The PACE Center for Girls will operate more efficiently after receiving a completely new computer system from the Glazer Family Foundation
Administrators at the PACE Center for Girls in Hillsborough County knew it was time for a computer upgrade when they acquired some helpful new software…and couldn't even run it.
The center's hardware, you see, could charitably be described as "outdated." (PACE administrators used the term "antiquated," which certainly drives the point home.) That useful new software? Incompatible. Impossible even to install on the outdated hard drives. And thus, rendered useless.
The solution was obvious, which is not to say easy. Upgrading the center's computer network, while clearly necessary, would cost thousands of dollars. That's no small issue for an organization whose funds are earmarked for solving the very real and very immediate problems of hundreds of at-risk local girls.
The PACE Center for Girls needed new computer equipment, and they needed help. In stepped the Glazer Family Foundation, and "GlazerNET" was born.
The PACE Center receives 50% of its annual funding from the Department of Juvenile Justice and 25% from Hillsborough County Schools, and therefore must work very hard to raise the other 25% of its budget through charitable means. To attack this problem, the center launched the "PACEcomputes Campaign for New Computers."
The Glazer Family Foundation responded with a complete donation of $30,000 worth of computer equipment, thus prompting a PACE administrator to coin the term GlazerNET. Once the donated equipment has been unpacked and installed – and outfitted with completely compatible new software – the GlazerNET will be a fully functional IT lab designed to increase the center's efficiency and effectiveness.
The donation includes Dell and Apple equipment and is complete with a state-of-the-art server, multiple work stations, new printers and a scanner. GlazerNET will help PACE employees conduct the center's outreach as well as educate the girls involved in the program.
The Glazer Family Foundation and the PACE Center have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship. Last year, for instance, the Glazer Family Foundation presented PACE with a check for over $75,000, the end result of a lengthy fundraising project centering around the Buccaneers Family Cookbook. The Foundation's involvement with PACE has been spearheaded by Dr. Angela Glazer, who over the past five years has made numerous visits to the center, donating time and money to fundraising efforts and garnering awareness for the issues facing young women today. Dr. Glazer was instrumental in the most recent donation, as well.
The PACE Center for Girls is a community-based academic and social service program for girls who have been labeled at-risk, though Center employees prefer the term "at-promise." Girls who enter the Center's program are frequently victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and they are often well behind academically and struggling with depression. The center has a high success rate in terms of improving academic performance and decreasing instances of crime, but it also believes there are many more at-risk girls in the community they are unable to reach.
Donations such as the one that produced GlazerNET, then, are essential to the center's continued growth, and its growing success. The Glazer Family Foundation was only too happy to become involved.
