A big week for EveryoneOn this week with the announcement of a Cox Foundation grant that will help bridge the digital divide in Middle Georgia. Read some of the news coverage here and here. A new foundation in Tennessee is seeking to help Nashville residents gain training and access to computers, the Internet, and other digital devices. Called the Digital Inclusion Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, it will provide free or low cost service to those without in an effort to close the “digital divide” in Nashville. Read more here.
Comcast is expanding its $10-a-month Internet service to community college students in Illinois and Colorado. The two pilot projects are aimed at recipients of the federal Pell grant, a form of financial aid for undergraduates. About 40,000 people in Colorado would be eligible for Comcast's Internet Essentials program under the expansion, the company said Wednesday, while as many as 90,000 could be served in Illinois.
Also, our CEO, Zach Leverenz, was interviewed about the Comcast expansion in an article in the Chicago Tribune. “We are trying to serve the entire population of unconnected Americans," he said "And we want to make sure that when costs and race and education are the barriers — those are the proven reasons why folks are not connected at home — we want to overcome those."