wfn.org | British Columbia program salvages old computers and youth

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Program salvages old computers and youth

Leanne Larmondin
Website Manager
Anglican Church of Canada
ll@anglican.ca

Vancouver, B.C. -- December 16, 1999

If you are reading this from a new computer monitor or system - perhaps a
Christmas present to yourself - you might be wondering what to do with your
old hardware odds and ends.

David Dranchuk has an idea for you: donate the old computer to a program
which might help a disadvantaged youth stay in school.

Already known in Canada's Diocese of New Westminster as a man who can make
things happen, Mr. Dranchuk began CompuStep a year and a half ago to
salvage old computers from donors, spruce them up and forward them to needy
young people.

Mr. Dranchuk, a former street youth outreach worker with the diocese, said
he wanted to start a project that would help youth before they reached the
street.

"It's very expensive to pick up the pieces (once they've dropped out),"
said Mr. Dranchuk. "I was looking for a project to encourage them to stay
in school."

The kernel of the idea for CompuStep came to Mr. Dranchuk in 1996, when a
young woman he knew from the street indicated to him her interest in
returning to school.

"But she needed a computer," he said. He gave her his antiquated 286 -
which was old even then - and she went on to excel in school, even making
the honour roll.

"I started giving serious thought to starting a non-profit society, finding
obsolete computers, fixing them up and giving them out."
Aware that one in five children in Canada are said to live in poverty and
spurred on by the knowledge that there are a lot of old computers lying
around unused, Mr. Dranchuk registered the non-profit CompuStep in April
1998.

Almost exclusively powered by volunteers (Mr. Dranchuk is the only paid
employee, and his income depends on financial donations), the program took
off to the extent that Mr. Dranchuk is now accepting both individual and
corporate donations of 600 computers at a time. The computers -- he only
accepts PCs, 486s or better, with a minimum of eight megabytes of RAM and
capable of running the Windows 95 operating system -- are refurbished by
volunteers, some of whom are fellow parishioners at St. Richard's Anglican
Church, North Vancouver. The computers and peripherals -- CompuStep
especially needs printers -- then have new homes with young people, who are
referred by schools and social service agencies.

Mr. Dranchuk is also grateful to St. Richard's for serving as an erstwhile
storage and repair depot for computers. He admits that he has an "in" at
the parish -- his wife, Wendy Eyre-Gray, is rector.

If companies or individuals across Canada have computers they want to
donate, Mr. Dranchuk said he can probably arrange for some kind of delivery
to get the computers to CompuStep, but he has a better idea.
"If I got calls from a group, for example, in Oshawa, Ont., I would
encourage them to find the resources in their own community," he said. "You
don't need much to start a program like this: you need storage, work tables
and the know-how. I could steer them in the right direction."

CompuStep is the latest in successful programs Mr. Dranchuk has started
for at-risk young people. In the late 1980s, he helped launch the Picasso
Café on Vancouver's Broadway, which trained street youth in the service
industry. Students who completed the training program received a community
college diploma in short-order cooking or dining room service and, more
importantly, gained work experience.

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Dranchuk also began the Auto Service Training and
Employment Program, or Astep, which helped young people on welfare to gain
skills in auto repair. It folded after "four good years", said Mr.
Dranchuk, primarily because of uncertainty of having to continually seek
funding.

"That's the beauty of CompuStep: the costs are low," said Mr. Dranchuk, who
raises funds by speaking to foundations and service clubs, where he also
finds volunteer technicians. "I have to scratch and claw for everything
these days, but I'm used to it."

Mr. Dranchuk may be contacted at CompuStep at compustep@attcanada.net.
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