The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) recently donated 10 laptops to REACH Edmonton to provide to families in need. They have been helping us collect equipment from the community and in turn, we are able to process their request much faster!
REACH Edmonton is a backbone agency tasked with providing funding resources and operating infrastructure for community-based programs and initiatives across Edmonton, which aim to prevent crime and make their communities safer. A vision of a safe Edmonton fostered by REACH is attained through specific aims to:
- Heighten the efficiency of current social programs and funding streams to better integrate programs.
- Find and fill any service gaps in the current system.
- Engage citizens in developing solutions.
At the start of the pandemic REACH generously offered ERA their surplus equipment for re-homing in ERA’s new Lending Laptops program. As the lasting effects of the Covid19 crisis became increasingly apparent in our daily lives, so emerged additional demands as we adjusted our routines to the ‘’new normal’’.
With more resources gradually moving online as social distancing protocols, personal technology became a necessity to stay included in functions of normal life, especially with so many students switching to online school.
REACH recognized the growing need for digital access as well as the technological inequality within the communities they serve and let us know about ten newcomer and refugee families they work with who are in need of laptops to use at home.
A number of initiatives and programs are implemented by REACH in collaboration with organizations ranging from youth and afterschool programs, 24/7 Crisis Diversion, to indigenous and multicultural community engagement. To learn about the full scope of their work, visit their website here .
The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 to address the growing problem of e-waste and the increasing ‘digital divide’. For over fifteen years, ERA has offered simple solutions to help individuals and organizations prevent operational equipment from premature destruction. With a focus on recovery, refurbishment and reuse, ERA continuously supplies charitable groups with donated IT equipment while securely managing the retiring IT assets of organizations and individuals across Canada.
We believe that reuse before recycling is critical in managing the waste created by computer hardware, and by offering industry-leading data destruction for all equipment we receive, we have securely repurposed hundreds of tons of equipment. Because not everything ERA receives can be reasonably repurposed, we have partnered with certified recycling organizations to process equipment that has reached the end of its productive life.
