Ochapowace Cyber Cafe

Ochapowace First Nation #71 is the proud owners of The Ochapowace Cyber Cafe, which is the first ever cyber cafe in Canada to be located on a first nation. The Ochapowace Cyber Cafe is a non-funded entity that is a vital resource to our community and is utilized on a daily basis my many people on and off our reservation. The Cyber Cafe is the only free internet access location on my first nation of Ochapowace, it is part youth hang out, part job search resource center, part food catering service, and part training facility geared toward everyone who wished to learn more about computers. The Cyber Cafe is owned by Ochapowace Indian Education Authority and is managed by me, Justin Bear. My previous Band Councillor, Lila Kelly George, had an idea to create a technological location that would accommodate our community members and help them to learn computers, hardware, computer peripherals and current software. In a community that had not been exposed to the internet or the world of computer technology, she had created something really exciting and beneficial that would help keep our community members up to date with this advancing technology. She then hired me, Justin Bear, to learn about computers to enhance computer literacy in our community. I knew very little about the world of IT or networking at that point but was eager to learn how in order to maintain this vision for Lila. In doing so, I grew passionate about acquiring as much information and ideas on how to improve this vision not only for our present community members but for our future generation of youth that will need computer skills to advance in life. This location started in a basement of an office building that flooded every spring due to melting snow and I had to soak up water off the floor every morning and keep doing so until all snow was gone and it was dry outside. A year later Lila was able to acquire an old restaurant that was not in use and we then changed it to suit the needs of a networked internet café complete with a functional kitchen and kitchen amenities. I was asked to network 10 public workstations and keep the technological side of the location running smooth and get people interested in the location by offering programming and training though our new cyber café to anyone interested within our geographical radius. Ochapowace Cyber Café is now a location where all ages and gender can come and meet with one another and share what they know with others that are not as computer literate or to hang out and shoot some 8-ball pool on site with our donated pool table. It is a place that utilizes the internet and its resources to teach youth about music while they learn how to explore and search for music they would like to learn online while getting free instruction from me free of charge(I am a rock music lover and an avid player of guitar, bass and drums). It is a place that youth want to come to and everyone learns something new everyday, including myself. It is a place where the internet is available to anyone who wishes to come and look up any resource they need and if they are having trouble, there is always someone there eager to assist them in a friendly professional manner. Where elders can come and speak with the youth in a friendly environment. It is a place where workers that come and learn the basics on how to become computer technicians and network administrators and work that is required with each position. It is a place that connects our community to the world and yet it is still not enough to get our people to date with the rest of the world in technology but it is definitely a place to start getting us there. The Ochapowace Cyber Café is so much to so many different people on our first nation and it offers a variety of different resources to people that wouldn’t be available to them if it didn’t exist. I have been told that Ochapowace is lucky to have a man like me but I feel I am lucky to be part of a reserve like Ochapowace FN