Comcast awards grants to support digital equity in Western Mass.

Date: 9/20/2023

The Urban League of Greater Springfield, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke and the Western Massachusetts Alliance for Digital Equity are on the receiving end of a total of $110,000 in grant funding awarded to the three nonprofit organizations in the region to help advance digital literacy skills on behalf of Comcast.

These grants are part of Project Up, Comcast’s $1 billion commitment to advance digital equity through programs and community partnerships that connect people to the internet, advance economic mobility and open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers and creators.

“We understand the important role that the internet plays in helping build a future of unlimited possibilities for everyone in the community,” said Carolyne Hannan, senior vice president of Comcast’s Western New England region. “We are proud to deepen our partnership with organizations that are making it easier for people across Western Massachusetts to adopt the internet and succeed in an increasingly digital world.”

The Urban League of Greater Springfield will receive $20,000 to support its digital learning lab and the programs it provides members, including basic digital literacy and internet skills training, specifically workshops, hosting the Urban League’s youth Project Ready Mentor and STEM programs, and more.

The Western Massachusetts Alliance for Digital Equity will receive $70,000 to support efforts to help residents across the Pioneer Valley get connected to the internet at home. This funding will enable the Alliance to continue the work it started in 2022 with the help of a $100,000 Comcast grant to conduct outreach around the Federal Government’s Affordable Connectivity Program.

This grant will also enable the Alliance to provide laptops to partner organizations that will distribute them to households lacking the proper technology to get connected to the internet.

“Though residents have access to affordable high-speed broadband throughout Springfield, many of our members still struggle with both adoption of services and digital skills,” said Urban League of Greater Springfield interim President and CEO Yvette Frisby. “Thanks to this grant, we’re able to ensure our members and more residents of Springfield get the support they need to feel comfortable connecting to the internet and using it at home.”

The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke will also be receiving $20,000 to support its MyFuture digital literacy program. MyFuture is an interactive platform that provides kids and teens with hundreds of activities to learn digital skills in a safe online environment. This grant will also provide the club with the ability to purchase 25 desktop computers and five laptops for students in the MyFuture program to use.

President and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke Eileen Cavanaugh spoke with Reminder Publishing and explained the impact this grant will have on children’s media literacy. She explained MyFuture includes a lot of activities steeped in digital literacy essentials, computer science, STEM activities, media making, all made appropriate for multi-age youth, which is helpful for the club, which works with children ages 5 to 18.

“The goal really is that we want to be able to make sure that we’re teaching our kids digital literacy skills that make them competitive in the future workforce. It’s also a fun, online, safe environment for youth,” Cavanaugh said. “They are on the platform with qualified staff at the club where our youth development professionals are making sure that they are following online safety tips, that they’re conducting appropriate web searches, and they’re learning about safe gaming opportunities, coding, design, web design, things like that. So the grant really supports us not only introducing digital literacy skills to our youth, but also reinforcing the digital literacy skills they may already know.”

Cavanaugh said children will also have the opportunity to connect to MyFuture from home if they have the proper access. The program has been used by the club for a few years now and according to Cavanaugh, “it just keeps improving.” This grant will allow the club to continue the program and be able to stay up to date with its latest technology.

Cavanaugh said funding such as this is very important to the club and the greater Holyoke community.

“We’re in a community working with youth that may or may not have appropriate access to technology, so having a partner that supports that work and supports the work that we’re in, that we’re doing on an individual basis and group basis, is really important,” Cavanaugh said. “They’re helping us with our mission about creating competent, caring, productive citizens of our community and we know that technology is certainly a pathway for future success, especially within the workforce, and so being able to train our youth with these skills is just really essential. We wouldn’t be able to do it without a partner like Comcast.”

In addition to the grant announcement, Comcast is helping to drive awareness and adoption across Western Massachusetts of the Federal Government’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides eligible, low-income households with a credit of up to $30 per month ($75 per month on tribal lands) toward their internet and/or mobile service.

The Affordable Connectivity Program also allows eligible Comcast customers to get home internet either through Comcast’s Internet Essentials or Internet Essentials Plus at no cost once the Federal credit is applied. Internet essentials customers can also add a line of unlimited 5G cellular data ($45) through Xfinity Mobile for as little as $24.95 per month, after the Affordable Connectivity program’s benefits have been applied.

The grant also continues Comcast’s committed work to advancing digital equity in the communities it serves. Over the past three years, the company has invested $59.7 million in cash and in-kind contributions to more than 240 nonprofits in the state.

For additional information on Project UP and Comcast’s digital equity initiatives, visit https://corporate.comcast.com/impact/project-up.