Digital Literacy

In today’s rapidly changing world, digital literacy has become an essential skill for people of all ages. To help connect seniors to the skills they need, we’re meeting them where they are through digital literacy workshops held in communities across the country.

Your state is doing something it has never done before: not just making a plan to achieve digital equity, but thinking about how life in the state will be transformed by closing the digital divide.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) exists to help Americans of all stripes get and stay connected to America’s Excellent Internet. But for millions around the country, Internet access and a device alone aren’t enough to close the digital divide. Digital skills and tech support services offered through a trusted community organization is critical to solving this puzzle—just ask US Army veteran Bobby Jenks. After leaving the service as a decorated peacetime soldier, Bobby worked as a truck driver for 20 years until an accident left him unable to continue his trucking career.

In July 2023, the Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office released the state's draft Digital Equity Plan. The state outlines how it will work to bring broadband to its residents–and the opportunities that come with high-speed internet access.

This first-of-its-kind comprehensive approach is aimed at addressing both immediate and long-term cyber workforce needs. Filling the hundreds of thousands of cyber job vacancies across our nation is a national security imperative and the Administration is making generational investments to prepare our country to lead in the digital economy.

Community Technology NY (CTNY) offers an alternative vision of technology in which under-resourced communities and neighborhoods have direct control over their digital communications, allowing them to be owners and maintainers, not just consumers, of that technology. CTNY has critical expertise in facilitation, data gathering, analysis, strategic planning, and training. CTNY’s mission is to facilitate and support healthy, resilient, and sustainable community digital ecosystems, rooted in digital equity and digital justice.

Three years since the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) first introduced the “digital navigator” model. The first NDIA Digital Navigator Working Group met in April 2020 and worked quickly, with the pandemic and lockdown fueling the urgency to solve digital inequities.

The Center for Digital Equity (CDE) at Queens University of Charlotte has released its first-ever Annual Collective Impact Report, showcasing the progress its digital equity work has made in bridging the digital divide in Charlotte (NC) communities. The CDE’s Annual Report highlights the collective impact of its partnership with residents, partners, and stakeholders in fervently addressing the needs of all people living in Mecklenburg County (NC). From July 2022 – June 2023, thehe CDE:

The recommendations in this report focus on the Federal Communications Commission's Community Equity and Diversity Council's mission of “advancing equity in the provision of access to digital communication services and products for all people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, location, sex or disability.

President Joe Biden (D) announced a milestone in the Internet for All funding from our $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment—or BEAD—program. Florida will receive over $1.1 billion to bring high-speed Internet service to every home and business within its borders. However, it is not enough to simply deploy Internet infrastructure. A connection to a family’s home doesn’t help if that family can’t afford Internet service.