Mandilee Gonzalez: All right. Are you seeing my screen?

Veronica Parker: Yes.

Mandilee Gonzalez: OK. Thank you. All right. So thank you all for joining us. This is part 2 of Advancing Digital Equity and Social Justice in Adult Education. Our facilitators are myself and Dr. Parker. Dr. Parker, I'll let you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Veronica Parker: All right. Thank you so much, Mandilee, and thank you all very much for joining us this afternoon. And for most of you, welcome back. Thank you for joining us from part 1 to part 2. We are very excited about this particular session because, of course, it's a continuum of learning from part 1, but then also we have some very, very special guests that are joining us this afternoon. So, of course, you'll hear from Mandilee and I, but you'll also hear from them.

So my name is Dr. Veronica Parker. I'm the coordinator with the CAEP Technical Assistance Project. And just to give you a little context about why we are presenting on this particular topic because, as you all know, back in 2020 when the pandemic hit, adult education in particular, we already were engaged in distance education. However, everyone had to quickly pivot. And with that quick pivot there was an increase or enhanced light shed on the digital divide, as well as the inequities that are in the digital space.

And so, of course, we want to continue the conversation and really peel back the layers so that we are able or we are a contributor of closing the digital divide. And for the California Adult Education program, Technical Assistance Project in particular, we have state priorities in which we provide professional development, technical assistance and capacity building around one of-- two of which being equity as well as technology and distance learning.

And one of the ways in which we are doing that is bringing this particular presentation to you that's talking about teachers as agents of change, the historical context of education, social justice that the whole digital equity, digital literacy, as well as strategies to increase-- excuse me to address the inequities that exists within the digital space. And so that's why we are here this afternoon.

I am extremely passionate about all things social justice and equity related, so this just being a piece of that passion of minds, and always wanting to engage in conversations and really identify ways in which we can help to close the inequities we see present day. So that is my why for being here. Again, thank you all very much for joining us. We are very excited. And I'll pass it on to Mandilee.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you, Dr. Parker. So again, Mandilee Gonzalez. Also with CAEP Technical Assistance Project and project specialist. And it is a privilege of mine to be able to co-facilitate and do the research that really does invigorate and impassioned me around all items social justice, as well as inequities.

My big why for being here is I emigrated to this country at a very young age from Canada. And I've lived all throughout the United States in various regions and have experienced as well as have seen different inequities based on either socioeconomic, gender, sex and race. And I was raised in a way, and I have a belief system that, you share what know, and you learn what you can, and you help prop your community up. So this is my way of giving back, and it's my way of showing up. So thank you all for joining us today.

So some of our co facilitators. I know I don't have everybody represented, so I do apologize for those of you who will be co-facilitating and sharing your strategies and tools with us. But we do have Kelly Henwood with us of San Diego consortium, as well as Kelsey Baird, Maiten with SANDAG. We have Cheri with Computers 2 Kids, as well as Chrissie Powell and her team with Byte Back. And then Anthony Burik of OTAN. We will definitely allow them the opportunity to go into more detail and introduce themselves later on in the presentation today.

So some of our outcomes, and I'll go ahead and hand that back to Dr. Parker.

Veronica Parker: All right. So our outcomes. We have two outcomes in which we would like you all to leave this session with the series, in general. But the two outcomes are we want you all to leave with a deeper understanding of what social justice and digital equity are and how they are currently impacting the digital divide.

And then secondly, again, we always welcome opportunities to critically reflect on who we are, our positionalities and how we are shaped to be in this space. But then also the current research in identifying strategies to close the digital equity gap. And so that critical reflection took place on Tuesday when we had part 1, as well as a deeper understanding of what social justice and digital equity are. And then today, we'll cover some of the other components. But these are the two outcomes we would like you all to leave with as a result of engaging in this three part webinar series.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you. So just to go over today's agenda, the welcome, some introductions. I am now reviewing the agenda with you. We are going to introduce some norms as well as the data, barriers, and strategies. And then at that point, that's when we will invite in our guest facilitators from San Diego Consortium, Byte Back, OTAN, and then an opportunity for questions and answers. So we do ask that you do utilize the chat for your questions. We will want to make sure that we come back to them. But just in the essence of time, we are going to try to hold all questions and answers at the end. So again, thank you for that.

