Lansing Housing
Commission's
Computer Learning
Centers City of Lansing
Michigan

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In 1990 the Lansing Housing Commission established Computer Learning Centers in three public housing projects to give poor children a constructive alternative to watching television or idling on street corners. Today, 400 children, aged 8 to 18, regularly come to the Learning Centers after school to sharpen their skills in mathematics, English, history, geography, and spelling and have fun at the same time.

Throughout the housing projects, the Computer Learning Centers have become hubs of daily activity for children from many different ethnic and racial backgrounds, including a large influx of Southeast Asian immigrant families. Each Learning Center is supervised by adult "coaches," many of whom also live in the projects.

At the centers, children can participate in national competitions in mathematics, essay and poetry writing, chess, and spelling. The centers also offer a young people's theater group, field trips, and team sports.

The Lansing Police Department reports that since the centers opened, illegal drug activity in the projects has noticeably diminished. School officials note that the academic skills of program participants are improving or holding steady, school attendance has risen and tardiness diminished. This is in contrast to the experience of children in other public housing, whose grades deteriorate and truancy increases as they get older.

The Learning Centers have expanded to include an education-training program for adults. Developed in cooperation with Lansing Community College, the program offers free courses in business math, word processing, typing, and office procedures. As of mid-1993, 11 residents had completed a basic secretarial course, and 34 had taken typing and work processing courses at the centers. The Lansing Housing Commission assists in job placement.

The Learning Centers are attracting the attention of public housing authorities in a number of other cities.