St-AlbertCAP.com

History

St-AlbertCAP.com is the result of a vision by its volunteer Board members to connect the entire community of St. Albert to Information Technologies through access to free computer labs for the public, computer courses, and an online community network for local organizations whether non-profit, business, or government orientated.

St. Albert CAP is a part of the larger shared vision of Industry Canada's Urban CAP program that strives for complete access to Information Technologies and the Information Highway to Canadians. In October of 2001 St. Albert CAP received a grant of $238,000 from Industry Canada to bring the program to St. Albert.

The Community Access Program (CAP) works by creating partnerships in a community where a local school, library, business, or any other group agrees to become a Host Site for a computer lab or station. That computer lab is open to the public and free to use. The Host Sites are often called CAP Centres.

In St. Albert we are proud to have 16 Host Sites, including, computer labs at the St. Albert Public Library, the St. Albert Youth Community Centre, and Transitions (previously the Association for People with Disabilities). Our computer kiosks were purchased from Infotouch, a B.C. based company. The kiosks are free standing computer stations that look similar in appearance to ATM machines and are located in 13 public buildings around St. Albert. The computer kiosks are free and open to the public to use to surf the Web, check their Email, or find information about a local community group, government service, tourism, or business.

Our 16 Host Sites are vital to the delivery of the CAP program not only as physical locations but also as stakeholders as the Urban CAP program is a 50/50 cost-shared program. Each of the Host organizations participating have generously contributed matching in-kind resources including space, staff time, utility costs, insurance, maintenance costs, and promotion costs that have added up to a total of $383,760.

We would like to thank all of our community Host Sites:



Between 2001 and 2003 St. Albert CAP has worked hard to set up the 16 computer labs and kiosk sites and deliver a number of computer services for the public and community groups including Computer Courses and Web Design. For more information on our Programs & Services click on the links in the side navigation menu.

Now that we have established our physical computer network we are focused on developing our online, virtual community through membership recruitment and partnerships. For more information on Membership please click on the Member links in the side navigation menu to see how your organization can become part of our online community.

In 2004 through a partnership with the City of St. Albert we will be offering members access to BookIT!, an online registration and payment program purchased from Telus. The City will be offerring BookIT! to its public facilities. St-AlbertCAP.com will provide the service to community groups like Sports teams, Art Clubs, Senior Citizen's Centres, and any other community group not administered by the City. BookIT! will allow your group to post events (art auctions, farmers markets, basketball games), courses (pottery classes, yoga, parenting workshops), drop-in activities (bridge night, public forum, garage sale), whether paid or unpaid. Online users can search by various categories or view all of the postings and then select the one they want to register for and make a secure payment at that time over the Internet. Look for BookIt! on the City's Website in the Spring and on St-AlbertCAP.com's Website in the Summer/Fall of 2004.