UnitedHealthcare donates computers to Faith Community Outreach

ALBANY — UnitedHealthcare has donated 10 refurbished and new laptop computers to Faith Community Outreach in Albany.

Faith Community Outreach, which also serves as a homeless shelter, hosted a ribbon-cutting at its new computer lab on Tuesday at 106 N. Monroe St. where community members will be able to take advantage of them.

There were representatives present from Faith Community Outreach and UnitedHealthcare.

The donation, officials said, should enable the nonprofit to host computer classes where adult residents will be able to apply for jobs and complete online applications. Children and teenagers will also be able to utilize the computer lab to complete school assignments.

The computer lab will also provide access to social and educational resources and health information.

Iris Davis, executive director of the center, said the people served by the organization already come by the North Monroe location for services anyway — so adding a computer lab gives them an extra resource. A number of people are served from the area, many of whom travel by foot, for items such as food or hygiene kits.

In the process, the organization has become accustomed to working with people in the North Monroe Street vicinity, and hope one day to branch out its services — including the computers — into other areas of the city.

“(With the computer lab), we can envision a one-stop connection … they can better themselves by using these computers,” Davis said. “We are just excited to be selected; we’ve been excited to receive them.

“In the long-run, (the computers will help to) build self-esteem. They can use them without a charge and we hope to have staff who can assist those who have problems … We are thankful to UnitedHealthcare to even make this an opportunity.”

The donation is part of UnitedHealthcare’s Community Computers program, which is meant to enable community organizations and nonprofits to provide computer and Internet access to people in underserved communities. The company has donated nearly 3,000 computers in 24 states since the program began in 2012.

This year, UnitedHealthcare has donated 250 computers to community-based organizations in Georgia, officials with United said.

The ones donated on Tuesday included computers from within the UnitedHealthcare organization that were either new or had been refurbished after they were no longer considered useful to the company.

The most recent figures available from Faith Community Outreach show that, in 2014, there were 87 shelter residents and applicants, 463 food bags distributed, 328 referrals, 883 volunteer hours, more than 10,000 pieces of clothing and other items distributed and 931 personal hygiene distributions through the organization.

Faith Community Outreach offers temporary shelter equipped with 20 beds and also offers training in life skills. For more information, call (229) 436-0807, email [email protected] or visit www.faithcommunityoutreach.org.