The community organization St. Christopher House offers a wide range of services to meet the diverse needs of individuals, families and groups. These services include literacy training, services for the homeless, community development, seniors’ services, and others. Internet and computer access are new services added to this broader set of activities.

An important finding of this research was a reaffirmation that human capacity development requires substantive and ongoing training in general skills as well as technology in order to have a long-term benefit. Ongoing support and training assists individuals in utilizing the full potential of resources and services available and, in turn, realizing their potential capabilities. Community capacity development also requires that community organizations providing various services be sufficiently resourced (funding, staff, equipment, expertise, etc.) over the longer term. Support and resources must also extend to the specific programs intended to assist individuals in training (technical access, Internet, standard literacy, employment skills, etc.). Support for these organizations and the range of services they provide, is a constituent component for the organizations and their clients being able to successfully participate in, and contribute to, broader community economic and social capacity development. ⁹ The gap between those organizations with and without these resources and skills is another dimension of the digital divide; specifically that of community social infrastructure.

Research has shown that those with a higher level of education (and therefore literacy skills), have also higher levels of confidence in using computers and the Internet. Those with lower levels of education (particularly high school or less), are much less likely to express confidence in the skills necessary to use and benefit from computers and the Internet. In the Toronto study, these problems were further aggravated for those whose first language was not English.¹⁰

⁹ Report on Local Residents and the Internet, PIAC, November, 2000.
¹⁰ Ekos Research, 2000, Rethinking the Information Highway.