Trust and entrepreneurship pave the way toward digital inclusion in Brownsville, Texas

As part of a larger project around digital equity, we visited Texas’s Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area, a community with low rates of broadband adoption and spotty service. We can look to this community to better understand the opportunities for overcoming barriers to broadband adoption. Leaders in the region—including the city manager, the head of the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, and representatives from local health and housing centers—all know that to improve economic conditions, they need to increase broadband penetration, adoption, and use. To get there, they are capitalizing on the region’s already-strong network of trusted community members as well as the entrepreneurial spirit deeply interwoven within the region’s workforce.

The health care sector in this region offers a unique solution to tackle digital skills challenges: promotoras, who are community health workers from local Latino or Hispanic communities. Though this isn’t a traditional component of promotoras’ work, it is in the social and financial interests of health departments to have digitally literate patients. While many promotoras have advanced digital skills, others still need training and support from their employers. Reorienting health systems toward digital inclusion can have lasting health and equity impacts throughout the region.