The Kansas City Coalition for Digital Inclusion met last month for a workgroup session with the four established workgroups: Broadening Participation, Connecting People, Overcoming Barriers and Raising Awareness. Each of the groups is moving toward creating a more robust atmosphere for Digital Inclusion in Kansas City. They continued to work on the community outreach efforts they outlined at the last digital inclusion coalition meeting.
A new member from Johnson County listens in a workgroup session at the Kansas City Coalition workgroup meeting on September 8, 2017.
Last month in Digital Inclusion, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation accepted applications for the Kansas City Digital Inclusion Fund, a fund that supports nonprofits that expand internet adoption in Kansas City. Rick Usher and other members of KCCDI encouraged nonprofits to apply for the grant before the September 20 deadline. Last year’s winners were Connecting for Good’s Training Expansion project for $40,000; the Housing Services of Kansas City ConnectHome KC Digital Literacy Training project for $20,000; Literacy Kansas City’s Digital Instruction Expansion project for $30,000 and reStart, Incoporated’s Digital Literacy program for $10,000. There will be a panelist review of the applications for 2017 in October, a community foundation review in November, and awards will be announced at the end of the year.
Techweek Kansas City also took place last month and hosted some Digital Inclusion-focused panels, such as “Why Communities Should be Investing in Inclusivity,” and “Creating the Ultimate Super Schools: Connecting Industry to K-12 Learning Environments.”
The Digital Inclusion Coalition also encouraged its members to write a public comment on the FCC’s new proposed rule. The FCC recently proposed redefining broadband to include a lower 25mpbs of broadband download speed to 10 mpbs. The Steering Committee of the Coalition discussed the new rule and its implications and had decided that the membership of the Coalition had a variety of perspectives that could not be contained in a single stance. Thus, the Coalition invited each of the organizations represented within its group to decide their own stance on the issue and post public comments accordingly.
Come to the next coalition meeting on October 6, 2017 at the Kansas City Public Library.