Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Coalition Building and the Pursuit of Digital Equity

You probably know Benton for our newsletters and our own reporting on what is happening in the broadband and tech policy world. But in the last few years, we have been working at the state and community level—with advocates, policymakers, and just passionate folks who want better broadband for crying out loud. In 2023, we launched the Broadband State Education Project in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and later expanded into Western North Carolina. Our goal is to seed and support public interest broadband and digital equity coalitions in each state—coalitions that can bring together advocates, local leaders, community organizations, small internet providers, and public institutions to shape policy from the ground up. Each of these coalitions is different. But they all share a few things in common. They are:

• Led locally by people with existing credibility;
• Supported structurally by Benton, which provides technical assistance, research, and administrative help; and 
• Focused not just on information-sharing—but on advocacy, coordination, and accountability.