Combining the character-building aspects of team sports with the skill-building of computer training, the nonprofit group Think Detroit has started a program to help the city's children do both, the New York Times reports.

The Balls and Bytes program runs baseball, soccer and basketball leagues for poor children in Detroit. When those children come to play, Think Detroit offers them free computer classes on donated equipment.

During the classes, the students get hands-on experience by using the computers, taking them apart, fixing them and putting them back together again. When they finish the class, each child gets one of the secondhand computers for their own, the Times reports.

"We knew kids needed the character that comes with team sports, and we knew they needed the tools of the future that come with access to technology," Michael F. Tenbusch -- a founder of the nonprofit -- told the Times. Tenbusch and Daniel Varner quit their law careers to start Think Detroit in 1997.

Think Detroit and other nonprofits are working hard to make sure Detroit students will have the computer skills they need to get a job when they graduate, the Times reports. While previous generations could easily get jobs at local auto plants, the manufacturing jobs of today require more and more technical skills.

Think Detroit's method for attacking this "digital divide" is twofold, the Times reports.

The nonprofit so far has given away 30 computers to help local children become more tech-savvy, and it plans to give away 200 more machines this summer. The group hopes to increase computer knowledge in the children's families as well, urging students to teach their relatives how to use the machines.

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