{"id":37808,"date":"2025-03-21T18:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?p=37808"},"modified":"2025-03-21T18:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:04:44","slug":"the-fight-for-digital-inclusion-digital-navigators-push-for-funding-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/the-fight-for-digital-inclusion-digital-navigators-push-for-funding-connectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fight for Digital Inclusion: Digital Navigators Push for Funding Connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Digital
Digital Navigators and staff from public interest groups attending a reception after a successful day of meetings on The Hill. Photo credit: Katie Knox, NDIA, March 4, 2024.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our world is proving increasingly connected, but many struggle to either obtain affordable internet access or to incorporate it effectively in their everyday lives. Digital navigators \u2013 guides and teachers, often volunteers \u2013 step in to help communities access and use affordable, reliable broadband service in an effort to close the digital divide<\/a>. Two weeks ago, more than a dozen such digital navigators from 14 states visited Capitol Hill, attending over 60 meetings with Offices representing 18 states to demonstrate the vital importance of their work to lawmakers. Multiple organizations supported these fly-ins, including the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), Free Press, New America\u2019s Open Technology Institute, Common Sense, Media Justice, and Public Knowledge. Both the digital navigators and the public interest groups supporting them urged policymakers to work with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to distribute grant funds made available through the Digital Equity Act\u2019s<\/a> Digital Equity Competitive Grant as soon as possible. This program was created to ensure covered populations, including veterans, seniors, low-income families, and more, have the tools and skills needed to safely navigate the internet to empower themselves and their communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this \u201cHill Day,\u201d Public Knowledge played a key role in training digital navigators and arranging meetings with U.S. House and Senate offices, as well as with Federal Communications Commission key staff, to provide digital navigators opportunities to speak directly with their representatives in Congress and the people who deploy telecommunications policy nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Broadband
Broadband Policy Fellow Peter Gregory and Broadband Policy Advocate Nat Purser with Sara Nichols of Land of Sky after meeting with staff from the Office of Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC11). Photo Credit: Nat Purser, Public Knowledge, March 4, 2024.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Broadband
Broadband Policy Director Alisa Valentin with Kristi Zappie-Ferradino of NDIA strategizing on how to leverage the voices of NDIA\u2019s National Digital Navigator Corps. Photo credit: Brandon Forrester, Media Justice, March 4, 2024.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our fly-in participants represented organizations with digital navigators from 14 states: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Washington. These participants are deeply involved in their communities and remain committed to connecting unserved or underserved community members to the internet and digital tools they need to participate in life. This could mean connecting children to the internet to complete their homework through computers on mobile school bus libraries; teaching an elderly woman how to shop online to get essentials delivered to her door without the difficulty of leaving the house; helping a disabled veteran connect to virtual VA appointments for therapy; providing non-English speakers tools to learn how to read and write in English; or even using familiar games like Bingo to encourage seniors with fixed incomes to engage in \u201clearn to earn\u201d programs to learn new digital skills and earn their own devices in the process. Resources run thin for these programs, but the Digital Equity Act was passed to provide critical funding opportunities to close digital skills gaps and build digital literacy across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Digital Equity Act was passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act<\/a> (IIJA), and it provides more than $2.75 billion to promote digital equity and inclusion through three grant programs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n