In
This Issue:
HURRICANE KATRINA HITS BUSINESS
ACCESS
FBH Suffers
Of
all the excuses we could use as to why this website as seen so few
updates this season, I think we finally hit upon a very noble reason.
Last week or so, Business Access has begun the task of handing out
computers to the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina. These recipients
are generally from the New Orleans area and are now living in and
around Dallas, Texas. These are people who have lost everything in
the floods and winds of the Hurricane that hit a few months ago,
and are now scattered in apartments, hotels, and temporary housing
units throughout the DFW area. The computers are intended to assist
them in their efforts to find employment, since most of them lost
their jobs to the storms. In addition to a new computer, Katrina
victims in our program receive free dial-up Internet service for
one year (including an email address of their own), free tech-support
for one year, and free access to the many on-line courses that Business
Access has been providing to our many clients over the last several
years. All of this is being funded by local government agencies.
For those who don't already know
what Business Access does, well, this is basically what we've been
doing for low income and low-employed persons in communities throughout
Texas and also in Ocean County, New Jersey. Our "Achievers" earn their
computers by spending time online, using our website and it's many
resources for employment, as well as taking our on-line training
courses that help them improve not just their Computer skills but
also their Job skills and "life skills", in an effort to improve
their employment status, advance in their current positions, or find
better jobs elsewhere. While
I can't quote you statistics, I can assure you that this program,
well, just plain works. We've helped many, many people in the last
several years, made so many people's lives better, it's just a great
feeling knowing that we're doing something so worthwhile. While our
typical Achievers must spend 20 hours on-line each month, and complete
a minimum of 20 classes in their 1 year spent in the program, our
Katrina victims are only required to find, and maintain, employment
for 60 days, and the computer is theirs to keep.
Business Access is the brainchild
of, and owned and operated by, Kim and Roy
Bunting and James Howell.
Other FBH members include BA employees Ken Davis, Dyalan
Beamon,
Becky Tanner, Kelly Howell, and
of course, Ralph. To get a glimpse of what we do
and have done, check out our website at www.business-access.com.
(You'll need a username and password to see what our Achivers see,
but this should provide you an idea of our program.)
And we've only just begun in our
efforts to help our displaced neighbors from The Big Easy. Two weeks
ago, we began by shipping PC's to those who qualify
(which is basically anyone who was forced to flee their homes in
New Orleans). Last week, we began a system by which Katrina victims
are invited to come to our office in Dallas, presented with a 30-minute
"Welcome Session" in which we help them thru the process of personalizing
their computers and show them some of the basics of our website,
and walk them to their cars with a new computer and monitor. Over
these two weeks, we've provided computers to over 100 people.
And this is only just the beginning. Word of the program is spreading
and our government funding should be expanding as the program continues
to grow. Our goal is to provide a new PC to every evacuee who applies
for one, a number that could reach 1000 or more
in the coming weeks and months. So you can well imagine how busy
all of us have been to get this project rolling. Hence, FBH is suffering
because of it.
This week, Roy asked me to post
a general apology to our FBH family for the lack of updates to our
website, as well as the slowness of my updating of the standings,
due entirely to our time being spent helping our Katrina people.
If you could see and hear the gratitude we've been receiving from
our Katrina clients, you would fully understand how this endeavor
is so amazingly worthwhile. While FEMA and other government agencies
dragged their feet in the first weeks of the storms' aftermath, rest
assured that your tax dollars are now being put to an extremely good
use. For these people to have a new computer in their "make-shift"
homes is truly a blessing to them. We hear stories of people who
are being forced to go to their local libraries, wait in line for
hours, just to use a computer for 30 minutes worth of job-searching.
And those are the lucky ones. Most of our people have no computer
access at all. For those of you sitting in the comfort of your living
rooms, taking your PC's for granted, stop and imagine what these
people have gone thru and are going thru, by no choice of their own.
Please remember them in this upcoming week of Thanks-Giving. Remember
how fortunate you are not to be in their position. And realize that
you could be one of them one day. Kinda makes a slowly updated website
seem pretty insignificant, doesn't it?
Thanks for your understanding.
We love you all!! :-)
