In an effort to unite the community of Huntsville on a mission of improving opportunities for young people, Huntsville’s Promise is offering free Web pages and links for local non-profit, civic and service-based organizations.Its Web site is called the “Huntsville Community Network” and operates to join the community in fulfilling five promises set forth by the national public service organization, America’s Promise.”America’s Promise and Huntsville’s Promise collaborates with city government and community leaders to fulfill the five promises to our youth. We want to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities, same benefits and same healthy environments,” said Kacey Krystyniak, executive director of Huntsville’s Promise, and recent SHSU graduate.The Web site, which is currently in the developmental stages, will contain a diverse mixture of information that can be utilized by anyone in the Huntsville community. Krystyniak said it would give people the opportunity to get involved with Huntsville and discover all of the wonderful things going on in the community.”Most people say there’s not much to do here, but there are so many different things,” she said. “There will be information about the arts, history, businesses, organizations, bars; just anything and everything about the city. This will be a portal to all information pertaining to the city and developments within the community.”A two-page Web site can be provided free to non-profit organizations, churches, civic organizations and even SHSU student organizations. In return, it is requested that each organization utilizing the space provide volunteer workers for free computer centers being built in the city. Huntsville’s Promise will also begin giving free computer classes. “It’s really not much. We just ask four hours per every 25 members in the organization,” Krystyniak said. For example, an organization with 100 members would be asked to provide 16 volunteer hours per month. “It’s really not a lot if you think about it,” she said.If organizations currently have their own sites, a link to that site can be provided. Local businesses can also purchase Web sites, starting at two pages for about $240 per year.”If needed, we will set up the Web pages and teach them how to maintain them. For a small fee, we can actually maintain it for them,” Krystyniak said.Huntsville’s Promise was developed in cooperation with America’s Promise, a national initiative to advance young people and get community members involved in their development.The mission of the program is to fulfill five promises to young people. It works to ensure young people have caring adults to interact with, safe places to live and play, a healthy start in life, marketable skills for the future and the opportunity to serve in their own communities and governments.Huntsville’s Promise evolved after a Spring 2001 survey of students in grades 7 to 12 revealed children in Huntsville were not getting what they need to have a successful start in life.”The survey was based on a 40 asset developmental model, the healthy community, healthy youth initiative, developed by the Search Institute,” Krystyniak said.The Search Institute is a national organization that sets forth 40 assets that young people should have in order to succeed in life. The assets mention 20 internal and 20 external assets of the community. Some of these are support, empowerment, boundaries, a commitment to learning and positive values.”We scored just below the national average, which is low. The national average is 19 of the 40 assets,” Krystyniak said. “The number of assets the children have reflect how likely they are to get in trouble or get involved with drugs and alcohol.”The project is funded by a $525,000 grant from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund that added $1 to everyone’s phone bill.In February, 150-160 community leaders, along with 40-50 students, met to determine ways to improve the community for young people. Huntsville’s Promise is working to ensure that the needs of all children are being met.Krystyniak said for the first month or so, the Web site will be pretty “bare bones”, but they hope to have the majority of it ready to go live by Oct. 5. “From there, we hope it will just continue to build and build,” she said.For more information on Huntsville’s Promise, visit www.huntsvilletexas.info, or call Krystyniak at 291-5950. Other information is available at www.americaspromise.org and www.searchinstitute.org.