Bringing Computer Skills to the Needy : Training: Sheila Louison says technical illiteracy is a major problem in minority communities. Her efforts have changed lives.

A year and a half after she graduated from an entrepreneur training program, Sheila Louison is working long hours in a cramped storefront office in Gardena, struggling to keep her operation going and not earning a penny in salary.

But unlike most entrepreneurs, Louison, executive director of the nonprofit New World Computer Training Center, does not measure success by the bottom line on a balance sheet.

She measures success by the troubled youths and low-income adults who are learning how to operate that required tool for success in the 1990s and beyond: computers.

“Computer illiteracy is one of the biggest problems in minority communities today,” says Louison, 31. “But adults who need computer skills training don’t have the money to get it, and children in low-income families don’t have computers at home to learn on like most other children do.

“When I see kids’ eyes light up when they turn on a computer, or when I see a woman who’s been unemployed because she lacks computer skills suddenly realize that she can learn DOS or Windows--well, that’s a much greater reward than just making money.”

Compared to the need for computer training and job placement in low-income communities, Louison says, the number of people served by her program so far is relatively small.

Since the center opened in January, about 100 children and adults have received training in everything from math and reading skills to programs such as MS-DOS and WordPerfect.

The results in many cases may be life-changing.

There’s Consuelo Navarro, 46, who two years ago lost her job as an office manager for a small Gardena company when it brought in computers. Navarro had never touched a computer in her life.

“I know computers don’t bite, but I was afraid of them,” Navarro said.

She spent the next two years looking for work and not finding it--largely, she believes, because she lacked computer skills. Then the city of Gardena’s Employment and Training Department sent her to Louison’s center for a two-month, 20-hour-a-week computer course.

“I have two children in college and now I know more about computers than they do,” said Navarro, who recently landed a “computerized” clerical job.

“There isn’t anybody who can’t learn how to use computers,” says Louison. “Or doesn’t need to.”

Then there’s 11-year-old Perry Williams of Carson, one of six children of a working single mother whose family cannot afford a home computer--or for that matter, the usual $100-per-child fee for the center’s two-week summer “computer camp.”

Nevertheless, Perry and three of his siblings spend two hours a day at the center, learning computer programs such as “Algeblast,” a math skills program, and “Reader Rabbit,” a writing and vocabulary program.

Perry described this as “learning, but in a fun way.”

There is also Sean Tate, 25, a young man from a tough Los Angeles neighborhood who was in trouble with the law. While Louison was working as a volunteer for a food distribution program after the 1992 riots, she met Tate and eventually talked him into signing up for the computer training program. Now, with his graduation certificate in hand, he is seeking work.

“I used to spend my time getting in trouble, and now I’m putting on a tie and going to job interviews,” Tate said. “Now I feel like I can compete with the other guys.”

Government and corporate agencies that have sponsored students in Louison’s program give it high marks for effectiveness, and give her high marks for dedication.

“When kids come out of this program, they actually have something,” said Doyle Rose, general manager of Burbank-based radio station KPWR, which has sponsored two of Louison’s students. “It’s not just talk, talk, talk. It’s about jobs and training.”

“The training has been excellent,” said Patrick Martinez, manager of employment and training for Gardena, which has put a dozen students through Louison’s program. “It can really mean the difference between getting a job and not getting it.”

And she (Louison) just works and works and works to make it successful.”

After the riots, Louison, a former customer service representative for a watch manufacturing company, signed up for a three-month training course in entrepreneurial skills sponsored by the city of Los Angeles and designed to help minority community residents set up businesses in their damaged neighborhoods.

Louison, a onetime college business major, studied small business techniques and computer applications.

Louison and her mother later opened a day-care center in Gardena, but she said she “wanted to do something more to help the community.” A year ago she opened the nonprofit New World Youth Center, near 84th Street and Vermont Avenue, a place where inner-city youths could get off the streets.

The youth center also offered job training programs, including computer training--using about $20,000 worth of computer equipment that Louison bought with her own money.

Lack of funding forced the youth center to close, but Louison moved the computer training program to a 1,600-square-foot storefront on South Van Ness Avenue in Gardena.

Adult training sessions range from 12-hour workshops to eight-week courses, while youngsters attend summer “computer camps” that focus on reading, math and vocabulary.

The fee for the full two-month adult program is about $2,000, which none of Louison’s students can afford on their own. Some are sponsored by government or private agencies; others are charged based on their ability to pay, which sometimes is zero.

Although attendance is limited by computer facilities and instructors’ time, and there is a waiting list of students, No one is turnedaway simply because they lack money.

The center’s annual budget of about $150,000 for teachers’ salaries, rent and other necessities comes from donations, fund-raising efforts and student fees. So far Louison has drawn no salary, living on income from the day-care center.

It hasn’t been easy keeping things going.

The center’s limited computer facilities were further reduced last month when burglars broke in and stole about $8,000 worth of computers, monitors and printers. American Honda Motor Co. in Torrance donated six computers to help replace the losses, but equipment is still in short supply.

“There’s a crying need in the community for this kind of training,” Louison says. “It’s not just about keyboards. There are lives to be saved out there.”