Mayor Eric Garcetti last week launched OurCycle LA, a program to refurbish city computers slated for replacement and give them to Angelenos in need.

“By getting creative and innovative, we’re stretching our taxpayer dollars by providing a second life for city computers,” Garcetti said. “Each computer represents an opportunity — an opportunity to connect, an opportunity to protect the planet, an opportunity to work. With OurCycle LA, we’re not only helping bridge the digital divide, we’re simultaneously supporting our economy by providing job training, creating employment opportunities, and boosting L.A.’s growing e-waste management sector.”

Computers not suitable for refurbishment will be recycled by a local e-waste social enterprise company committed to providing job training to previously incarcerated Angelenos who face barriers to employment.

Garcetti worked with City Council President Herb Wesson, 10th District, Councilman Bob Blumenfield, 3rd District, the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, the Los Angeles General Services Department and the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation to collect approximately 10,000 old computers from all city departments and jump start the OurCycle LA program.

The computers were donated to the LA Cleantech Incubator which contracted with human-I-T, a local nonprofit dedicated to transforming old technology into educational tools for those in need, to assess each computer’s viability. The approximately 3,000 computers determined to be refurbishable will be fully retooled by human-I-T and loaded with software including Microsoft Windows 7, MS Office, and a web browser.

The computers that are not viable will be transferred to Isidore Electronics Recyling, an e-waste recycling social enterprise company that provides on-the-job training and employment for previously incarcerated Angelenos.

A number of partner organizations are engaged in the distribution component of OurCycle LA. The refurbished computers will either be donated to nonprofit centers that provide computer labs to low-income communities or given directly to families who have never had high-speed Internet at home. Nonprofit recipients will be determined by a lottery through LA Shares, and individual participants are recruited by Community Build and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance.

The California Emerging Technology Fund has donated $150,000 to OurCycle LA to refurbish 2,500 computers and to provide digital literacy training to 2,500 individual recipients and to help 1,500 households get Internet service; REDF has donated $50,000 to provide hands-on job training for 10 Angelenos who have barriers to employment; and Citi provided $50,000 in support of financial literacy training for 2,500 recipients.