And if you were with us on Tuesday, you are familiar with our essential agreements. And for those of you that aren't, I am just going to do a quick overview. And we ask that you all participate and engage with us with these essential agreements in mind. We ask that when you are engaging in this work that you do stay engaged. Meaning that you are not checking out with mind or heart, that your body just isn't here, but you are really truly engaged speaking your authentic truth as you can in this moment, actively listening, and assuming best intent.

So understand that sometimes in communication things don't always come across as they are intended. And if that bubbles something up for you, we ask that you just pause and assume best intent and circle back with a question of clarification.

And as Dr. Parker stated earlier, we ask that you expect and accept non closure. We are talking about big issues that we are not going to resolve in today's session. But we do ask that you maintain and keep that ongoing dialogue and to be open to experience discomfort.

Some of the topics that we will discuss and some of the data that we're going to look at may be uncomfortable and it is going to be discomfort. But in order to do the good work that we want to do today and the ongoing work, we ask that you are open to experiencing some of this discomfort so that we can move forward and move that needle on the metric there. So thank you for trusting us and participating in this space with us today. Dr. Parker?

Veronica Parker: All right. Thank you. And so we have an invitation, as we did on Tuesday, to enter and engage in this brave space. And so for those of you who joined us on Tuesday, we did go through this poem, and we reflected on, not only what this poem meant to us, but what were our intentions when it comes to creating a brave space.

And some of our attendees named that we have a right to continue to examine what we think we know. And so what we mean by that is we all come into this space with ideas or experiences or beliefs about how we think things are or could be. However, we have an opportunity to examine that thought process, especially if we have new-found information at our disposal.

Others had indicated that we will not be perfect or that we have all caused wounds. But we have the right to continue to grow together and to continue to work on this side by side. And so as you are reviewing this particular poem, just keep your intention in mind, especially if you were with us on Tuesday. Whatever your intention that you set on Tuesday, you want to keep that in mind and remind yourself of the intention that you not only set on Tuesday, but that's carrying you today into next week and into the future.

And for those of you who are just joining us this afternoon, we invite you to identify what your intention will be when it comes to working on equity centered work and how you're going to show up in these particular spaces. So remember that there is no such thing as a safe space, but we have the opportunity to create a brave space. So we just wanted to set that reminder for you all as we prepare to dive into the wonderful topics that we have for this afternoon.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you, Dr. Parker. So with that we're going to go ahead and get things started. So what I have on the screen is a definition of the digital divide. And if I could ask for someone to come off mute and read that definition, I would greatly appreciate it. Do I have any volunteers?

Speaker 1: I'll do it.

Mandilee Gonzalez: OK. Thank you.

Speaker 1: Sorry. What is digital divide? The digital divide refers to the gap between those who have access to technology, the internet, and digital literacy training and those who do not.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you so much, Sandra, for coming off mute. I appreciate that. So this is what-- this is where we're going to start. And we are going to start with talking about that digital divide and what we can do to mitigate that. And what the data points are pointing to that identify that gap.

So before we jump into the nuances of the digital divide, I do want to take a pause and highlight some of the wins, and where we are with some of the wins. So this is a graphic. And it just shows that the medium cost per megabyte has dropped in K-12 districts by almost 25%. We have about 45% of our public school principals who have worked directly with internet service providers to help learners have access to internet at home. So those hot spots that were being distributed.

In an increase of 17% overall between sixth and 12th graders to those one-to-one device programs and what that looks like is up to 83% for your ninth to 12th graders, and then increased to 86% for our sixth to eighth graders.

Another celebration that I would like to highlight is, as we pause just to take a look at some of our states, so California-- cheers to you and Washington and Utah, you have been identified as exemplars for having innovative emerging practices in addressing affordability access and ownership in the state of the broadband plans. So kudos to all of our states as we continue this work. We do like to pause and make sure that we do celebrate the work that we are doing and that we are making some improvements.

