Community groups recognized for helping close the Digital Divide

Eight community-based organizations making significant progress to close the Digital Divide were officially recognized by members of California’s congressional delegation on Thursday, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) announced.

U.S. Representatives Anna Eshoo (Palo Alto), Mike Honda (San Jose), Barbara Lee (Oakland) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (Los Angeles) issued commendations to CETF partner organizations 2-1-1s/United Ways of California, Access Now, Center for Accessible Technology, Chicana/Latina Foundation, Dewey Square Group, Latino Community Foundation, Social Interest Solutions (One-e-App) and Radio Bilingüe.

According to the announcement, the eight partners have worked for more than two years to improve digital access for Californians by promoting digital literacy and increasing broadband Internet access in the home.  With the goal of reaching low-income communities, limited-English speaking Latinos, people with disabilities and other disadvantaged populations, the organizations provided computer training and consumer education on purchasing Internet services to more than 800,000 Californians.  Low-cost and free computers were provided to more than 100,000 low-income households.   The programs were funded by a $7.2 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration awarded to the CETF in 2010.

Specific achievements include:

• Access Now hosted 27 free computer help days, repairing more than 640 computers,
• The Center for Accessible Technology trained more than 1,200 people on how to improve technology access for people with disabilities,
• The Chicana/Latina Foundation connected more than 1,000 Latino families to broadband,
• The Dewey Square Group enabled more than 600,000 families to learn about broadband and more than 50,000 families to subscribe high-speed Internet at home,
• The Latina Community Foundation trained more than 5,000 low-income families on how broadband can improve their quality of life and helped over 1,000 families to obtain broadband at home,
• 2-1-1s /  United Ways screened more than 190,000 calls and referred more than 45,000 people to broadband service and digital literacy training,
• Social Interest Solutions (One-e-App) trained 80,000 people on how to apply online for public assistance programs and referred more than 200,000 to additional digital literacy resources; and,
• The Dewey Square Group launched a collaboration with impreMedia and reached more than 1 million low-income people with Club Digital, and Radio Bilingüe devoted original programming on the benefits of broadband that reached more than 60,000 listeners.

Overall, California has a 72 percent home broadband adoption rate, 10 percentage points above the national average, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The mission of CETF is to close the Digital Divide in California by breaking down barriers to high-speed Internet access at home.  The goal is to reach 98% of all residences with broadband infrastructure and to achieve 80% at home adoption statewide by 2015.