CIANA Opens Community Resource Room in Partnership with NYS OFNDS

On Friday, February 13, CIANA formally opened its Community Resource Room, joined by clients, community partners, and local elected officials. We are grateful that so many in our community helped us inaugurate our newest initiative, and we particularly want to thank the New York State Office of Faith and Nonprofit Development Services (OFNDS) for making our Resource Room possible.

The OFNDS aims to strengthen local communities statewide by fostering digital literacy, which in recent years has become less of a luxury and more of a necessary life skill. CIANA was selected by the OFNDS to establish a Community Resource Room to strengthen digital literacy among our clients, in turn helping them achieve professional, academic, and overall social advancement.

Equipped with six refurbished desktop computers, our Community Resource Room is used by community members to apply for public benefits, jobs, and higher education, as well as to improve their technological skills in general. We have also begun Digital Literacy classes for adults, wherein students learn the basics of using computers and accessing the internet. We have also utilized the Resource Room to enhance CIANA’s long-running English classes and afterschool tutoring program through the use of computers and online tools. We are pleased to see so much engagement in our Resource Room among all age groups.

This is not the first step CIANA has taken to bridge the digital divide; we have also distributed refurbished desktops and laptops generously donated by Technology for Families in Need (TechF.I.N.) on several occasions.

We were lucky to have our new Assembly Member, Diana Moreno, at our launch event. Having been inaugurated into the New York State Assembly just a week prior (succeeding now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani), Moreno expressed her dedication to supporting local communities in her district and beyond. We are excited to continue working with her as her tenure in the Assembly continues.

We also hosted staff from the offices of State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Assembly Member Steven Raga, and Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry, as well as from NYC Health + Hospitals, Qualitas of Life, along with CIANA clients and volunteers.

Image created by the Office of Council Member Tiffany Cabán

We are currently in the throes of city budget season, as City Council Members are deciding how to allocate funds for the Fiscal Year 2027. Thanks to Participatory Budgeting, ordinary community members can have a say in how parts of the budget are allocated.

We are excited that our Community Resource Room is on the ballot in District 22, represented by Council Member Tiffany Cabán, to ensure it continues to be a vital resource to the community next year.

Voting began on Saturday, April 11 and continues until Sunday, April 19. Anyone ages 11 and older who lives, works, or attends school in District 22 can vote for our project, or for any project on the ballot. Enter your address here to see which district you can vote in.

Click here to vote!