So now we're going to discuss some of the barriers. So this is that like three-legged stool that I like to call of our barriers. So it's availability, affordability, and adoption. So affordability is really looking at can our families, can our learners pay for the total cost of having, say, maintaining reliable internet? And when we talk about internet, we also want to talk about the quality of internet services because quality access is also dependent on what a household can afford to pay.

There are a lot of programs out there that do offer very low cost internet access, but oftentimes, those low cost programs typically also provide a lower quality access. That broadband is slower. It's not going to be able to support some of the programs or systems that the learner or that the student or that the family requires to really engage in the way that we need them to engage just to maintain whatever it is, whether it's banking or looking for a job or applying for a job.

So affordability, and when we talk about affordability, we talk about, not just that monthly cost of the bill, but we're really examining if a household can sustain a continuous service. So having an interruption of service isn't really providing a learner the ability to always access what they need to. So if you have internet for two months and then it drops out for three months, what kind of a hardship does that put on that family? And how does that change how they actually engage with internet or their devices?

And then there is also the availability to the access. And we enter into-- we have all experienced this if for driving especially in California. We are that farm to fork state, so we do have a lot of farm areas. So you go into a rural area, and you kind of can expect to have some service interrupted, whether it's your Wi-Fi or your data plan. But I also want to highlight the neighborhoods that experience these same low connectivity due to a low socioeconomic neighborhood that do not have the same infrastructure in place.

So I was on a-- really quick story. So I was on a webinar talking about equity and broadband for all and the speaker shared a story that really resonated with me and it really just punctuated this point, which is why I continue to propel and to share this story. So she told a story about a woman who lived in Brooklyn. She had a very high level position. And when the pandemic hit, everybody, as we know, basically went home. And they started to work from home.

Because where she lived-- she lived in a neighborhood in Brooklyn. And in the area that she lived, she was facing infrastructure issues where she was having low connectivity, unstable internet, even though her equal counterparts didn't experience this because they lived in more prominent neighborhoods. I share that story because it is a nice reminder-- a constant reminder that there are inequities even in our infrastructure, and these are the systems that we have to bolster up so we don't continue to have these same barriers.

So as I mentioned just a moment ago, we do know that there are programs out there to support some of these barriers. But we have to really start to take a look at why there are so many opportunities, but the low numbers of participants in these government and private programs. We have to start to peel back the layers to understand the reasons why they're not connecting.

And I'm just going to highlight the one that was really glaring to me is the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, where 9 million people applied, and that sounds like a big number. But when you realize that there's 37 million households that are eligible, we have to understand where is that gap and why are those people not connecting to that program to really help lift them.

And I think, as we go through this, we'll understand that when we start to peel back a lot of these layers, it does come back to relationship and that trust and just really getting those people connected in a way where they can engage.

So now that we've kind of touched on those barriers, and I've kind of mentioned the data aspects, I want to share with you, and this is from the Pew Research Center and they surveyed 1,500 adults from January 25 to February 8 of 2021. And they conducted this survey via landline and cell phone. So some of the data points to ground our understanding of where our learners are is when we look at this, in this slide, we are seeing that our Black and Hispanic adults in the US are less likely than white adults to have traditional computers and broadband.

And then in the next slide, also from the Pew Research, and so you're looking at-- OK. Yes. Good. You're looking at this slide here. So this is now taking a look at that same data but by household incomes. So the graph on the left shows households with less than $30,000 in the dark blue. And this is indicating that households with lower incomes still do not have the same broadband service or equipment adoption.

The graph on the right is showing a percentage of adults who have smartphones but no broadband at home by that income bracket. So you can see that those under $30,000, meaning lower income adults, are utilizing their devices, their cell phones to apply for jobs, when really that should be best suited for a desktop or a laptop to really give them the full experience and to make sure that they're putting their best foot forward.

So when I look at this, I think that this data is telling. When we start to frame what our access is and what our learners have for access or what they don't have, and if we really want to meet our learners where they are, we have to understand truly where they are and how they're engaging with some of the devices. And some of the, I want to say, what we think they have at home, and really how they're able to engage with the work. And then even finding a job.

