Interview with Capital One Digital Inclusion Partner: Jessa Thomas
In conversation with Jessica Scadron, VP of Strategic Communications, EveryoneOn
How did you become interested in digital equity and inclusion work?
During the years leading up to the pandemic, I spent quite a bit of time working on digital access opportunities with New York City’s youth. When the pandemic hit, it became clear that access to the internet, hardware and sufficient digital infrastructure effectively serve as the ‘on ramp’ to services such as remote working, education and telehealth. My work expanded to better understand how Capital One could bridge the digital divide.
Talk a bit about your personal relationship with technology.
My reliance on technology has only deepened over the years, far from my middle school days spent in the suburbs of Texas, chatting on AOL messenger with friends from school. I’ve spent my entire career working in a virtual setting on and off, and recently, the global pandemic brought my daughter’s entire kindergarten education into our home via a laptop. Even my purchasing decisions have become more digital. My husband and I purchased a car through the use of apps on our phone using Capital One’s Auto Navigator program.
Do you have any observations on the connection between women and the digital divide?
When we invest in women, we invest in everyone — including children, businesses and our communities.
According to the United Nations, supporting women’s financial well-being has a cascading impact on communities. When women are granted access to income and financial tools, they’re more likely to have healthy families. When families are healthy, more children have access to education. Those better-educated children grow up and become community leaders.
Helping people thrive financially is central to Capital One’s mission to change banking for good - and ensuring that is inclusive of digital access is also a key part of the equation.
What prompted Capital One to invest, and reinvest, in EveryoneOn?
Capital One’s efforts to support digital access comes as part of the Capital One Impact Initiative — a commitment that strives to advance socioeconomic mobility. We are listening to, partnering with, and investing in nonprofits like EveryoneOn to help close gaps in equity and opportunity and foster well-being in our communities. We are always evaluating how the Impact Initiative delivers results so we can maximize the impact of our work, and we are committed to bridging the digital divide by furthering digital inclusion throughout the communities we support. EveryoneOn’s mission:
“to unlock social and economic opportunity by connecting people in under-resourced communities to affordable internet service and computers, and providing digital skills trainings”
makes for a very complementary partnership to utilize the strengths of both our organizations for good.
What is one thing you want people to know about the digital divide that you see in your work?
Access to high-speed broadband is the on-ramp to society.
Access to the internet, hardware and sufficient digital infrastructure are essential to allow people to access services such as remote working, education and telehealth. However, for underserved communities, lack of access to affordable and reliable digital services, devices and infrastructure has created a digital divide.
The Federal Communications Commission reports that 19 million Americans — six percent of the population — still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population — 14.5 million people — lack access to this service.
Those inequities disproportionately impact adults with lower incomes (below $30,000 annually). A Pew Research Center survey found more than four-in-ten adults with lower incomes do not have home broadband services or a desktop or laptop computer. Roughly a quarter of adults with lower incomes say they don’t own a smartphone.
Through strategic partnerships and innovative programs, we’re committed to bridging the digital divide with a focus on expanding digital access to individuals living in rural communities with populations of 10,000 or less, or in low-income urban areas. We also strive to equip older adults with the tools needed to navigate changes in technology.