Humboldt State University

Alli Minch and Byron Turner, Educators Seeking an End to Violence

For some folks, there’s a stark line separating the ideals they held in college and the lives they eventually lead out there in the bigger world. And, in truth, holding fast to your convictions can be a challenge…which is why it’s all the more remarkable to witness how Alli Minch and Byron Turner are not only staying true to their ideals, but are, in fact, building on the convictions that inspired them as HSU students well over a decade ago.

DEDICATED TO HALTING VIOLENCE
Alli (‘92, ‘94) and Byron (‘88, ‘92), met as students at HSU, where both worked on issues of violence and discrimination. Byron started No Means No, a campus rape prevention program. He was also on the Community Advisory Board of Humboldt Women for Shelter. Alli co-directed No Means No, and volunteered for both Humboldt Women for Shelter and Grass Valley's Domestic Violence Coalition. While teaching part time during his last two years at HSU, Byron started a nonprofit organization called Created Equal and pulled together a Board of Directors that has consisted of professionals and activists from across the United States.

Byron and Alli married in 1999 and live and work in Grass Valley with their four-year old sons, Tim and Rob. Both alumni found careers in education. Alli teaches English and History at Nevada Union High School and Byron teaches Social Science at Sierra College. They’ve also remained dedicated to reducing domestic violence through the efforts of Created Equal.

SOFTWARE WITH A HEART
Somewhere between their time spent teaching and raising their own children, Alli and Byron have also managed to author a new software system that, in a twist of events, will soon help them achieve their larger goal of halting domestic violence.

The software is called TeachMac and it began its life as a humble tool to help students in Byron's Mac classes remember the topics they covered. The couple, however, soon realized that the software they’d created had much greater potential: it could help the non-techies bridge the digital divide while raising funds to reduce domestic violence.

Here’s how it works.

TeachMac enables anyone, anywhere, with computer knowledge to produce tutorials, which other users can subscribe to. If you’ve been befuddled by the intricacies of Excel or PhotoShop, for instance, you can simply subscribe to a tutorial written by someone who knows the programs ins and outs. Likewise, if you are an expert at some application, you can write your own tutorial for others to download. TeachMac’s motto says it all: Learn what you need. Teach what you know.

TeachMac also reflects the social justice values of its founders. For starters, money from TeachMac subscriptions and site licenses are used to support Created Equal. TeachMac also shares a portion of that revenue with the tutorial authors as well.

Since TeachMac’s launch in August 2006, Alli and Byron have received hundreds of proposals for tutorials in six different languages. The library is approaching 200 hundred modules representing thousands of individual video clips.

TeachMac’s runaway growth soon attracted the attention of a company that paid $2 million for the system’s engine. The recent sale enabled Alli and Byron to invest even more fully to their cause: committing the profit to founding a violence recovery community—called the Oasis Project—that will provide sustained care to women and children who are survivors of domestic crime. Additionally, Byron and Alli are donating their back salaries from Created Equal to the Oasis Project, matching community donations up to a million dollars.

“A few years ago, Alli and I were granted generous salaries, but we have never collected because Created Equal didn't have the money,” Byron  told Macsimum News. “Of course, we could collect now. Instead, we're contributing $1 million in matching funds toward the Oasis Project.”

BACK IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY

The Oasis Project (http://teachmac.com/oasis_project) will be based in Humboldt County and will focus on enabling women and children who’ve suffered from domestic violence to undertake long-term healing, learn new skills and become independent.

“This will be a self-sustaining, long-term community for domestic violence survivors,” Turner said in an interview. “The idea is to create a shelter that doesn’t require continual funding. It will be able to function on its own. If we get this right, we might be able to build dozens of these around the country.”

Precisely when the Oasis Project gets up and rolling will depend on a number of factors, including the availability of suitable land, a feasibility study, documentation of needs and the success of grant applications. Byron predicts that they’ll purchase the land and start construction somewhere between 2008-2009. A temporary rented site might be set up in the meantime to offer limited services until the permanent facility is ready.

Why base the Oasis Project in Humboldt County?

“We both love Humboldt County,” the married HSU alums said, “but beyond that we think it would be an excellent location for the project. The natural beauty, coupled with rural land and a strong commitment to sustainable technologies in the region, makes it our top choice. We’d be naive to think we could start the Oasis Project on our own. The accumulated knowledge represented in the community and at Humboldt State makes Humboldt County particularly appealing. There’s a lot of expertise here that we would like to tap into. We’re hoping to partner with the university to develop and implement the project, which eventually will provide jobs for community members and valuable work experience for students, who could intern at the site in counseling or engineering, as the facility develops and grows. There are many roles for students in a program like this.”

Now that the planning has begun for the Oasis Project, Byron and Alli intend to return to Humboldt County in the near future. In the meantime, they are interested in working together with faculty, students and community members on this project.  Faculty and students in computer science, sociology, social work, women's studies, engineering, environmental resources, economics, and others interested in contributing to the Oasis Project can find out more by contacting Byron and Alli through the contact link at www.teachmac.com .  They also ask HSU grads to join them in supporting this important cause with a $10 or larger donation. Donation links can also be found at the TeachMac web site, http://www.teachmac.com/oasis_project.  A local contact is Board member, Professor Pamela Brown who can be reached at pb4@humboldt.edu or 826-4564.