Philadelphia FIGHT requests funding to provide Internet access to people living with HIV/AIDS in an underserved part of our region through two of its programs, the Critical Path Project and the AIDS Library. Currently the Critical Path Project provides a comprehensive collection of Internet services to the 215 area code in Philadelphia for the price of a local phone call. This project will expand the Internet services currently offered by Critical Path Project- including free Internet access, free email address and web based email access, free web page hosting for both individual and organizational, free domain name hosting, and free electronic mailing list hosting - to the 610 area code in the Philadelphia region. This includes Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties. These counties include small cities, suburban areas and rural areas. At the same time, this project will establish a community computer resource center at the Drop-in Center of AIDS Care Group in Chester City, the most highly impacted small city in Pennsylvania. The computer center will have four computers and provide free access to the Internet via a DSL, (Digital Subscriber Line), for the staff and clients of AIDS Care Group, allowing people with HIV/AIDS but without computer in Chester to access the Internet. The AIDS Library will also provide training on Internet resources for HIV/AIDS information to people with HIV/AIDS and AIDS service organization staff at agencies located within the four counties.
