SUMMARY:

The Digital Literacy Task Force held its fourth meeting on Sept. 7, 2021, and included representatives from multiple sectors interested in resolving the digital divide in the Los Angeles County region. The task force was briefed on the approval of the LA DEAL to be the Regional Broadband Consortium by the California Public Utilities Commission. Resolution T-17738 formalizes the approval and includes a two-grant award of $300,00 divided between the LAEDC and UNITE-LA. The responsibilities of the Consortia include identifying infrastructure projects in underserved communities, policies, and priorities and strengthening community engagement efforts to lift infrastructure, affordability, and digital literacy. The Consortia’s objective is to drive resources to projects and obtain 98 percent broadband deployment in the region.

Attendees

• Suli Keyatta – Policy Manager, LAEDC

• Christopher Facundo (Dept. of Labor & Industry)

• Laura James – Manage Multimedia Services @ LACOE

• Bill Allen – CEO LAEDC

• Adrianna Mendoza – Cox Communications Digital Divide Liaison

• Crystal Rawls – CSUDH Workforce integration program

• Fiona Foster – Human IT Program Manager for Digital Literacy

• Miguel Sanglan – Bureau of Street lighting

• Payman

• Araceli Sandoval-Gonzalez – LA DEAL Consultant

• Alysia Bell – UNITE-LA

• Judy Krueger – LA DEAL

• Amy Cortina – UNITE-LA

• Paulina Chavez – Senior Manager, Programs & Special Projects, EveryoneOn

• Jory Wolf, Magellan Advisors

Discussion

Task force members encouraged to participate in the current CPUC Engagement to inform the Rulemaking Process.

• LA DEAL established five task forces to focus on infrastructure, devices, digital literacy, affordability, and policy and advocacy. The policy task force will tackle the barriers that emerge from each issues area.

• Senate Bill 15 earmarked $6 billion for broadband infrastructure, and the goal is for LA to receive funding to address the existing gap

• The deadline to submit/reply comments on efile.cpuc.ca.gov is Sept. 21, 2021. Public comment example: “We agree with LAEDC” → Public comments are essential to open the discussion on allocating funds.

Paulina: EveryoneOn

• The goal is to connect people in under-served communities with broadband and devices:

• To date: 890K+ have been connected to the internet

• 5,000 devices have been distributed

• Digital inclusion at scale:

• National offer locator tool: www.everyoneon.org → locator for low-cost broadband, devices, and training solutions based on the user’s region

• Programs available in a given area:

• Digital Skills Academy provides training on how to use devices and leverage them for the benefit of people for school or personal growth → available to people 16 and over

• Two types of training for organizations:

• Digital Inclusion Essentials: introduction webinar that provides information on the digital divide and existing resources

• Digital Communities is designed to train the trainers → Training for individuals

• Bridges to Technology are available in Detroit, Pittsburg, and Salt Lake City, and aiming to expand to California was designed for high school students to build pathways to digital resilience, equity, prepare for college and career exploration.

• Digital Connections caters to adults to improve digital literacy to access critical services such as health care, employment opportunities, and educational resources.

• Training Curriculum + Design leverages existing free and accessible content and design training to improve quality based on geographical region.

Questions: How do we ensure quality?

• Access feedback from users and partner organizations to adjust resources and incorporate them into the program– e.g., conduct surveys

• Components for success:

• The challenge: Funding is finite, so create a model to support as many people as possible

• Self-Guided Learning (Asynchronous)

• Learning in a classroom setting (Synchronous)

• Individual support from the instructor (Office hours)

• Available for individual appointments: cover the cost of devices to use for training and will be donated upon successful completion of the training program

• Internet connectivity and device solutions

• Provide community specific enrollment events that meet language

• National and regional collaborative initiatives

• A geographically focused model that can be adopted/applied on a national scale

The Digital Literacy Task Force meets virtually monthly and includes education, health, nonprofit, education, business, city municipalities, and internet service providers. To learn more, visit: ladeal.org/events.

Meeting #5 is scheduled for Oct. 5, 2021.

Digital Literacy Taskforce Objective

Assessing needs and opportunities to provide ongoing culturally relevant and age-appropriate training at scale for underserved communities.