Critical Path Threatened – Please Help

August 21, 2008

Kiyoshi Kuromiya, AIDS Activist and founder of Critical Path

Dear Friends,

For over 15 years, the Critical Path Project has been a major force in the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan region and worldwide in bridging the digital divide, offering free dial up Internet access and email accounts with no ads and no restrictions to over 10,000, mostly low-income families, as well as offering email, website hosting, and electronic mailing list hosting to local non-profit organizations, DHS family centers, and affinity groups throughout the nation.

We are currently the Internet backbone for the majority of HIV and LGBTQ organizations in Philadelphia, and thousands of members of these communities utilize our free services. This is particularly important for those who cannot afford high speed connections at home.

For the past six years, Critical Path has had a contract from DHS to provide Internet connectivity and host webpages for the Family Support Centers in the public schools. In addition to these functions, which Critical Path has always fulfilled, the contract has become part of the funding infrastructure that supports the Critical Path enterprise. This fiscal year, the contract was extended for two months, and is now due to end on August 31. While we recognize that DHS may have other funding needs at this time, this will be a devastating loss for Critical Path, and could result in our having to close down the entire network.

If we are forced to close it, the loss of Critical Path will resonate throughout Philadelphia.

Over 10,000 people in the greater Philadelphia Metro region, mostly low-income, would lose their Internet access from Critical Path, many of whom may not have the skills or knowledge to know how to get access any other way at this time.

Thousands of people would lose access to their email accounts and the data saved in their inboxes and folders, including staff at organizations many of which receive funds from the City of Philadelphia, such as GALAEI, ASIAC, BEBASHI, The AIDS Law Project, Philadelphia FIGHT, and nearly 25 more.

Over 100 electronic Mailing lists, with thousands of local subscribers, many of which are key ways in which the non-profit community, educators, HIV researchers, and low-income Philadelphians discuss topics of importance to them and spread and receive information, will be shut down and forced to find another way to manage their lists.

Nearly 75 websites, the majority of which are non-profits funded by the city of Philadelphia, such as CHOICE, COLOURS, Asian Americans United, and many more, will be shut down and forced find money in their budgets to pay for hosting and rapidly find an alternative solution. Shutting down these websites, for even a short time means that those in the community, will not have access life-saving information.

Please Help!

Here is what you can do:

WRITE A LETTER TO MAYOR NUTTER, at City Hall, Broad and Market Sts. Philadelphia PA 19107
In your letter, please mention our request for a meeting and ask him to contact Juliet Fink at Critical Path, 215-985-4448. We think if we can put the case directly to Mayor Nutter, he will understand the urgency.
Contact Juliet Fink, jjfink@critpath.org to sign on to our overall letter/petition. Note: we need to do both individual letters and sign-on based on what we are hearing.
Call City Hall . The Mayor’s office phone number is 215-686-2181. Tell them you use/support Critical Path and ask them to find the money to continue the project.
When you take these actions, please let us know. Email Juliet at jjfink@fight.org so we will know what people are doing.
Forward this information widely . Ask all your friends to help. We need to demonstrate that Critical Path has wide support.

NOTE: The funding cut was not malicious on the City’s part. We are a victim of other forces that affect the city budget. Our goal is to bring this problem to the Mayor’s attention, in the hope that he will find a way to keep us going.

Thanks for your help!

Philadelphia FIGHT and the Critical Path team

Read the letter to the Mayor and see who has signed on! [PDF]