Individuals who are Members of a Racial or Ethnic Minority Group

Through the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) directly addresses the lack of high-speed Internet access, connectivity, adoption, and equity at our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). OMBI works through these anchor institutions to impact their surrounding anchor communities.

The release of the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on March 29th triggered the countdown for the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandates releasing the Competitive Grant NOFO within 30 days of the first Capacity award, so we expect it by late summer/early fall 2024. We will not know all the specifics until the NOFO is released.

The rapid transition to a digital front door of healthcare prompted by the pandemic made evident disparities in who had access to digital tools. Like other healthcare organizations, at the beginning of the pandemic, we found disparities in access to patient portals and video visits. Digital disparities are driven by multiple factors including lack of internet access, devices, language-adapted platforms as well as limited digital literacy.

National narratives about youth well-being have increasingly focused on how to address the youth mental health crisis. While a multitude of complex factors are contributing to the growth of mental health challenges among young people, social media has often landed in the center of the conversation.

In March 2021, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, along with Comcast, co-hosted a Digital Convening that brought together eighteen AANHPI serving organizations to discuss what the digital divide looks like in their respective communities. They discussed how the digital divide includes insufficient broadband access, a lack of equipment, and a need for greater education.

While the pandemic heightened awareness of the digital divide and the staggering number of households unable to benefit from digital services and opportunities, Asian American, Native Hawaiians, and

Digital equity cannot be fully realized without the participation of educational institutions, including K-12 public schools, community colleges, historically black and other minority serving colleges and universities, and extension programs. Many state digital equity plans embrace education and potential collaborations with educational institutions. All states acknowledge that digital equity is critical to education.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has warned policymakers about digital redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevents certain populations from having internet access, since 2017. Thanks in part to these warnings and advocacy efforts, the creation of digital discrimination rules was mandated in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Digital inclusion is considered a super social determinant of health and rests on four pillars: available and affordable broadband service, quality devices, digital skills and training, and technical support for using accessible applications. Evidence suggests two pathways through which digital inclusion and health equity are connected. The direct pathway is through increasing access to health care services.

As a national leader in developing the broadband workforce, the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) is proud to announce it has launched a new Connecting Minority Communities Apprenticeship Consortium (CMCAC) with three HBCUs: Central State University, Tennessee State University, and Virginia State University. Apprenticeships are a proven model for building a diverse and highly skilled workforce to meet the demands of broadband and 5G buildout.