I’m quite excited to announce this morning that Decatur Metro and the Decatur Education Foundation have teamed up in a first-ever “Tools to Success” campaign that looks to provide selected Decatur High School graduates with their own laptop computers to help them achieve their potential at the post-secondary school level.

First a little back-story.

No surprise that this great idea actually came from DM readers and commenters.  Back in early October, a number of commenters here openly expressed a desire to use their recently announced $70 tax credit from the city to somehow help Decatur’s student population.  From that back-and-forth on DM, I initiated a conversation with the Decatur Education Foundation’s Executive Director Gail Rothman, who offered up some excellent suggestions of how we could team up to target a specific unmet need among our city’s student population.

From the start, the DEF’s laptop initiative jumped out at us both as the perfect collaborative opportunity.

The campaign’s goal is to give out as many laptops as can be purchased to DHS graduates coming from low-income households with plans for college or other post-secondary school.  Students will be selected by the “Tools to Success” committee – which will include reps from DEF, CSD and the community – after completing an application that asks how a laptop would help them achieve their goals.  I have agreed to be on-hand to represent the program when the laptops are given out at the annual DHS Scholarship Dinner.

But what fun is a campaign without a challenge, right?  So here it is.  In this inaugural year, we are challenging the Decatur community to purchase 5 laptops.  And DM will get things rolling by purchasing the first laptop in its entirety.

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