KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Rose Ledbetter has been unemployed for a while now. It’s tough to even get an interview without a resume made on a computer.

“It’s a computer age, and I’m stuck in the Stone Age,” said Ledbetter, a single mother of five. “Most jobs require computer skills nowadays, and I don’t even know how to turn one on.”

That’s changing now because of a program led by a Baker University faculty member.

Since January 2004, Tom Conoley, an associate professor of computer science, has spent many Saturdays at University United Methodist Church, in one of Kansas City’s poorer neighborhoods. He’s working to bridge what many call the “digital divide” – the gap in technology knowledge between the affluent and poor.

Conoley teaches computer classes on Saturdays at the church, 3148 Parallel Parkway.

And, using donated equipment, he and Baker students spend hours each week rebuilding computers to give to those who come to the church. The program has given away about 60 computers.

“These folks don’t have two nickels to rub together,” said Conoley, who will be honored by the church during its service Sunday. “It puts everyone in this digital divide problem at a disadvantage.”

Tom Conoley, associate professor of computer science at Baker University, works with the University United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Kan., to increase people's computer literacy. The basement of the church is home to an assortment of computer equipment from old monitors to piles of keyboards.

University duty

The idea for the computer ministry came from the church’s pastor, Lynn Lamberty. He said most of his 90 members were computer illiterate, as are many of those in the surrounding community.

“It’s a little place, and we’re in a neighborhood where people are pretty much low-income and lower-middle income folks,” he said. “We have a lot of families who couldn’t afford a computer. If the church doesn’t keep up with what’s important in society, you get irrelevant in a hurry.”

He contacted Ira DeSpain, campus minister at Baker University in Baldwin and former pastor at University United Methodist, to see whether students could help with the lab. DeSpain talked to Conoley, who volunteered his own time to help out.

“It’s a church that keeps on trying to be relevant to the people who live in the neighborhood,” DeSpain said. “If they expect to have any sort of future or education of any sort, you have to be computer literate.”

DeSpain said community service was an important component to the work of faculty and staff. The program is an especially good fit because Baker is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

“At the university as a whole, it’s real clear that community service is a part of what it means to be an educated adult in the 21st century,” DeSpain said. “Giving back to the community and engaging in civic responsibility is part of what we do as educated people.”

‘Grounded’

The computers in the lab, and the computers Conoley gives away, aren’t top of the line.

When they started out, they were Pentium I processors. Now, they’re mostly Pentium IIs with a few Pentium IIIs. Most currently have the Windows 98 operating system.

Many of the computers were discarded by Baker faculty and staff who got upgrades on campus. Some came from students, businesses or other colleges.

“From Baker’s standpoint, it takes equipment they’d have to pay to have hauled off,” Conoley said. “The (students) can learn by helping put it together. And it furthers our mission of helping the Methodist Church.”

So far, the church’s lab doesn’t have Internet access. Conoley and Lamberty would like to add that in the future, but money is tight at the church.

Rickey Frazier, 17, carries a newly acquired computer monitor into his house in Kansas City, Kan. Frazier got the computer for free from a program through the University United Methodist church, which strives to help its community by helping develop computer skills and access to technology. Tom Conoley, associate professor of computer science at Baker University, is working with the program.

Conoley, who lives in Lenexa, said his garage has filled up with computer equipment for the program, as have two rooms in the church basement.

Conoley isn’t Methodist. He grew up Mormon, and his wife is Catholic. But he said the digital ministry wasn’t about denominations.

“My father and mother came from poor, working-class families,” he said. “They weren’t as well-off as me. With my folks’ background, you realize not all the world is doctors and lawyers. It’s not all Johnson County. I can get a stilted perspective, but this keeps me grounded.”

Grateful congregation

Lamberty said Conoley had filled a unique niche in his congregation.

Rickey Frazier, 17, Cameron Thompson, 12, and Demario Thompson, 9, head home after picking up their new computer.

“He’s just a very generous guy and gets along extremely well with the people who come,” the pastor said. “He’s a humble guy as well, but he has such a good way of teaching them things without making them feel stupid. That’s a gift.

“It’s a complete blessing to us, a total gift to us and the people in the community who are involved.”

The program has made a difference for Rickey Frazier, a junior at Wyandotte High School. He got a computer earlier this year and uses it for classroom assignments.

“People save money by coming here and getting a computer,” Frazier said. “This way, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get one.”