Media Lab

Media lab hours are 10 AM – 5 PM, Mon - Fri. The media lab includes 8 public computers with printing. We also send faxes at no charge to area code 504 and toll-free numbers, we receive faxes sent to our 916.675.7827 number, and we do copying as well. The first 10 computer printouts or copies are free, and any additional copies or printouts are ten cents each. If you have 10 copies and 5 printouts that is 15 items total, and you will be charged for 5 of them. We regret that we are unable to send faxes to long-distance numbers.

Free Website-Building Classes for Small Businesses at the Community Center of St Bernard!

Having an online website for your business is important for attracting new customers, increasing sales, spreading positive publicity and awareness about your products and services, and presenting your business in the most professional light to customers, suppliers, and financial lenders.

However, even the cost of the most basic website can be prohibitive for many small businesses. Professional designers routinely charge $2,000 or more to set up a simple website, along with additional monthly fees for updating and maintaining the site.

Thanks to generous funding from the Meraux Foundation, the Joseph and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation, and BP America, Inc, the Community Center of St Bernard is able to offer a free hands on course that will teach St Bernard small business owners how to set up and maintain their own small business websites. Preference will be given to businesses that have been affected by the Gulf Oil Spill.

The courses will be held on Wednesday evenings at the Community Center of St Bernard, 1111 LeBeau St, Arabi, and will meet for approximately 90 minutes beginning at 5:30 – 6 PM. Each course will include 5 Wednesday night sessions. The next round of classes will begin on Wednesday, May 23. Additional rounds of 5 weeks of classes will begin on July 11 and August 15. Each round of classes is limited to 10 participants. To register for the classes, please phone the Community Center at 504-281-2512 and specify which class you would like to enroll in.

Topics to be taught each week are as follows:

Week 1, Website registration and hosting: Students choose their website name (e.g. mybusiness.com) and register and host the website. Students also set up their website email (eg name@mybusiness.com )

Week 2, Introduction to Wordpress: Students begin to build their website using the free Wordpress service. Students learn about Wordpress themes and plugins and choose and install these on their sites.

Week 3, Building a Wordpress Site: Students learn about Wordpress posts, pages, and menus, and continue to add content to their websites, including text, photos, and videos if needed.

Week 4, Advanced Website Tools: Students learn about autoresponders (online list building software) and paypal ecommerce services and decide if they will use these or not on their website. Students register for Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools and begin tracking visitor demographics to their websites.

Week 5, Finishing a Wordpress Site: Students finalize their websites with any additional text editing, photos, videos, and formatting changes. Students review and reply to any feedback to their website. Students learn how to moderate comments and control spam. Students learn basic techniques to get websites indexed by Google and other search engines so that the site can be found on the internet.

While the classes are free, participants will need to pay the $15 annual fee to register their website and the $12.95 monthly fee to have their website hosted. Please note that these fees are payable by credit card or paypal account on the first day of class and are paid directly to the Hostgator web services company, not the Community Center of St Bernard.

Community Center Receives BP Grant for Workforce Development

BP America has awarded the Community Center of St. Bernard a $15,000 grant to fund the Workforce Development Project.

The Workforce Development Project provides small business owners, affected by the Gulf Oil Spill, hands-on instruction on how to set up a basic website that will suit their business needs. This grant will help to offset the cost of creating course materials and instructor's wages.

“BP applauds the Community Center's work to help residents of south Louisiana gain financial independence while stimulating the economy,” said Iris Cross, general manager of BP Gulf Coast Restoration Organization (GCRO) in Louisiana. “BP is proud to make this contribution to a community we've had a longstanding relationship with, and we look forward to seeing its growth.”

“Our Workforce Development Program provides small business owners with the skills necessary to take their business to the next level,” said Iray Nabatoff, Executive Director of the Community Center of St. Bernard. “This grant will help us impact the lives of St. Bernard residents as well as the local economy.”

The Community Center of St. Bernard is a community-based grassroots 501 (c) (3) nonprofit with a mission of assisting local residents in their return to their homes and helping to normalize their lives.

The center is committed to providing a wide range of necessary community services, including food, clothes, Internet access, referrals, computer classes, and community events such as after school programs and workshops.

New Public Computers at the Community Center of St Bernard!

Thanks to generous donations from the Credit Bureau of Baton Rouge Foundation, Entergy Micro Grants and the Brown Foundation, the Community Center of St Bernard's Media Lab now has new Dell Inspiron One computers with Windows 7 available for use by the public.

These new machines are being kept very busy by clients who are doing job searches, working on the FDIC's MoneySmart online financial literacy course, filing assistance claims, and just keeping in touch with friends and family displaced after hurricane Katrina. And thanks to a wonderful software donation from vmware, these computers are also being used for basic training classes in both Windows 7 and Windows XP!

