Community leaders are partnering with Comcast on an outreach effort to get more people online. The program, called “Project Up” is geared toward Tallahassee Southside neighborhoods.
The group, which includes the Rotary Club, Apalachee Ridge Estates Neighborhood Association and the Leon County School District, will use the money to help people without internet get connected. The dollars can also be used to help purchase equipment for families and organizations that may be in need.
“We got to see during the pandemic how vitally important the internet is for everything, for education, for work for staying connected, for healthcare, for worship and it created a lot of energy and opportunity to accelerate a lot of the work that we’ve been doing," said Bret Perkins, Senior Vice President of Government and External Affairs for Comcast.
A major hurdle for school districts across the panhandle during the pandemic was how to help students learn remotely, especially in areas without strong internet service. The Leon County School District even deployed school buses with wifi units to specific neighborhoods to help families get online so students could do their work.
The push to increase digital skills and literacy comes amid state and nationwide efforts to bridge technology gaps between affluent, rural and low income neighborhoods. Both the United States government and the United Nations have stated that people have a right to access the internet.
The Biden Administration recently announced a $40 billion investment into shoring up the nation's internet infrastructure with Florida set to receive more than $1 billion of that funding. The state itself, has also worked for years to put more of its own money into rural internet infrastructure.