SUMMARY:

June 30, 2022

PALMDALE, CA – The Community Coalition of the Antelope Valley (CoCoAV) is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a California Community Foundation (CCF) grant for outreach and education to guarantee the rural portions of the North Los Angeles County Antelope Valley have access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet.

The coalition’s Founder and Executive Director, Eric Ohlsen, said, “We are working to get funding for broadband deployment in the rural communities in the Antelope Valley. The Federal Government is promising high-speed internet for everyone. We will hold them to it!”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how crucial fast, reliable, affordable broadband is to 21st Century California. The sudden move to remote work, education, and healthcare had an especially dramatic effect on our North Los Angeles County rural communities. Due to dial-up internet speeds or no internet at all, many students end up doing homework in fast food parking lots! Broadband is not a luxury; it is an essential basic need for everyone to access medical, education, work, groceries, utilities, etc.

“We’re excited to be offering the cooperative model to the rural areas of Antelope Valley as the best way for residents, students, and businesses to have access to affordable high -speed broadband,” said CoCoAV broadband lead, Jessica Fish.

The first broadband education project CoCoAV is bringing to the Antelope Valley is a workshop on forming a Co-Operative structure to manage the build of our fiber network and create a public ISP to maintain the rural broadband system. The “Rural Broadband Basics Using A CoOp Model” workshop is for all Antelope Valley Town Councils, AV HMO’s, AV School Districts, AV Utilities, AV Employers, — anyone interested in bringing affordable high-speed broadband to Antelope Valley’s un-served and under-served broadband areas (We’re looking at the sea of red census blocks in the map here that are unserved by any wireline service at 25/3 Mbps.)

Please contact Jessica Fish ([email protected]) to get involved by attending this informative workshop (at no cost to attendees):   July 29, 9 AM to 12 NOON via Zoom.

About Community Coalition of the Antelope Valley
Community Coalition of the Antelope Valley- A grassroots organizing non-profit, we bring residents of the Antelope Valley together to galvanize our power, assert our leadership, and create the policies that will ensure safety and stability. We are a unified voice for the Antelope Valley.

About California Community Foundation
California Community Foundation (CCF) Digital Equity Initiative seeds a digital equity movement in Los Angeles County with the power and capacity to successfully advocate for fast, reliable, and affordable broadband for all Angelenos.