Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 27, 2000

Volume 29, Number 8

Cancer center will lead community
initiative to bridge 'digital divide'

The New England Region Cancer Information Service (CIS) at the Yale Cancer Center is spearheading an initiative to make information about cancer more accessible to low-income New Haven families.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded $195,000 to CIS as part of its Projects to Overcome the Digital Divide (PRODD) program, an initiative to decrease the information gap between those with and without access to computers.

The NCI found that in a recent year more than 22 million adults in the United States used the Internet to access health and medical information, and the Association of Cancer On-line Resources processed more than one million emails each week -- yet more than half the nation's households do not own a personal computer. PRODD's goal "is to make access to computers and the Internet as universal to all populations as the telephone is today," according to Dr. Richard D. Klausner, director of the NCI.

The PRODD funding will be used to establish two Community Technology Centers at Head Start facilities designed to provide computer access and training to New Haven families.

While the centers will be open to the community at large, the training program will focus on the parents of children enrolled in the Head Start program. Head Start employees will be trained as technology coaches, and will present a six-hour training course for parents. When they complete the course, the parents will receive a free, refurbished, Internet-ready computer.

Peter Salovey, professor and chair of psychology and professor of epidemiology and public health, and Linda Mowad, R.N., director of CIS, will lead Yale's PRODD program, which will include the CIS, the Department of Psychology's Health, Emotion and Behavior Laboratory, and Yale's Office of New Haven and State Affairs. Several community agencies will also be involved in the initiative, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, which runs the two Head Start programs involved; Computers 4 Kids, a nonprofit agency that provides technology-focused training programs, workshops and computer equipment to low-income families; and Urban Policy Strategies, a group of minority researchers and consultants that provides program planning and evaluation tools to community-based organizations.

"The PRODD project is a very gratifying integration of research on cancer communication strategies with the development of a community-based program to bridge the digital divide," says Salovey. "We could not have even proposed such a potentially exciting program without the multiple community-based organizations working in collaboration with Yale University to achieve this goal."

The CIS at the Yale Cancer Center provides up-to-date information on cancer prevention, detection and treatment. Trained cancer information specialists are available to answer questions 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

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