Island Institute’s Rural Community Engagement Amplifies Maine’s Broadband Efforts

The Island Institute works to sustain Maine’s island and coastal communities, helping them tackle pressing environmental and socioeconomic issues and lead as examples of sustainability. With a focus on developing resilient economies, this philanthropic institution works with community leaders to increase broadband expansion in rural areas. As the most rural state in the nation—with mountains, coasts, and islands—Maine faces a mighty economic challenge to connect every resident to reliable high-speed internet service. The Island Institute’s broadband team engages with community leaders through working groups, financial and economic trainings, and conferences, and via the facilitation of discussions between community members, local officials, and internet service providers. Through the Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund, the Island Institute provides broadband planning grants to municipalities, local institutions, and nonprofits in Maine. After years of working with Maine’s rural communities, the Island Institute developed the Community-Driven Broadband Process to help guide community leaders through the steps for bringing broadband to their towns and residents. This process has guided more than 100 Maine communities as they began conversations around digital equity, and it has served as a model for 20 of those communities seeking fiber-to-the-home networks or infrastructure expansions through public-private partnerships.