Meet the Digital Stewards of the Equitable Internet Initiative

Black Churches 4 Digital Equity partners with local congregations and clergy members to connect people with internet access helping them get signed up with the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides discounted internet access and a one-time discount for laptop, desktop, or tablet purchases for those whose income is less than 200% of the federal poverty line. Through community outreach and events, local clergy have helped more than 230,000 households enroll in the program.

In an effort to address a lack of broadband access, Indigenous communities are working together, and with local organizations, to acquire funding to bring internet access to their communities and close the digital divide.

To make internet connectivity accessible and affordable across Africa, Dr. Harold Omondi developed “internet from the moon,” a technology that uses satellite dishes to communicate with transponders placed in the moon several years ago by NASA. The transponders can send and receive information and, since the moon keeps the same side of its surface pointed towards earth, the connection cannot be lost. Still in the piloting phase, the system currently offers free internet at Jomo Kenyatta University, where over 1,200 people login every day, and has another station in South Sudan serving 300-500 people daily.

The city of Detroit is offering business services to entrepreneurs who want to bring their business online in the aftermath of the pandemic. Digital Detroit is the name of the program offering content creation and website development completely free of charge for a variety of businesses. Over 100 businesses were selected for the five-week program, helping the entrepreneurs to move their services online, creating, and launching websites as well as establishing social media presence, all of which has gone a long way in increasing sales and profits.

To expand wifi access during the coronavirus pandemic for those who work in the agricultural community and in migrant farmworker camps, the City of The Dalles partnered and collaborated with Google and other community businesses to purchase hot spots and Chromebooks for farmworkers to use. The hot spots don't work in all areas of the county, but in the orchards with cell service where they have been installed, they have been helping to provide access to telemedicine and educational services.

Since launching in October, PCs for People have collected, refurbished, and distributed at an affordable cost to hundreds of people. They have also distributed hot spots to libraries for patrons to check out.

In Cuba, most access to internet is extremely limited. "The Weekly Package," solves this problem--carried by individuals who travel around on foot each week, it is a single, black market hard drive from which customers may download the content of their choice - telenovelas, news, movies, and more.

With no alternative, some community college students in Talihina, Oklahoma sit in the parking lot of the local hospital at night, logging on to the internet network to complete research papers, oftentimes on smartphones. With Obama-era broadband infrastructure improvement plans now uncertain, one nonprofit is getting "out of the government's umbrella" and working to ensure the goal of connecting 350,000 people nationwide by 2020 is still met. By both building infrastructure and making it more affordable, ConnectHome Nation seeks to answer, "What could they become ... if they just had an equal shot?"

SafiriSalama.com is a funeral-tech startup that provides people with a way to memorialize their loved ones online, as well as connect with professionals in the funeral industry. Since the website’s beta launch in November 2022, it has seen over 67,000 visitors and more than 478 tributes and 2,000 memorial pictures have been shared to the site.

To combat the banned books war and issues with book access, the Books Unbanned program offers free online access to the library’s entire collection for 13-to-21-year-olds. The program has already issued more than 5,100 cards and checked out 20,000 materials. And because the program is funded independently, it can offer books to people out of state.