Access Charlotte Pilot Summary

“Internet access today is foundational for learning, working, interacting with the government and other family members. It’s foundational to everyday life.”

Thanks to the city’s Access Charlotte program residents within the Renaissance West community are now able to have free internet available from their homes.

“Internet is a critical because you need it for literally everything. Kids have homework they have to do on the internet. Kids have to watch videos. How you going to do it if they don’t have access to the internet.”

Residents like Jasmine Harris are one of many that met with digital navigators who helped them acquire this service.

“This is a great program not only for our residents but for us because we are helping and aiding in making Mecklenburg County more digitally equitable.

Digital navigators are not only helping the young, but older residents like Katherine Howze who needs internet access to help with her research.

“When I didn’t have it I was always intrigued by going to the library and getting help from the library in order to access the internet before I got internet in my home.”

Along with free internet, the program also provides residents with the necessary resources to thrive digitally.

“When we provide someone with internet access, we’re also able to provide folks with training on how to use a computer to make sure if they want to connect with loved ones or don’t know how or don’t have the internet we can give them both the internet and a fully featured device they can use to connect with loved ones or even more forward into workforce development.”

It’s a small resource, residents say they are grateful the city is able to provide.

“I don’t have to go to the library. I can always just get on my computer and research and search anything whatever subject matter may come up or whatever questions I might have…I can do it in the privacy of my own home.”

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JAMAR DAVIS

Access Charlotte started in 2020 during the height of the pandemic

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JAMAR DAVIS

folks didn’t have access to hardware, didn't have access to proper Internet.

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JAMAR DAVIS

Students were using their phone to be able to access

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JAMAR DAVIS

do schoolwork.

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JAMAR DAVIS

Access Charlotte kind of filled that need to touch base into some of those who

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JAMAR DAVIS

live in the affordable housing communities to be able to access hardware, digital, online resources and

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JAMAR DAVIS

internet.

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JAMAR DAVIS

My name is Jamar Davis. I am the Access Charlotte coordinator for the Innovation and Technology Department.

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JAMAR DAVIS

my role primarily is around managing the needs of the Access Charlotte program,

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JAMAR DAVIS

being a part of this team has been essential in seeing how intricate and important data is to this work that we do under Access Charlotte.

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JAMAR DAVIS

As we've gone into phase two of this program, starting off from phase one, where there was access to public Wi-Fi

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JAMAR DAVIS

Phase two really puts us into a space of touching over 60 properties versus phase one was 14, and now we're going from 1800 households to about 8000 households to impact

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JAMAR DAVIS

Thanks to our partners over at the Center for Digital Equity.

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JAMAR DAVIS

they have ramped up their

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JAMAR DAVIS

workforce to provide access to Charlotte Digital Navigators to appoint them directly under Access Charlotte

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JAMAR DAVIS

to connect the residents to hardware, digital resources and other small technical support opportunities.

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JAMAR DAVIS

thanks to our partners at the Mecklenburg County Library

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JAMAR DAVIS

they're open to provide opportunities of learning. Goodwill also provide opportunities of learning for folks to be able to connect and elevate to improve their status in terms of work,

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JAMAR DAVIS

using E2D, which is a nonprofit company,

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JAMAR DAVIS

around eliminating digital divide by connecting residents to computers in

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JAMAR DAVIS

other hardware.

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JAMAR DAVIS

also through 311, they can call 311 as simply as if

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JAMAR DAVIS

they were to

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JAMAR DAVIS

call to schedule trash pickup, they can call in and ask for a digital navigator

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JAMAR DAVIS

I consider myself lucky? My mom came from City

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JAMAR DAVIS

for me. I had Internet at 13 years old,

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JAMAR DAVIS

so when the numbers came back around about folks not having access to

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JAMAR DAVIS

internet and not even have access to hardware and there being a space for that here in the city,

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JAMAR DAVIS

I've had friends whose parents have benefited from this opportunity just for me, just spreading the word around, Meck Tech Connect and providing hardware,

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JAMAR DAVIS

or just me saying if you're a parent, if you're a parent, or if your cousin or your niece lives in these areas, guess what?

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JAMAR DAVIS

Internet's coming.

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JAMAR DAVIS

It feels

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JAMAR DAVIS

wonderful to feel to get to that point of knowing that Internet, especially Internet, is almost a utility rather than

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JAMAR DAVIS

something of luxury.

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LYNN DODSON

Hello, I'm Lynn Dodson and I’m with Spectrum. I'm Vice President of Sales for the Community Solutions Team.

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LYNN DODSON

we're excited as a company to be participating in the program. You know, we're a very large company, but we have a large local footprint. So we have a 100 ... thousands of local

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LYNN DODSON

employees here. And I think we're all excited to be part of the program and to support the program.

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LYNN DODSON

Our broadband infrastructure is already in all the buildings. So we'll be able to move quickly to access, activate services for the residents and start the digital adoption.

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LYNN DODSON

public private partnership is a great way to get the underserved community access quickly. Our partnership with Access Charlotte is just that, you know, we intend to quickly roll out our program to all the underserved and be able to access the services for the residents.

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LYNN DODSON

I think we all found during the pandemic how important connectivity was. And I think we saw a lot of folks who were left behind during that time. And I think this was a great opportunity to get access to Access Charlotte and Spectrum for all those folks who can really use the connectivity.

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

Partner Liaison Analyst at 311 is someone who we talk with the back end departments. We're in constant communication with the back end departments about the new policies, about the processes that they have. Making sure that we have the information updated

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

for our agents so that they can provide seamless and excellent customer service and so that they're also following the things that the back end departments want done.