Moving along here, I want to go over those barriers. So this allows us to digest those barriers in those buckets. And the barriers that our learners are being faced with and our communities are being faced with. So in these buckets I'm just going to call out a few in the interest of time, because I want to move along, so we can really hear from our people out there with some great strategies that we can connect to.

So when it comes to availability, it's that lack of ownership of personal devices that have the ability to connect to broadband and memory to run programs, but also the infrastructure of quality. For affordability, the high cost of broadband and tech tools for that continuous and sustainable access. And then adoption.

So when we peel back those layers, I think I mentioned this earlier, when we peel back those layers, we're identifying that there is a distrust between communities and government and private programs. So that's a big component, I think, that maybe we can all work on. And that the community is hesitant to participate in these offerings, which makes it hard to get them connected in all of those other aspects.

So some strategies that maybe some of you have already-- are utilizing as an agency or as a district or if you've come up with, and I'm just going to name a couple. So availability, that distribution of hotspots. I know that that was very valuable to a lot of people if they had that access. The affordability and that that community partnering with lower cost internet, but still hopefully, a high broadband access.

And then the adoption. And that's those community members and community based organizations, like your libraries, and then having the multi link, well, tech support for our learners because we do have a vast majority throughout California of various languages. And when you can meet them in their own language, it's a lot easier for them to understand in how to engage.

So I'm going to take a pause because I feel like I've really been talking at you for quite some time now. And I'd love to hear whether it's off of mute or in the chat, what are some strategies that your agency is using that you have found effective? So please feel free to pop it in the chat or come off mute. Thank you, Tanya. So Tanya Praest says, we let students borrow Chromebooks. Very nice. Anyone else?

OK. So I'm sharing screens. So I can't see if anyone's coming off of mute. Oh, we have some others here. So thank you, Mark with Byte Back. They also have a loaner laptop program. And then Sandra says, yes to Chromebooks. Love it. Thank you, guys. Ivan, we provide hot spots to our ECE pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship students.

Kelly Henwood, we have had ACP events, and we can talk more about that when we present. Yes, and I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Kelly. Affordability connectivity program. I appreciate that. Thank you. Kelsey-- oh, my goodness. So many more are coming in. So Kelsey Baird, mobile hotspots, check out through their libraries grassroots, their ACP enrollments with community led organizations.

So we have lots of great strategies, and I can't wait for a lot of our co-facilitators to share those directly with you. So I'm going to pop-- we're going to go ahead and move forward, but please feel free to continue to add to the chat any of those strategies that are working for your agency. And we will all be able to download that chat and still continue to learn from each other.

So I am going to end this section of the digital divide with a video that I found and I believe it just-- it really ties it up in a nice nutshell.

[music playing]

Narrator: High speed internet, a modern luxury only for those who can afford it? Not anymore. Today, broadband is essential to everyday life in how we connect with the world. So essential, we sometimes ask, how do we manage without it? Good question. Because every day, millions of Americans are forced to simply for living on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The digital divide. That glaring gap between those who can participate in all broadband offers and those who cannot. A gap largely defined by race and income that disproportionately affects Black Americans and communities of color. Today, more than one in five black Americans live below the poverty line. So even in areas covered by broadband, costs can be out of reach.

Last year, over one in 3 black households had no computer and no access to broadband leaving millions of Black adults unable to work remotely from home or search for a new job. And more than 4 million Black children disconnected when K through 12 classes went online.

Today, 7 in 10 black Americans say insufficient digital skills impedes their employability. If this trend continues, in 25 years, three out of four Black Americans could be disqualified from 86% of US jobs. What will it take to prevent this? Coordinated broadband solutions, public and private sector informed by digital equity, accurate data mapping that illuminates needs, frequent re-evaluation of broadband standards, and policy making that resolves barriers and access.

Because high speed internet is not a privilege, it's a necessity for all Americans whatever their color or income, wherever they happen to live. By removing barriers to broadband, we can better the lives of millions of Black Americans while improving our communities, our economy, and the future that together we share.

