Going Forward

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
Third Street Alliance for Women & Children
City & State:
Easton, 
Pennsylvania
Organization Website:
http://www.thirdstreetalliance.org
Organization's Mission Statement

The mission of Third Street Alliance for Women & Children is to improve the quality of life for members of the community, with special emphasis on women and children. In support of this, we provide services to meet the basic needs of individuals and families and provide tools to promote personal development, responsibility and citizenship. The agency provides the community with these programs: shelter for women and children in crisis, nationally accredited childcare, adult day services, and aquatic/wellness programs.

Submission Information

Impact Essay

Third Street Alliance is a 100 year old agency located in an historic building, and until a few years ago, possessed “historic” technology. The agency had four outdated computers for an agency with four departments located in two large buildings with a total of seven floors. No two computers were networked in any way. Internet was truly interesting. Internet access was shared with a fax machine through lines run outside the building and a switch was flipped to choose between them. Email was available at only one site with one address. When an email came to someone other than the user of that computer, the person at that computer would call or run to the recipient of the email. Then that person would have to go to the “Email computer” to respond, causing the email “host” to wait to do her work. Paper abounded, as cancellations of meetings, changes in programs, or any information whatsoever had to be done by memo and delivered to actual mail boxes on the first floor of our National Register of Historic Places building. The staff got a lot of exercise—and even more frustration.

The agency decided that it was time to do business in a more productive way and hired a person to make the needed changes. More individual computers were purchased for additional staff members. Through the installation of a wireless network and the purchase of a server with Microsoft Small Business Server, everyone with a computer had email! The ability to network allowed the individual departments to share data and files and have antivirus protection for the entire network. It also allowed everyone to print to a newly purchased color laser printer, removing the need for everyone to have inkjet printers each of which seemed to have a different cartridge. With the ability to have a VPN, senior staff were able to work from home and access their documents and email. Individual programs like childcare and aquatics were able to access payments made at the office because of the shared drive. New accounting software and development software were now able to be purchased. And with one Windows platform (Goodbye, Widows 95!) and Office platform, troubleshooting was simplified and training was easier.

Just when we thought life couldn’t get better—a website! Microsoft FrontPage software allowed the agency to set up its own webpage and easily maintain it –information was current and easily accessed by everyone seeking facts about Third Street Alliance.

 

As we grew in technology with more computers and more data to store, a second server was added with increased storage capacity. Windows Software Update Services was installed to make sure all the computers were up-to date and secure. The result? A century old agency has entered the 21st century with networking, internet, wireless service, VPN, a website, and one happy staff. We don’t get as much exercise --but we fulfill our mission faster and better through a stable and secure infrastructure.

Submission Category
Stable and Secure Technology
Supporting Work Files