093_HB2428
LRB093 10192 SJM 10446 b
1 AN ACT concerning technology.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The Eliminate the Digital Divide Law is
5 amended by adding Sections 5-50, 5-55, 5-60, 5-65, and 5-70
6 as follows:
7 (30 ILCS 780/5-50 new)
8 Sec. 5-50. Community Technology Network Grants.
9 (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department must
10 administer a special program of Community Technology Network
11 Grants in coordination with the Community Technology Center
12 Grant Program. The purpose of the grants is to provide
13 business planning tools, sustainability planning assistance,
14 and outcome tracking tools and services for community
15 technology centers and initiatives. The focus of the program
16 shall be on the integration of centers and initiatives into
17 community area-wide networks of nonprofit organizations;
18 public agencies; education, library, and cultural
19 institutions; and businesses and chambers of commerce.
20 Grants must be made to applicants that currently have
21 broad-based community networks serving multiple communities
22 in need, and that will provide community improvement,
23 community mapping, technology skill development, technology
24 staff and volunteer development, educational content, health
25 and public safety or other network support. The total amount
26 of grants awarded in fiscal year 2004 may not exceed
27 $1,500,000. An applicant for a grant under this subsection
28 may also apply for a grant under the Community Technology
29 Center Grant Program.
30 (b) Subject to appropriation, the Department may expend
31 not more than $2,500,000 in fiscal year 2004 to establish and
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1 support a Statewide Community Technology Center Network to
2 (i) assist in local and regional planning and evaluation
3 under this Law, (ii) support coordination among community
4 technology center initiatives, community computer recycling
5 center network activities, community-university information
6 extension activities, (iii) plan for public-private
7 sustainability of community technology centers and community
8 information networks, and (iv) match or coordinate funding
9 support for statewide activities to improve the capacity and
10 productivity of community technology centers, initiatives,
11 and networks.
12 (30 ILCS 780/5-55 new)
13 Sec. 5-55. Community Computer Recycling Network Grant
14 Program.
15 (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department must
16 administer the Community Computer Recycling Center Network
17 Grant Program under which the Department shall make grants in
18 accordance with this Law for the planning, establishment,
19 administration, and expansion of community, area-wide,
20 countywide, and multi-countywide networks of centers that
21 undertake community computer recycling, refurbishment, earned
22 technology, technology-based training, small technology
23 business programs, and community and nonprofit institutional
24 distribution programs for low-income and underserved
25 populations. Grants shall be made to networks of centers
26 that (i) work together to serve their areas or districts,
27 (ii) link those programs to social services, health care,
28 public safety, housing, and basic human resource networks
29 that support improvement in the quality of lives of
30 individuals, families, and the nonprofit institutions, (iii)
31 are part of the community support networks, and (iv)
32 coordinate activities with grantees of the Department's
33 Illinois Recycling Grants Program. The total amount of
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1 grants awarded under this Section in fiscal year 2004 may not
2 exceed $2,000,000. No network may receive a grant in excess
3 of $75,000.
4 (b) Subject to appropriation, the Department shall
5 expend not more than $200,000 in fiscal year 2004 to
6 establish and support a Statewide Community Computer
7 Recycling Network in coordination with other statewide
8 community technology support initiatives and with a focus on
9 the development and adoption of standardized software and
10 hardware licensing agreements for the use of donated
11 computers and other technology by nonprofit
12 institution-managed programs for community recycling and
13 earned computer programs.
14 (30 ILCS 780/5-60 new)
15 Sec. 5-60. Community-Higher Education Information
16 Extension Program. Subject to appropriation, the Illinois
17 Century Network, in cooperation with the Department, must:
18 (1) Establish a Community-Higher Education
19 Information Extension Consortium that will link community
20 and social service nonprofit organizations, including
21 community technology centers, chambers of commerce, and
22 economic development organizations. The Community-Higher
23 Education Information Extension Consortium shall focus on
24 building local human resource networks and computer
25 technology user networks that link community, education,
26 business, and public agencies in local communities or
27 district areas with not fewer than 60,000 and not more
28 than 250,000 residents. The Consortium shall also
29 develop a special planning initiative to link the current
30 Illinois Century Network learning institutions with
31 community institutions that have an interest in
32 connection to the Illinois Century Network's learner
33 information networks. For the purposes of this
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1 paragraph, "Illinois Century Network learning
2 institution" means any schools, higher education
3 institutions, libraries, and cultural institutions in the
4 State included in the Illinois Century Network.
5 (2) Conduct planning and program development
6 activities for the current Illinois Century Network
7 community-higher education and community-learning
8 institutions in each district and subdistrict that
9 involve the development of local consortia of community
10 institutions and the preparation and recommendations on
11 cooperative activities statewide and for each district
12 and subdistrict.
13 (30 ILCS 780/5-65 new)
14 Sec. 5-65. Technology planning. Subject to
15 appropriation, the Department, working with the Illinois
16 Century Network, the Governor's Office of Technology, other
17 public agencies, and a cross-section of private community,
18 nonprofit, and business sector parties, in person and through
19 distance learning and on-line communications, must review
20 developments in priorities for community technology planning
21 and support by federal agencies, including the United States
22 Department of Commerce, the United States Department of
23 Education, the United States Department of Housing and Urban
24 Development, the United States Department of Justice, the
25 United States Department of Health and Human Services, and
26 other federal agencies and federally-supported programs, and
27 must prepare recommendations concerning the best use of
28 State-funded community technology programs to provide
29 sustainability planning in relation to federal programs.
30 During the course of the review, at least one distance
31 learning conference using the preliminary findings must be
32 conducted at locations around the State in order to obtain
33 public comments on the findings. A report and
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1 recommendations must be completed no later than December 1,
2 2003 in order to assist in planning for the State budget for
3 fiscal year 2005.
4 (30 ILCS 780/5-70 new)
5 Sec. 5-70. Community-based technology job training.
6 (a) Subject to appropriation, the Department must,
7 through grants, support the development and delivery of
8 community-based technology job training initiatives to help
9 disadvantaged job seekers and low-wage and displaced workers
10 in Illinois with one or more of the following:
11 (1) Obtaining technology workplace literacy skills
12 and other technology job readiness skills identified by
13 an individual employer or by an industrial sector, and
14 obtaining initial employment.
15 (2) Developing technology job and career management
16 skills, as demonstrated by employer-endorsed credentials
17 and portfolios of proven work experience, and obtaining
18 and retaining stable employment.
19 (3) Advancing in employment through certified
20 technology skills, necessary work experience, and career
21 management skills that meet the needs of employers.
22 Eligible applicants for community-based technology job
23 training grants include community-based organizations,
24 community technology centers, and community colleges that
25 primarily serve low-income persons and that facilitate
26 working partnerships with employers in both technology and
27 non-technology sectors.
28 (b) Subject to appropriation, the Department shall expend
29 not more the $4,000,000 in any fiscal year to make grants
30 under this Section.
31 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
32 becoming law.