Florida continues to pour millions of dollars in federal funds into communities that lack strong internet infrastructure.
But that doesn't mean it's accessible to the people who live there.
Cheri Coryea is with the Patterson Foundation’s Digital Access for All Initiative, which is providing access, equipment, and skills training to areas that are lacking.
She starts by talking about how the initiative got started.
Cheri Coryea: “It was born out of, actually, COVID, and schools closing. And in June of 2020, we embarked on a great deal of research to determine if primarily, our ALICE families in the community — those are asset-limited, income-constrained and employed; ALICE — had access to tools, devices, laptops, because children were at home, and we were worried that their learning would be diminished.”
What was the initial findings?
“Most businesses easily adapted because they had to. People began to be mobile. Some folks began to work remote. But that really still left a hole for folks that didn't have a device, [or] didn't have internet access, and connectivity. And really, we were concerned about the fact that many people that didn't use those kinds of skills every day, didn't even know how to turn a computer on, how to access different programs, like things we use all the time — Word, Excel, those kinds of things, which are now a must.”
The Patterson foundation covers Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto, and Charlotte counties. Where are the biggest holes out in these communities?
“There are still places in the urban core, where you think there's a density of people that are still not connected. It’s primarily because they don't know about it. They could also be in a housing situation where they're not able to access and have their own account, they may not be able to afford it. But also the very rural areas. So when you think about a county like DeSoto and Charlotte, they have rural areas. Even Manatee has a rural area in Duette. They don't have any internet service providers for fiber that are actually there. Those are the places that are really going to end up expanding over the next several years.”
Just because somebody now has internet available, they decided to create fiber-optic lines in their community, and it's now accessible to them, doesn't mean it's necessarily accessible to them, because it doesn't mean that they can afford it, that they can navigate online websites or how to use certain devices. And that's where you guys kind of bridge that gap, right?
“Yes, you're absolutely right. And one of the programs that we've done to help with that is a digital navigator program. You've probably heard of a Health Navigator, and other types of navigators. So those are people that are skilled to help folks go directly to what services and resources are offered. And then the skills training, which is a new opportunity, is really more aligned with your organizations like Career Source Florida, where you can actually go in and look for employment. But if you know, most jobs now, they do all of that online, they even do the interviews online. So if people don't have access, they can't apply for higher level jobs. They can't take interviews. They can't pass a very limited skills test to move to the next level, if they don't know how to utilize a laptop or a program that's on it.
So let's look at future Cheri. So Cheri’s been working on this program for quite some time. And now she could see the long-term impact in these communities for the Digital Access for All program. What is she seeing?
“Two really exciting things that I would like to see the work that we're doing be able to help is end generational poverty. So in a family, if one of the people in the family ends up being able to use a technology skill and become employed, have a retirement, have a steady income. Secondly, success for us would be aligning with the Suncoast Campaign for Grade Level Reading to see reading levels in our four-county region rise, so that people have that have become able to have access to other resources have used them, to allow their students to learn and to read and to grow, so that they have better economic academic outcomes.”