When broadband for all will benefit all of us, doesn't it make sense? Now is the time to close the digital divide.

Mandilee Gonzalez: All right. Thank you guys for allowing me and indulging me to share that with everyone. Let's go ahead and switch back to-- sorry, let's see here. We'll go ahead and switch back to the presentation. They don't let me. Sorry. Stand by. All right, here we go.

So I think that that really just sums up the digital divide in a just really clean cut space where if someone doesn't understand it, you can absolutely share that video with them. And I think that they'll have a good understanding of what the digital divide is and what we need to do moving forward. Oops, did not mean to do that. Apologies.

So now we're going to talk about digital literacy. You can't talk about the digital divide without really understanding the digital literacy aspect of that. And I have another vocabulary words. If I could ask someone to come off mute and read this for us, I would appreciate that. Have any takers?

Speaker 2: I'll do it.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you.

Speaker 2: Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

Mandilee Gonzalez: Thank you, Tanya, for sharing with us. So when we think about the digital literacy, I want to bring up the misconception of our young people and our adults in the workforce, where younger workers are not immune to the reality faced by some of our older peers in which that they develop only the skills that they regularly use or that they have or have seen around them.

So if you're not exposed to something, then you don't to look for it. For example, in my home, all of the children in my home see that I use my laptop for work. This is how I create resumes. This is how I engage and communicate with my colleagues. But if you're using your laptop just to engage in, say, YouTube or entertainment, then you really aren't using that device to the full capability that that tool is really intended for.

So digital literacy, , I think is a huge aspect of the digital divide and just one of those components that I think that we always have to acknowledge. So as we talk about digital literacy, it does also impact where we're at as far as our economy and our workforce. And what does that mean for our learners? So digital literacy is going to give them the ability to search and apply for those jobs, create those resumes, as I mentioned, construct an email, navigate through sites that support some of those essential services that we've talked about trying to connect them to.

So this requires that all people are provided the opportunity to learn how to use these tools. And oftentimes, this does fall on our teachers or our libraries. Really, the people in this room. So ensuring that our learners have those digital skills, this is key for their success. An important skill set for all of our learners to understand how to use these tools, not only to access school, employment and other social programs, but it's imperative, I think, as we kind of enter this digital era.

It's how everyone is living. This is how people do banking. This is how they pay even rent. So it is important in so many aspects, not just school and upskilling. But as we talk about that, I also want to share this slide, and this is from the National Skills Coalition from 2020. And when we review those digital skills, what we're looking at here is Black and Latino and Asian-American/Pacific Islanders and the percentage of workers that still need those digital skills.

So 50% of Black workers, 57% of Latino, and 36% of Asian-American and Pacific Islander workers need those digital skills. So when I look at this, I feel like these numbers alone should be impetus enough to understand the weight of the digital skills and the divide, and why it's so imperative that we continue to do the work that we're doing.

One other survey that I would like to share with you. So what you're looking at currently is a rubric. And this is a survey of adult skills, and it was a product of the OECD, which is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And it conducted a separate analysis that categorized these digital skills into levels.

So below level 1 or failure, whether it was self identified or they just tested that low to level 1, which is, hey, I know how to get onto the internet. I know how to maybe get onto email and I can search. And when we look at those, we're looking at the scores now by ethnicity. And it's really glaring to me that just level 1 and below, we have huge numbers of our population that really do need those digital skills.

So I don't want to belabor this any longer. I think it's pretty evident that this is a-- it is an important topic. And I think that it can be integrated into a lot of the different programs that we have out there. So with that, we're going to hear from some of our presenters, and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Parker to do our first introduction.

Veronica Parker: All right. Thank you so much, Mandilee, for such great information and current research on the digital divide. So I will now turn it over to our colleagues out of San Diego starting first with the San Diego Consortium Manager Kelly Henwood. Kelly?

Kelly Henwood: Greetings, everybody. I'm Kelly Henwood. I am the special projects manager at San Diego College of Continuing Education and the lead for our San Diego Adult Education Regional Consortium. Thank you so much for letting us come and present today. I'm going to do some quick introductions, and we actually did a similar session at last fall's CAEP Summit.