The Community Center is very grateful to the donors and grantors whose generosity made upgrading the Media Lab's public computers possible, and we invite everyone to stop by and check out these great new machines!

Registration for Free Basic Computer Classes Begins May 7

The Community Center's next round of free computer classes will begin on May 15. To enroll, please phone the Community Center at 504.281.2512 after 9 AM on May 7. NO REGISTRATION WILL BE ACCEPTED BEFORE 9 AM ON MAY 7. Class size is limited to 8 members for each class with a waiting list of 4 members.

COMPUTER CLASS SCHEDULE

Day 1: Introduction to Windows 7 — Understanding basic Windows elements and settings (toolbars, start menu, display settings, power options, user preferences).

Day 2: Using Windows 7 — Using Windows Explorer and common file and folder commands (delete, rename, properties, views).

Day 3: Using Windows 7 Part II — Using essential services including Windows Help and Windows Search and printer setup. More work with files and folders including cut, copy, paste and handling multiple files.

Day 4: Word Processing — Microsoft Word 2010. Creating new documents, using cut, copy, paste and undo commands.

Day 5: Introduction to the Internet - Internet Explorer 9. Searching, using web addresses, maps, directions, image searches.

EVENING CLASSES: Tuesdays 5—6 PM on May 15, 22, 29 & June 5, 12

MORNING CLASSES: Thursdays 10—11 AM on May 17, 24, 31 & June 7, 14

Workforce Development Program in Website Design

In order to assist low-income residents with developing work-related and marketable skills, the Community Center of St Bernard will be offering basic classes in designing websites using the Wordpress platform during the Fall 2010 through Spring 2011. Students will learn how to research and register a domain name, get the domain hosted, install Wordpress, install themes and plugins, add text, add photos and videos, add Facebook "like" button, and include a signup form for newsletters and special offers. Some sample Wordpress websites which are being built as business website examples and works-in-progress are available at:

Website Design and Maintenance Services Available

Custom website design and maintenance services are now available from the Community Center of St Bernard! If you or your organization needs a website or blog set up, or just wants to bring the information on your current site up-to-date, the Community Center can help! Fees vary depending on the type of service being provided, with a 15% discount for organizations with a verifiable IRS 501c3 status. For more information about website design services, please phone the Community Center during normal business hours.

Internet Acceptable Use Statement

The Community Center of St Bernard is committed to its role in providing essential recovery resources to residents of St Bernard Parish and surrounding areas. Providing Internet-connected computers enables the Community Center to facilitate resident access to information and services beyond what are available on-site. However, not all sources on the Internet provide information that is accurate, complete, current, legal or philosophically acceptable to all people.

The Community Center of St Bernard upholds the right of each individual to have access to constitutionally protected material.  However, the unauthorized or illegal use of the Community Center's computing systems and facilities may result in revocation of Internet use privileges, general Community Center privileges and/or constitute grounds for civil or criminal prosecution.

The Community Center of St Bernard therefore prohibits the following:

  • Sending, receiving or displaying obscene or pornographic text or graphics inappropriate for a public and open environment.
  • Engaging in any activity that facilitates sending, receiving or displaying inappropriate materials to a minor.
  • Activities that disrupt the Community Center or its network.
  • Loading or downloading software from the Internet or using personal software programs on the Community Center's computers. 
  • Making any attempt to modify, gain access to files, passwords or data belonging to others, seeking unauthorized access to the Community Center's or any other computer system or damaging or altering software components of any network or database.

Public Internet computers are not secure and should not be used to transfer financial and other personal data. The Community Center is not responsible for the misuse of personal information entered on websites, nor can it guarantee that Community Center computers will access any purchased Internet content.

The Community Center allows the use of USB storage devices in its public computers to save or retrieve information (USB storage devices should not require device drivers or special software to be installed for use with Windows XP). Connecting other types of devices to the computer using the USB ports is not recommended. The Community Center is not responsible for technical support required by the use of the devices or any damage, loss or destruction of personal devices or data connected by customers.

The Community Center reserves the right to schedule time on all Internet access computers, or to request that users finish their sessions early in order to accommodate others on days when there is a line of clients waiting to use the computers.  Clients are required to sign up for a computer by using the clipboard in the main office.  All columns on the clipboard must be filled in completely. Clients may be asked to provide identification in order to confirm sign-in information on the clipboard.

The Community Center of St Bernard is committed to protecting the privacy of its customers.  Information concerning personal use of the Internet is confidential; however it will be released to law enforcement personnel upon request.

FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE INTERNET ACCEPTABLE USE STATEMENT
 MAY RESULT IN LOSS OF ACCESS TO THE INTERNET