The Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Fellowship: A Participatory Action Research Project

In November 2021, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Black Brilliance Research Project (BBR), and Community Informatics Lab at Simmons University launched the six-city Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Fellowship. The DEAR Fellowship helped young adults, ages 19–24, learn participatory action research skills to examine and address the root causes of digital inequities in their communities. The end goal of the fellowship was to increase the skills and capacity of the DEAR Fellows and their communities and to identify and address the root causes of digital inequities while learning from peers around the United States. The fellows learned new participatory action research skills, an approach that brings together advocacy and research methods to create change with those closest to the problems in community settings.

The essays in this new publication are written by the DEAR Fellows in collaboration with their host organizations. Each essay focuses on digital equity issues that are important to them and their communities. In the pages that follow, we see their vision of what digital justice looks like in each of their communities.

The stories shared by the DEAR Fellows and their host organizations in this publication only begin to represent what is possible when communities engage in their own research to promote digital equity and justice. 

As states develop their Digital Equity Plans so they can qualify for digital equity funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, our hope is that the stories and examples found in this publication offer both guidance and inspiration for what’s possible when community members have a seat at the table. This participation not only benefits communities most impacted by the digital divide, it is also a requirement in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.