And the thing that we're going to talk about today, and let me-- am I sharing my screen? Hang one second. Let me make sure I'm sharing my screen. There we go. Is we really want to talk about our community partnership. So I'm going to turn it over in a minute to Kelsey Baird, who is the digital equity manager at the Department of Technology at the City of San Diego, and then Cheri Pierre, who is the CEO of Computers 2 Kids, and then Maiten Mowreader, who's a senior digital equity planner at the San Diego Association of Governments.

So this whole presentation is really to talk about what we've been working on over the last two years, and some folks, for even longer, like Computers 2 Kids who's a key refurbisher in the state of California and across the country. Really, what we want to emphasize is what we've done locally in San Diego to connect with public entities like SANDAG and the City of San Diego, as well as nonprofit partners to really bridge the digital divide and digital equity issues that we see with adult learners. And we've learned lots of things, and we've had many experiences together, especially through the pandemic.

So we want to talk a little bit about what we're doing in San Diego and give you some heads up for some future happenings. But the key thing here that we hope that you'll gain is that some of the things that we've learned and done here and some things that you might need might be able to bring back to your local region in terms of nonprofit and public partnerships.

I will say that there are-- it's a key time right now for us to advocate for adult learners in the sphere of digital equity. There are lots of things happening at the state and federal level, which you'll hear a little bit about how we've been working with those systems at a local level.

But I think also, depending upon what the local political environment looks like in your region, the opportunity to see what's happening, if you're not already working with your local governments, your local county, your local city, to see really what they're doing because again, digital equity is a key issue, especially through the pandemic. But sometimes the needs of adult learners tend to not be emphasized as much as some other populations, such as K through 12 school system children.

So this is an opportunity maybe to get some ideas and then bring them back to your area and see what you might be able to do. So I'm going to turn it over to Kelsey Baird from the city of San Diego, and she's going to say a few things, and then we're going to go through the different folks here.

And I want to thank all of our partners for coming and joining this presentation because they're all fantastic and wonderful to work with. And in terms of social justice issues, they feel it in their heart and soul and do it every single day. And so we're very lucky to be able to work with them. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Kelsey.

Kelsey Baird: Thank you, Kelly. And I apologize. My camera's having some issues. So I think it's just better if I keep it off for my internet. Thank you all. Yeah. And this has really been touched upon. The pandemic accelerated really a monumental shift in how critically policymakers at the National, state, and local levels really perceive internet access, and that is as an essential resource on par with water and electricity.

And like Kelly pointed out, I just want to call out that there's a lot of funding coming down the pipeline from the state of California through Senate Bill 156, which is around 6 billion for infrastructure and programming. And then the Infrastructure and Jobs Act at the federal level, which is around $42 billion.

And so now, more than ever, is an opportunity for us to collaborate across entities, and for you all to work with your local government and for local government, frankly, to listen to community members most impacted by the digital divide and practitioners, who have been doing this work. So just to keep that funding on your radar. And I think we have information on our resource slide.

So today I'm going to be sharing just a little bit about the city of San Diego's model for working with our adult education partner, San Diego College of Continuing Education to advance digital equity through our collaborative digital Navigator program. And just to give you a little bit of background on the city of San Diego, City council allocated 500,000 IN one time funding in 2020 at the height of the pandemic with the goal of connecting low income households to the internet.

And so we've been working on sort of middle term programs to connect community to resources that are out there. And then working on a longer term strategy around broadband infrastructure through a master plan to address sustainable, equitable internet access. I'll put in the chat a story map which kind of-- created by SANDAG which really illustrates the digital divide in the city of San Diego.

But to give you a brief overview, 53,000 households in the city lack home internet. In some neighborhoods up to 28%, based on our data. And this is, as it was mentioned before, really due to structural issues, and it's really a process of systemic racism over time and how internet infrastructure has been deployed. And the cost of services available to communities and the quality of services and that this does disproportionately impact our neighborhoods of color in the city of San Diego at twice the rate of our white identified households according to market research.

