While most policymakers remain focused on broadband gaps in rural areas, residents and elected officials in urban areas understand all too well the connectivity problems faced by those who live in cities. The greatest opportunities to achieve digital equity in urban communities is approaching, with unprecedented government and philanthropic support available to address needs long neglected. However, communities need local champions to ensure that problems are resolved in accordance with local goals.
There is more than $42 billion in the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act aimed at solving the network, skills, and device gaps for everyone to access the Internet in the same way. Similarly, the ongoing Affordable Connectivity Program steps in to cover the market failures of a broadband landscape that is simply unaffordable for tens of millions of households.
More than 20 years of top-down solutions have failed to result in more connected, resilient communities. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Urban Digital Equity Bootcamps are instead based on the framework that bottom-up approaches, based on trust and local relationships, offer the best path forward. Modeled after the Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, and having learned lessons from the Digital Equity Leadership Lab and Broadband Accelerate approaches, we offer community-centric, tailored workshops to develop skills and relationships as well as the needed expertise and partnerships to set and achieve digital equity goals. The program is designed to:
- Increase knowledge and confidence of participants to allow them to better take action in their communities to achieve digital equity. This includes developing familiarity with key jargon and technologies related to Internet access.
- Develop diverse cohorts and a larger human network of people sharing local strategies, challenges, and solutions.
- Demystify Internet technology through hands-on applications and small group learning.
Attendees will include a diverse group of stakeholders, from local leaders to activists to the philanthropic community. A key group of attendees would include organizations that already have the trust of frontline communities – groups that understand the importance of digital equity but haven’t had the capacity to address it. In larger communities, multiple events can be tailored to fit the different needs of different neighborhoods.
The primary objectives during these multi-day bootcamps are to introduce stakeholders to the current broadband landscape and build knowledge and trust among local organizations so they can engage in strategic campaigns of digital inclusion. These events will need significant local coordination to be effective.
The Urban Digital Equity Bootcamps are ongoing. Download the booklet here [pdf].
Contact Community Broadband Networks Outreach Team Lead DeAnne Cuellar at [email protected] for more details, including cost.