The overall purpose of the Internet Access and Training Program is to foster continued information sharing, network building, communication, and collaboration among alumni of ECA academic and professional exchange programs and other audiences identified by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, their American counterparts, US host institutions, and each other. The IATP provides a unique opportunity for alumni of ECA and US government sponsored exchange and training programs to obtain access to Internet resources and the information tools that will allow them to maintain dialogues with each other, host institutions and colleagues in the US, and partners in the US, Europe, and Eurasia. The program also provides extensive training and opportunities in Internet usage to the local audiences as identified by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. Working with alumni and a variety of local partners, IATP aims to build and provide a comprehensive listing of targeted and community electronic resources. Through the IATP, alumni, targeted audiences, local IATP partners, and others form a formidable consortium of active participants (a community network) involved in the development and maintenance of their communities' role in the global information infrastructure.

PROGRAM GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of the IATP is to promote and support democracy, public-private sector partnerships, and civil society by linking the communities of the NIS to the global information infrastructure. In this second stage of IATP, the program has five primary objectives, the achievement of which will help attain its goal:

1. Train staff of IATP partner institutions to meet the technical and information needs of ECA program alumni and other end-users;
2. Provide sustainable, high speed access to the Internet for ECA program alumni and other PAS-identified audiences by upgrading and/or expanding lATP-supported public access Internet sites and/or other non-commercial Internet training centers;
3. Conduct systematic outreach to ECA program alumni, developing mechanisms to ensure that alumni receive free Internet access, training, and services at IATP sites and/or IATP FreeNets;
4. Develop curriculum, course descriptions, materials, requirements, and schedules for Internet training courses at public access Internet sites or training centers; and develop topics and schedules for specialized workshops or seminars;
5. Provide free, sustainable, high-quality web hosting for educational and non-commercial web resources.

In addition to IATP Ukraine, IREX administers IATP in Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.