If your image of the ideal future includes every Cleveland household, regardless of socioeconomic status, having a personal computer and Internet access, then you and the city of Cleveland’s chief technology officer think alike.

Melodie Mayberry-Stewart is spearheading, on behalf of the city of Cleveland, a project that aims to make available to every Cleveland resident computer technology, Internet access and computer training.

“We want to ratchet up the computer skills of the city of Cleveland,” Dr. Mayberry-Stewart said. “Every Clevelander has the need and the right to have access to technology for enhancing everyday life and for improving the ability to compete in a global society.”

Dr. Mayberry-Stewart acknowledges that including “every Clevelander” is a huge undertaking, but she said the city doesn’t want to exclude anyone. The project, called Creating a Stronger Digital Community, is for “every neighborhood in the city,” she said.

The project will start slowly by putting a computer training center in all 21 wards. Then, it will expand to individual households. The goal is to equip single mothers and low-income families with computer skills and information technology certificates to compete for high-tech jobs, Dr. Mayberry-Stewart said.

The project is in its infancy, but it already has drawn volunteer support from about 20 corporations, schools and nonprofit organizations, including OneCleveland, Shorebank, IdeaStream, Computers Assisting People, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, and Cuyahoga Community College.

“The beauty of this group is it truly is representative of the city of Cleveland,” said Cynthia Andrews, senior location executive for IBM, who is part of the group. She added that the group is all action, little talk. “This is not a ‘12-months later we’re still thinking about this’ group.”

Participants have divided up to tackle specific projects, including determining how to engage the city’s residents in the project, providing computer training, and helping residents obtain job interviews.

Meantime, Cleveland Digital Vision, a nonprofit agency that aims to close the digital, is conducting a survey of the city’s residents to find out what the existing technology landscape looks like.

“The big questions are: Do you have a computer? Do you use a computer? Do you use the Internet?” Bill Callahan, director of Cleveland Digital Vision, said. “I think we’re going to find a mixed picture. And I think we’ll find out that one size does not fit all.”

He added, “The fact is we have little credible data about the digital divide in Cleveland or its actual impact on the lives of city residents. In this, Cleveland is not alone. Of major U.S. cities, only Seattle and San Diego have made serious efforts to learn whether and how their own residents are personally adapting to the computer revolution in their work, school and civic lives.”

The survey will cost as much as $30,000 to conduct. To date, Cleveland Digital Vision has raised only $11,000 from the Gund Foundation and other community sources.

When the survey is complete in late March, Dr. Mayberry-Stewart plans to begin soliciting the federal government and community foundations to pay for projects that will address the survey’s findings

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