The Camfield Estates - MIT Creating Community Connections Project: High Technology in a Low-to-Moderate Income Community

Abstract

This chapter is a case study of a community-university partnership that is investigating strategies to bridge the “digital divide” by examining the role of community technology for the purpose of community building in a low- to moderate-income housing development. Since January 2000, the Camfield Estates-MIT Creating Community Connections Project, a partnership between the Camfield Tenants Association and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has taken place at Camfield Estates, a 102-unit, low- to moderate-income housing development in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and its surrounding environs. This chapter includes the history and background of the project, the theoretical frameworks guiding the initiative, the project methodology that has been employed to integrate community technology and community building, early results, and a set of recommendations and lessons learned for other initiatives.