Project: Marion County Digital Literacy Program

Nestled in North Central Arkansas, Marion County has over 16,000 residents. This rural county is widely known for its gorgeous mountains and crystal clear lakes. However, despite its prosperous natural assets, a large and diverse part of the rural population does not have adequate digital literacy skills to prosper in our highly digitalized world.

We have curated a digital literacy program specifically targeting parents and families of k-12 students in the rural communities of Marion County. This program will offer basic, though essential, digital literacy training and certificates through the Yellville-Summit School District providing both workforce development and the skills parents need to aid their students with school. Working side by side with community partners our goal is to educate and prepare the parents and families of the community.

“In a fully digitalized era, the most vulnerable of our society is being left behind without access to broadband, devices, and digital skills. I’ve watched hundreds of students and families suffer from the lack of digital knowledge that other parents and families have. Students must rely on their own limited knowledge of computers and the internet in order to succeed, which creates a divide within the education system as the parents can’t help their students or access programs available through schools for helping their students succeed. This program provides the essential education needed to aid in closing one of the most significant divides our country faces right now, closing the gap between parents, their students, and school districts.”

• Digital Literacy training for parents and families of k-12 students for both workforce development and aiding their students in their own studies. Goal to enable 3,500 family members each year to complete the program and receive a certificate for their resume.
• A school counselor will be present during the training to teach the parents and family members about net neutrality and protecting their students online.
• The program is designed for long-term implementation, with the minimum length being three years.

Project: Seniors ‘23 Teach Seniors

Southwest Arkansas is a rural area that embodies southern hospitality and country living. When someone is in need of help, support and love pour from our communities and we solve the problem with the resources at hand. Just as electricity was slow to reach rural areas, the digital divide is evident and hinders progress seen in more urban areas. Just as we come together for potlucks, we will come together to make sure there is access to learn digital skills.

I designed a community service teaching program to help senior citizens in nursing homes learn digital skills and how to be cyber safe. We are partnering with five nursing homes to provide a community device for residents to use and bringing high school students in to teach skills such as setting up an email, video chats with family, being cyber safe and other interests that the residents have.

“Rural Arkansas can already feel disconnected from the world, and even more so for our senior citizens in nursing homes. If we make an investment in bringing digital skills to folks, we can start to create connections that positively impact their wellbeing. As a teacher, I noticed the gap between our youth and elderly citizens was far too wide. Our elders have contributed so much to society and advancement, the least we can do is help them build skills to navigate technology and maybe in the process help each other to see that they are not that different from each other.”

• Digital literacy and cyber security skills for seniors with instruction delivered by high school seniors
• Partner with five nursing homes without community devices in our 12 county area of service to provide a device
• Train high school seniors in how to teach skills and build rapport with nursing home residents
• Anticipate 20 student teachers training 200 nursing home residents during the initial launch

Project: eKnox

Home to my alma mater, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is a growing city with abundant job opportunities. Although 98% of households have access to broadband service in Knox County, just 51% subscribe to service. For that reason, the chamber has made it one of its top priorities to help adults acquire the digital skills they need to find employment, access community resources and participate in their children’s education.

eKnox 2.0: Digital Opportunity Initiative pilot program tackles several components of the digital divide – access to affordable high- speed internet and devices and attaining digital literacy. The program is modeled after Chattanooga’s “Tech Goes Home” program, but is different in that it’s a self-service model. With all teaching and learning resources at www. knoxvillechamber/eknox, other non-profits, organizations and businesses can start and run their own programs.

“While assisting Knox County Schools during the pandemic, the Knoxville Chamber identified a significant deficit in home internet access and parents’ understanding of technology. By addressing the lack of a community digital literacy program, the Chamber is empowering individuals by helping them develop skills to improve their quality of life.”

