Cyndi Hamilton and Ora Taylor attending LINC Board of Directors meeting in August 1999.

Project LINC (Linking Individual Needs in our Community), Inc. was created in Montgomery County, VA, through a community development grant awarded MIRA. The LINC team is formed of a diverse group of local citizens who came together to look at community needs and resources and then plan actions on behalf of the community. The team members envisioned a community that communicates and achieved their vision by using technology to create partnerships that instill community pride, enhance community awareness, and empower citizens to help themselves and their neighbors.

Through the MIRA process the team members have achieved the following advancements in computer technology in the LINC area and produced valuable results for their community as well as for the New River Valley as a whole:

• They obtained donations of computers for use by LINC.
• They donated two computers to the local Head Start program.
• They used e-mail as a rapid means of communicating within LINC, within their community, with other MIRA people in The New River Valley, and with many others.
• They learned to use "technology" to produce their newsletter, the LINC Letter.
  • Project LINC began producing the newsletter in February 1999, prior to receiving Kellogg's MIRA grant money. After receiving the Kellogg money, the next five issues (April 1 through August 1) of the LINC Letter were distributed by bulk mail to everyone served by the both the Elliston and Shawsville post offices. More recent issues of the LINC Letter have not been published on a regular monthly basis since funding now relies on advertisement and local contributions.
  • Through the newsletter the team members hope to overcome the obstacles to community communication due to conflict between small communities within the region.
• They produced a website for eastern Montgomery County citizens and the world. They hope it encourages more people to become involved with computer technology and to use it to their advantage.
  • The internet website, although not completed, was made available to the public at the end of September 1999. Construction of this site will not be completed for some time. Then, modification and maintenance will be ongoing.
• They held a Community Celebration in honor of the year anniversary of the MIRA grant and two years of community involvement with Kellogg.