Connect for Broadband: Helping to Close the Digital Divide
About
Us
Mission Statement:
Connect for Broadband strives to close the digital equity divide by connecting families and individuals in need to affordable, high-speed broadband programs; overcoming barriers to adoption by deploying a strategy that combines outreach, education and enrollment; and doing so by taking a collective impact and partnership approach in order to make measurable, meaningful and sustainable gains.
Lack of broadband and access to a computer at home disproportionally impacts households of people of color.
Connect for Broadband: How We Partner to Help Create Digital Equity
Connect for Broadband is an innovative, 501c3, non-profit organization dedicated towards connecting unserved families and individuals in need to high-speed broadband. The organization seeks to help close the digital divide and bring digital equity to all residents; with an emphasis on driving the adoption of high-speed broadband within the home by qualifying households in need.
Communities with existing broadband infrastructure are at a pivotal moment in which the resources now exist to connect every family and individual to affordable, high-speed internet at home who both wants and needs it. Through the combination of new government and private sector programs, cost is largely no longer a barrier to the access of home broadband service.
Overcoming barriers to broadband adoption (and successfully engaging and meeting people where they are in their lives) is now the critical community issue to be resolved.
Connect for Broadband intends to solve this challenge by focusing on identifying and eliminating the barriers that can prevent households from connecting to existing affordable broadband resources. In each community that is served, Connect for Broadband establishes a partner (collective impact) model that leverages the strengths of the existing client provider networks. This can include agencies that work within health and human services, education, housing or direct family assistance, as just a few examples.
There are two interrelated outcomes to be achieved through these partnerships:
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Achieve immediate gains in broadband sign-ups for identified households of need.
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Create and establish sustainable, systemic partnerships that will put the systems in place so that future qualifying households can have their broadband needs be proactively identified and met.
Taking a Closer Look:
The D.C. Metro Area
Within the Washington, D.C. Metro area, the digital need is significant. In Montgomery County, MD as example; 80,000 households are considered low-income (earning $50,000 or less annually).This represents 21% of all county households. Approximately 21,000 of these low-income households do not have a connected device to the internet. This is not due to a lack of broadband infrastructure, as Montgomery County is considered one of the most wired jurisdictions within the state of Maryland.
Lack of broadband and access to a computer at home disproportionally impacts households of people of color. In a recent Pew Research study (07.16.21) eight in ten White adults reported having a broadband connection at home as compared to 71% of Black and 65% of Hispanic adults.There was no statistical difference across racial and ethnic household comparisons in this same study when it came to the percentage of adults who own or have access to a smartphone at home (eight in ten). Once again, those households who may own a smartphone but do not have broadband or even a computer will likely have fragmented knowledge when it comes to digital skills – potentially limiting their ability to compete for a broader range of jobs.
The CDC’s Healthy People 2030 plan is rooted in the framework of successfully addressing five of the key measures for Social Determinants of Health. In each one, Healthcare Access and Quality; Education Access and Quality; Social and Community Context; Economic Stability and Neighborhood and Built Environment; the access, availability and adoption of broadband internet amongst all households is a critical base factor towards achieving overall success. Connect for Broadband recognizes this and is highly focused on successfully driving broadband adoption and enrollment amongst low-income households and to help close the digital equity gap.
Connecting by
• Outreach
• Education
• Enrollment
Outreach, Education and Enrollment are the three strategic pillars that Connect for Broadband utilizes to successfully increase broadband adoption amongst low-income households. Under this umbrella, Connect for Broadband utilizes a variety of tactics to meet the specific needs and circumstances of each target population group. For example, driving enrollment rates amongst low-income seniors may require additional education to connect the relevance of broadband (i.e. demonstrating the benefits of accessing home telemedicine) in addition to helping to remove the friction points within the enrollment process itself. Tactics to successfully reach a primarily first-generation immigrant population will focus on close coordination with partner service agencies that are considered to have already earned the trust of the local community. This also includes having multilingual onsite teams available who are also well versed on the certifications required to access the available subsidized broadband programs.
Connect for Broadband is not a digital literacy and skills training organization but does value the creation of strong partnerships with nonprofits that are doing such work, which helps demonstrate the relevance and benefits of enrolling into a high-speed home broadband.
Connect for Broadband is also focused on working together with government and nonprofit organizations to build long term sustainability with respect to broadband adoption and enrollment. This includes creating multiple access points in which a low-income household will have their broadband needs proactively identified and then addressed through program enrollment. There are multiple tactics within the larger strategy to achieve this, including deploying train the trainer opportunities amongst direct client serving agency staff; developing standard screening tools for intake; all in one program information that is easily accessible by agencies; and the formation of broadband enrollment coalitions and work groups to coordinate efforts.
Reporting and
Transparency
Project initiatives must be transparent in the goals that are being achieved, which requires a regular reporting schedule that identifies and tracks each metric that is considered critical towards success.
Connect for Broadband works in collaborative partnership with local agencies and nonprofit partners to help set benchmarks of the existing need and how to subsequently best report out success in closing the digital equity gap.
In 2021, the federal government enacted the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) which provided for qualifying families a direct subsidy of $50 per month that could be applied to purchase any stand-alone internet service tier from participating providers. EBB was envisioned and designed to be a stop gap measure in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.
During Fall, 2021, the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill was passed by Congress and enacted by the White House. Within that bill, a new program was created: The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
The ACP replaces the EBB program effective January 1, 2021. ACP operates largely along the same principals and mechanics
as EBB.
2021:
Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB)
EBB: Up to $50 per month; $75/month for customers in Tribal Lands
Must meet one of the qualifying criteria:
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Be a current subscriber in an ISP discount program (ex: Comcast’s Internet Essentials)
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Income at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines
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Eligible for National School Lunch, SNAP, Medicaid, Federal Public Housing Assistance, Federal Pell Grants, or other benefit programs
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Substantial loss of income since February 29, 2020
2022:
Affordable Connectivity
Program (ACP)
Internet Service Providers are making available a variety of stand-alone internet service packages that are specifically tailored to help meet the needs of families and individuals in need. By example, Comcast created Internet Essentials, an internet service tier (50/10 Mbps) for $9.95/month, equipment included.
A family who receives a voucher credit via the ACP program may take that credit to an ISP and enroll in that company’s internet affordability program for service. The ACP credit may also be applied to multiple stand-alone internet service tiers that are available from participating providers.
Example:
Eligible Family for ACP: $30/month credit
Comcast Internet Essentials: $9.95/month cost
Net balance: $0 owed per month for internet service
What broadband resources are
available via the public sector?
Our Story
Connect for Broadband has partnered with Maryland Nonprofits to recently incorporate as a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Connect for Broadband is located as a member of the Nonprofit Village center (Rockville) in Montgomery County, Maryland and is also a member of Nonprofit Montgomery. Both offer unparalleled technical resources for helping to incubate newly established nonprofits, such as Connect for Broadband, so that the focus can remain on the deployment of successful programming and carrying out of the mission itself.
Connect for Broadband’s executive director (and founder), Josh Bokee, brings a combination of passion for advocacy and achieving meaningful results, with extensive, learned experience within the broadband connectivity and technology space. Josh uses the knowledge he gained through over twenty-five years of combined government public policy and private market experience; the last fifteen of which was spent working directly within the broadband industry to help communities take full advantage of broadband affordability programs.
Josh is currently partnering with organizations within the Maryland metro region to develop and implement specific digital inclusion plans that will focus on outreach, education, and enrollment of the clients that they work with into affordable broadband programs.
Contact
Us
Connect for Broadband
Our Phone No.
301. 452. 2270