Last month during the height of the Olympic Games in Beijing, I had an epiphany about how famed Olympic swimmer, Cullen Jones, was able to change minds. Not only was he one of a few African American swimmers to participate in the Olympics, he also decided to develop a foundation exclusively for the swimming education of inner city children. Check out the initial post in its entirety for my complete thoughts. 
I then began thinking about examples on how people have reached out to their community to overcome access to technology and the Internet. Many of us are already familiar with the term “digital divide” – basically describing the distance between those who are comfortably using modern technology and those who have either poor skills or none at all with the helpful technologies of today.
My good friend Shireen aka Digital Sista immediately came to my mind when I thought about individuals who, like Cullen, saw a need in their community to help with access to something new and decided to do something about it. So I got in touch with her and asked her to help me to illustrate the importance of helping your community learn something new and help dispel stereotypes.
Here’s my Q&A with Shireen:
Andre: What did you see a need for that prompted you to reach out to this audience?
Shireen: My first experience was at a seminar I was holding at a place called “Sisterspace and Books” in DC. The women felt that the (technical) words thrown around made them feel uncomfortable. I realized that although the education levels of everyone in the room was the same men tended to pretend they knew more than me although I was teaching the class. The women were waiting to be taught.
As we are in the midst of the Digital Age where communities and audiences continue to become more fragmented and having specialized needs, health educators and communicators need to always be aware of how those needs are assessed. Of course it isn’t easy – one of the things I recommend is learning more yourself. Being open to learning and understanding new technologies and methods actually help you do the same for your target communities.