And this is a process that's called digital lining, and that has been defined by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as what happens when internet service providers invest less money in low income and marginalized communities. And that leaves those communities with slow unreliable broadband or no broadband at all.

So the city's digital equity initiative, SD Access 4 All, has really been-- it's very new, but it's really been about bringing together partner organizations and that includes community led organizations, community organizations, trusted messengers, folks already doing the work in this space to address the whole digital equity process, right?

And so we really see local government, the city, as acting as a key connection point to critical resources led by our trusted community partners. And another note is we are we've been working to focus these programs and services that we're building together in our digital equity priority areas of the city, and those are the cities that data show-- areas that data show lack internet and computers at the highest rates, right?

So our formula for an effective digital equity ecosystem is kind of a four part equation. And institutions on this meeting, you already are probably addressing one or more of these areas for your students and the folks you support. So the first is access to high quality affordable internet. The Affordable Connectivity Program, formerly the EBB, and Maiten will speak on this later, that is, the federal subsidy that offers $30 off your monthly internet bill if you qualify. So that's access to high quality affordable internet is number 1 and that's a critical resource.

Number 2 is digital skills training or digital literacy training. And most campuses offer some form of digital literacy curricula. Definitely, San Diego College of Continuing Education does. So you might already have that in place, in which case you might want to shift to focus on technical support.

So the third pillar is access to computers and those devices. So what we're finding is a lot of adult learners have-- they might get a computer, but then it's really necessary to have that ongoing support if the device breaks, if the device has a virus, right? Or folks run into issues.

And then the fourth is just the creation and development of productive spaces from which to engage in the digital world. So that could be a computer lab, that could be a library, or a community center. So those are the really four important parts of the equation.

So we've found, through our work, that it's really important to build a resource network around these four pillars, and put them together, bundle them together in an accessible manner, right? So we heard from our community partners during the pandemic that support for the whole internet process was necessary. So from finding affordable programs from internet service providers to making sure that the federal Affordable Connectivity Program Benefit was effectively applied to a bill, right? The whole process, ensuring that the internet was installed correctly.

So we came together as eight organizations, anchor institutions, community organizations, government, and we really built together with a digital Navigator program so that it could work across systems. And this is to act as that resource distribution model and to guide community and students through the whole kind of digital equity or digital inclusion process through repeated interactions. So you can go ahead and the next slide. Sorry. These are our partners all working together to build this digital Navigator program.

So a digital Navigator is just really critical in making technology more accessible, right? And so some of the important things that they provide are access to affordable, high quality internet. If it's available, access to affordable computers, access to digital skills programming, and then just that basic patient one-on-one support to work on any of your technology related goals, right?

So we currently have 10 navigators. We'll soon will be at 15. They are fluent in eight languages, and we really recruited based on lived experience, folks living in communities most impacted by the digital divide. And they have a diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and experiences. And we really tried to recruit directly from our partner organizations.

So we recruited from the student population at San Diego College of Continuing Education and they are fantastic navigators because of that lived experience. There are placed at seven host sites, including our city libraries, a recreation center, and critically two campuses at SDCCE. And then available via toll free help line.

And so to date we've supported more than 2000 residents, and that's through outreach, in person, and help line services. And I'll drop the links in the chat to our programs. And I'll hand it off to a really important partner in building this digital Navigator program city wide, Computers 2 Kids to talk more about the device access component, which is so critical in digital equity. Thank you.

Cheri Pierre: Hello, everyone. I'm Cheri Pierre. I'm CEO of Computers 2 Kids. And first, I want to just say our name may have the word kids in it, but over a decade ago, we really expanded, and now we work with all populations and all ages. We are one of the leading advocates for digital equity, not only in San Diego, but nationwide. We are the top third nonprofit refurbisher in the United States.

And we know that a computer is not just giving you access to the world, but it's giving you health equity, educational equity, and economic equity. The computer is a vehicle to be able to access the world, and we're providing that on an affordable level. Next slide.

