In this day and age, being computer literate is crucial to being able to successfully and easily navigate through life. St. Mary’s Community Church is hoping to offer that freedom with its new free computer classes.
For years the church has used donations of old computers from the Hillsborough County School system to help those in need. Augustus “Sonny” Traylor, president of the trustee board and media specialist, used his skills to refurbish the systems and then give them out to people in need.
Now the program is being revamped and a computer lab has been created at the church in order to help as many as possible get the access and skills needed to operate the machinery. Pastor Timothy Knighten Sr. and Traylor bounced the idea around for several years and are finally at a place where they can pull off the endeavor.
“We’re gonna start off with basic computer skills, everything from logging on to setting up email accounts, just the basics,” Traylor said. “There are a lot of people in the community who don’t know how to set up email or go on social media. We just thought it would be a big help to the community to help bridge that gap.”
The program kicks off at 5 p.m. March 11 at St. Mary’s, 907 E. Laura St.
While it will begin with extremely simple pieces of advice it will continue to develop into more advanced classes.
Traylor, who will lead the class, said he is basing much of the courses on the skill level of those in attendance, whatever the need is is what they’ll focus on.
There are currently eight computers set up in the lab and as more computers come in the course will continue to grow. Everything is going to be based off of demand.
If there is an influx of attendees all hoping to learn they will offer the computer classes more frequently to help meet the need.
Eventually the new computer lab will be open on Saturdays as well, so those who need to use the computers for anything from research, a school project or to apply for jobs will have access to the technology. Traylor said there are many in the community that have laptops, but may not have wifi at home. The lab is also open for them if they wish to log onto the church’s wireless internet to finish their projects.
“In this day and age if you don’t know how to properly use a computer, if you don’t have access to a computer, you are living in the 19th century,” Traylor said. “Everything now is social media, it’s all computerized. You can go online and pay your bills, get your registrations for cars or licenses. It’s so convenient.”
Since announcing the start of the new course Traylor said they’ve already begun to receive positive feedback.
One woman at the church told him she has a computer, but all she knows how to do is turn it on. He’s excited they’ll now have some way to help those in the community learn some basic skills.
At first he said he assumes most of the attendees will be senior citizens who didn’t grow up with the technology since the courses will start at a very basic level. However, as the classes progress they will get into continuously more intricate issues and the classes may begin to reach a wide spectrum of backgrounds and skill levels. If the community voices its desire they may later add resume building to one of the programs offered. The fact that employment offices have virtual application systems makes having a digital polished resume a must for those in the job market.
St. Mary’s has already partnered with the Improvement League of Plant City to help assimilate the information and the hope is the classes will soon fill to capacity. The classes will be approximately an hour and a half, again based on the need. If people request to stay longer Traylor said he will be happy to help.
Each week will feature a different topic and Traylor said to stay in touch with the church for updates on upcoming courses. Those wishing to get work done in the lab are encouraged to bring their flash drive to save their work.
“Right now we are just opening the door and we are trying to get it out to the community,” Traylor said. “We are a community church and we want to help the community grow and expand. This is our way of contributing to the community. We have a small congregation, but basically everybody gets out and works tirelessly in the community. We are here to give back in any way we can.”