empower girls to innovate through
media and technology
● Programs in Austin, El Paso, San Francisco, Rio
Grande Valley, New Mexico
● Served over 30,000 girls
● After school clubs, weekend workshops,
conferences, summer camps, certification
programs
● Media literacy and tech curriculum, including:
○ Digital citizenship
○ Filmmaking
○ Virtual/augmented reality
○ 3D printing
○ Drones
○ Coding

5.
Why Latinitas?
● Women only comprise of 20% of the tech workforce and
Latina women only hold 2% of all tech jobs.
● Move the Needle - more representation of women and
Latinas in technology, media, and STEM industries
● Living in Austin:
○ #1 Place to Live in the United States
○ #2 for Entrepreneurs + Startups
○ #6 Tech Talent Market
● By investing in girls to be the next generation of
courageous leaders, we help move the needle to bring
better representation of women of color, especially
Latinas, in the media and tech sector.
Source:
https://mashable.com/article/latinas-stem/

6.
About NTEN + Digital
Inclusion Fellowship
Program
● NTEN/Nonprofit Technology Education
Network
○ Digital Inclusion Fellowship Program
○ 5th cohort
○ Members from Texas, Ohio, Oregon,
North Carolina, Utah from various
professional backgrounds
○ Goal: to create computer and
technology literacy training programs
for adults to bridge the digital divide

7.
Why We’re Here
● Our mission - To help empower girls to innovate
using media and technology
● Where do parents fit in this equation?
● Student access to technology at home limited -
that means parents don’t have access, either
● Digital Inclusion Fellowship and Parents of
Latinitas - what program can we create
specifically for our parents?
● Question: How can we increase access to
technology for our community and help
address the digital divide?

8.
What Our Parents Need
● Access: Almost every parent owns a smartphone. But, just because they have
phones doesn’t mean they can do the same things they could do on a laptop!
○ ~30% have desktop computers, and ~60% had laptops at home
○ Computer and technology training, but how do we go from the classroom to
the home?
● Training: confidence in learning new skills, on their own terms
○ Learn about Microsoft apps, Google functionality, and most of all privacy
and safety.
○ 2-gen approach: having students teach parents instead of traditional
classroom setting.
○ Bilingual assistants to teach as many parents as possible.

9.
Digital Parents/Padres Digitales
ProgramThe Digital Parents Program is a
series of workshops and an
8-week program designed to
equip parents to learn essential
computer literacy skills, such as
using email, learning about digital
citizenship, and learning how to
connect to new opportunities for
their career. What makes this
program special is that it is a free,
bilingual program that uses a
2-gen (two generations) approach
to accommodate as many parents
as possible.
What parents will gain out of the
program:
● New, applicable knowledge on
how to use a computer.
● Networking to opportunities in
career advancement and
access to technology resources.
● A certificate of completion
after finishing the program.

10.
¿Mande? -
Communicating
with Community
● Since our parents don’t have access to much tech
aside from using their phones, communication
digitally can be challenging
● Parents better reached through phone calls, flyers,
and other tangible handouts - this builds rapport
and retention for programming
● Talking on the phone feels more personal, and
parents are more likely to answer
● Ex. Programs at HACA Sites

11.
Now, it’s your turn
Chat with the person next to you
and ask these questions to each
other:
What do you do to engage your
communities that you serve?
How do you cater to their needs?
Do you have new ideas on how to
engage your community?

12.
What did you learn?

13.
3 Takeaways:
1. How does your community like to
communicate?
2. Does your community have language
barriers?
3. Are your communities online, offline, or
both? How do you stay connected?

14.
Conclusion + Wrap-Up
Thank you so much for
attending!
Follow us on social media:
Facebook:
National: facebook.com/LatinitasMag
Local: facebook.com/LatinitasAustin
Instagram: @latinitasmagazine
Twitter: @Latinitas
Email me: gabryella@latinitasmagazine.org