So Computers 2 Kids focuses on several different types of devices. We have laptop devices, tablets, but also desktop systems. And it's not just the system itself. We make sure that everything has a headset included. If it's a desktop system we're providing Wi-Fi adapters so that desktop can be portable anywhere in the household.

Also we're making sure that there's cameras, and we're providing Microsoft software. And that's really important because the world is predominantly Windows based, and so we want to make sure that the individual who's receiving these systems has the tools right out of the gate to be able to access these resources.

It's also important to know that unlike most Microsoft software, which is subscription based out there, all of the software that goes on our computers is a standalone software. And what this allows the family to do is to access those resources without being tethered to a monthly subscription. And for those that are more financially vulnerable, this prevents disruption in being able to use that software.

It was really interesting. We've been in this sector for over 20 years. I sit on a board of national non-profit refurbishers. We've been addressing the digital divide before the world knew it existed. And prior to the pandemic, we were doing up to 10 to 11,000 computers a year. Almost immediately when the world shut down, we expanded our amount of devices. And so far we did over 112,000 devices just during the pandemic.

Now that wasn't just in San Diego. A lot of the nonprofit refurbishers and a lot of the sources out there in the community did not have access to enough devices. Either there was a chain supply shortage, if you were trying to buy new devices, or the quality of the refurbished devices out there were called into question.

We were fortunate enough to enter into the pandemic with more than 40,000 devices in stock. And so we were a great resource, not only for individuals nationwide who are applying to us, but also for the local community colleges and agencies that need to get-- needed to get devices into their students' hands in order to continue that education remotely. Next slide.

So one of the important things to really know on a federal level, and this is a game changer when it comes to addressing digital inequities in our community, is that passing in January of the COVS Act. And this COVS Act basically states that all federal computers, everything that every federal agency, is using, instead of it having to be sold off or processed through the federal government, it can actually be passed on to nonprofit refurbishers.

This is really going to be a big difference on whether or not your adult learners have access to technology, and I mean quality technology. There's a misnomer that if it's a refurbished computer, it's not worth the price of postage to send it. And that's not true. These devices are core series devices. They've got SSD drives. They've got max RAM, the software. We're providing them a quality-- a much higher quality of a device than they would if they were able to buy the cheapest device on, say, Walmart or Costco or one of those.

It's a higher quality, and not only that, most refurbishers take great pride in that and ensure that there is unlimited tech support on those devices. In the case of Computers 2 Kids, because they are refurbished, every device comes with free lifetime tech support. And if we can't fix that device, we replace it to the individual at no cost to them. That really allows them to stay connected.

And they don't have to be in the San Diego area. The beauty of COVID is that we can touch all parts of the state, and we do so. We partner with colleges and universities up in northern and the middle of states, but we also provide computers to all of the foster kids that have aged out of the foster system. And that is through partnerships with iFoster.

But this COVS Act, it's going to probably take between now, and we're estimating, the end of 2024 really to iron out all the kinks of how these devices are going to be distributed. But the beautiful thing about California is we are a strong military state, and so we have a little higher access to devices through the federal government than most other states in the nation. So we're fortunate in that area. Next slide.

So it's really important to know what kind of resources are available to you. And I'll drop these into the chat, but the kind of arching-- a national organization that all of us refurbishers really work with is Digitunity. The beautiful thing about Digitunity is they will have a map that the link-- it's like a network map. You put in the area you're at, and they'll tell you exactly what agency in your backyard will be able to support you.

Currently, right now, there's 157 agencies that are addressing the digital and equity. And the three top refurbishes are Computers 2 Kids, Human-I-T, and Comp-U-Dopt. Again each one may be different, but we all know each other. And if one refurbisher does not have the product to help you, we will work with other nonprofit refurbishers to be able to make sure we fulfill your order.

Also, the interesting thing about how this works is that any time you want to do an event at your campus, if you have individuals that you refer, we set up a customized application, and most of the refurbishers do the same thing, where we're customizing working with you to be able to address the needs specifically of your adult learners. All of our material does come in multiple languages, and our tech support is also handled in multiple languages. If we can't fix it over the phone remotely, we ship a device-- replacement device at no cost to the individual. Next slide.