• Three trusted site partners in low-income communities: Pond Gap Elementary School (a University of Tennessee assisted community school), Knoxville Parks & Recreation (Cecil Webb Recreation Center), and Knox Worx (a Knoxville Leadership Foundation program that prepares individuals without high school diplomas for employment)
• Up to 50 total participants
• Eight instructors, trained by Chattanooga “Tech Goes Home” leaders
• Curriculum designed around key internet tools and needs: Google Apps, Zoom, social media, resume writing, creating a household budget, accessing community resources, and Knox County Schools’ platforms
• Impact measured by three surveys: pre-class, post-class and 30-days after completion

Almost a year into their placements, our American Connection Corps fellows continue their work to connect residents across the heartland to high quality, affordable broadband access. Wesley Smith, placed with the Knox County Development Corporation and Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, has made real progress for the community throughout his time as a fellow. 

Wesley has worked to enroll members of the Knoxville community in the Federal Communications Commission’s Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), now called the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Through collaboration with organizations on the ground and partnerships with internet service providers, Wesley successfully enrolled dozens of households in affordable internet service through the program and distributed information on EBB to more than 250 families. 

Partnering with the  other American Connection Corps fellows across Tennessee and organizations involved in closing the digital divide, Wesley discovered how else he could make an impact. He learned about a program in Chattanooga that had transformed the way the city helped its residents gain access to high-speed internet, digital literacy resources and other opportunities.

After hearing about the program, Wesley envisioned what a similar program could look like in Knoxville. “One thing I’m proud of is we’re not just trying to tie people to things online – we’re working to tie people to both the internet and their communities,” he said. As he worked on the program design, which is still in progress, Wesley made sure to touch on many elements of connectivity, including maps of connection locations, digital literacy classes, programs for low income individuals and more. He explained, “Through this work within communities we’re helping bring people and organizations into the digital age while bringing people into a physical place, not just a digital one, to create community togetherness through internet connection.”

One of Wesley’s goals for his participation as an American Connection Corps fellow was to bring his academic background in systems theory to his role with the hope of creating resources and programs that can last far beyond his time as a fellow. 

In his words, “We have to be cognizant of whom we are serving in order to make sure that everyone can be reached, which has been a very helpful way to frame the work I’ve engaged in.” He believes he can work toward meeting this goal through the new Knoxville program.

At Heartland Forward, we look forward to watching Wesley and our other fellows continue to make an impact in their communities through the remainder of their placements.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently launched the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a permanent replacement for the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) which launched during the pandemic using emergency COVID funds. While the programs are slightly different, the goal is the same – help close the digital divide that persists across our country by getting people connected to affordable internet service. 

As an American Connection Corps Fellow placed with Rural LISC in Central Ohio, Liz Lima has already made an impact on this front by working to understand the lessons learned from the EBB to help increase enrollment in the ACP. She recently spearheaded the creation of an innovative mapping tool that overlays enrollment data from the EBB with census data on the communities that have the highest levels of eligibility for the program. This tool can help target outreach for the ACP by pinpointing the communities where large populations of people are likely eligible for the program, but haven’t yet taken advantage of it.

Liz had the opportunity to present this tool to the FCC, which, in her words, was “surreal.” She hopes that this tool will benefit communities as they work to get their residents connected: “The goal of the map is to help local governments, organizations and Digital Navigators see how EBB has impacted their community, who all is eligible, and where ACP outreach is needed most,” she said.

Another aspect of Liz’s work with Rural LISC is supporting their Digital Navigators program, which in just a year and a half has served about 2,000 clients and distributed nearly 1,000 devices. In addition to helping clients access connections and become familiar with devices, Digital Navigators train individuals in basic computer skills and provide regular follow-ups to meet their needs, on client timeline. 

Liz is most proud of how this work has impacted people who might not typically be thought of as lacking digital literacy. “The average age of our clients is 42 years old and the median is 39…but you hear a lot about the term ‘digital skills’ and we assume that it’s a lot of elderly individuals who have a digital skills gap, when in reality, it’s working-age who adults need this assistance too,” she said. 

Liz credits her placement with Rural LISC for increasing her awareness of the issues around internet connectivity, and granting her a greater understanding of the challenges facing the heartland. She added, “You take for granted having your bills on autopay or being able to jump online quickly – you have this mentality of, who doesn’t have the internet? But it’s millions of people.”

Here at Heartland Forward, we’re proud of the important and innovative ways in which Liz and our other American Connection Corps Fellows are working to connect the heartland and close the digital divide.