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

we also have partnered with several outside organizations such as the CDE, the Center for Digital Equity. So we actually take calls for them and we refer them over to their digital navigators program, which kind of ties in to Access Charlotte, which is why we're so excited that they included 311.

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

when people call in, they are in need of something, whether it's “I need to know about financial assistance” or “I need to know about tech help”. So when they call in and we're like, hey, did you know, we have this program here in Charlotte and we can

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

bridge that divide where there's people who don't have Internet access, who don't have access to to laptops and things of that nature.

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KESHIA BRINKLEY

And so by us teaming up with Access Charlotte, as well as the CDE, it allows us to make our community stronger, which is part of our part of the 311 mission, like we want to strengthen the community, make it a strong community, one interaction at a time.

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EMERY ORTIZ

I'm Emery Ortiz. I am the chief strategy and innovation officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library.

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EMERY ORTIZ

right now we are focusing a lot on digital equity work and just the various resources that we can bring to the community in that way.

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EMERY ORTIZ

public libraries have been at the forefront of digital equity work for decades, and we really appreciate the chance to collaborate with organizations like the Center for Digital Equity in providing our communities with vital resources.

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EMERY ORTIZ

Access Charlotte is something we're really excited to be a part of. This work is, you know, vast and none of us have the capacity to do it on our own.

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EMERY ORTIZ

So again, going back to that collaboration, we want to help be information centers for Access Charlotte, making sure our citizens know how they can get connected, where services are available, and also be a provider of resources in terms of technology.

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EMERY ORTIZ

digital access is such an essential component to everyday life. Now that the equity piece of that we do not want to leave anyone behind, we want everyone to have the same opportunities as everyone else. And so digital equity is a key component to that.

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EMERY ORTIZ

with the access that Access Charlotte will provide, that Internet connectivity piece will be there for so many of our citizens and which is absolutely critical where other organizations like the CDE and the public library can fill in is with the hardware, the technology, with the resources and with guided, you know, digital literacy and information courses to really help, you know, someone get from point A to point B in that journey.

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EMERY ORTIZ

This is really valuable work and it's really rewarding to see the benefits that the community receives from having enhanced access, more device connectivity, more resources spread throughout the community.

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EMERY ORTIZ

Through our laptop distributions, we've heard stories of grandparents being able to speak to their grandkids that live far away now that they have access to Facebook or to Zoom, you know, we've heard from people who have new job opportunities because they have access to technology.

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EMERY ORTIZ

So seeing that direct positive impacts that we're able to have is just the most rewarding thing about my position.

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NATALI BETANCUR

I'm Natali Betancur and the Deputy Director at the Center for Digital Equity with Queen's University of Charlotte.

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NATALI BETANCUR

we bring together the public sector, the private sector, nonprofit organizations and community members to co-create solutions that ultimately help our community members thrive in today's modern culture.

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NATALI BETANCUR

the Center for Digital Equity has a critical role in the Access Charlotte program. And what we're going to do is really bring a holistic approach to getting community members connected.

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NATALI BETANCUR

we're not only looking at getting individuals and households connected to the Internet, but also do they need a device that they can utilize that Internet on?

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NATALI BETANCUR

Digital equity is is no longer a luxury, right?

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NATALI BETANCUR

Having access is not a luxury. Having access in today's society is as necessary as your electricity and as your water.

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NATALI BETANCUR

access itself is critical to thrive in today's modern society.

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NATALI BETANCUR

as an immigrant myself, I think I firsthand experience the immense amount of barriers around not only access, navigating and language and all of these different barriers.

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NATALI BETANCUR

it's on a personal level, I feel very invested in this, but it's also as a team, our mission is to make Mecklenburg County the most digitally equitable community in America.

Digital Navigators:

This partnership provides one-to-one dedicated technical support for residents via phone, in-person assistance, web-conferencing, or a combination of those services to help residents learn basic digital skills, find affordable computing devices, and get connected to affordable home internet.

To schedule your free appointment with a digital navigator, submit a ticket, or to have a ticket submitted for you call 311.

Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP):

This program helps reduce the overall cost of broadband service and connected devices for residents in eligible households.

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Denya Isabelle-Davis: My name is Denya Isabelle-Davis.

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Naimah Martin: Naimah Martin.

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Denya and Naimah: And I'm a digital navigator with the

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Center for Digital Equity.

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Denya Isabelle-Davis: So as a digital navigator, it is my duty

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to connect community members to different digital resources in

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the community. That could be the affordable connectivity program,

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which will offer them $30 off of their internet service. It could

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be digital literacy skills through Northstar or through

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Mecklenburg County Libraries or other resources that we have.

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Naimah Martin: Also with devices, we partner with the

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg libraries, and other nonprofits within the

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community. Also, we ensure that if they need any assistance with

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their product, or the device that they received, that they

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get assistance with that.

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Denya Isabelle-Davis: I've always been in the business of

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helping people. That's one of my passions in life and being able

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to do that from a digital standpoint, because we're in

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such a modern world, like it, it just made sense for me to be

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able to still assist individuals in the community.

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Naimah Martin: I thought this was a great opportunity to be

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able to help residents within Mecklenburg County, become, you

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know, more familiar with digital services here. Because

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technology is forever changing. And we want to make sure each

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resident is aware and they know what to expect with the new

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technologies that emerge every day.

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Denya Isabelle-Davis: This is something that Charlotte hasn't

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done before. And so just being at the forefront of it being you

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know, the pilot of it, and being able to let these community

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members know that, you know, there is a world outside of what

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they may be used to. So helping them to get connected to these

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digital resources outside of them getting access to this

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internet service. It makes me feel like I'm doing something,

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I'm doing my part in society.

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Naimah Martin: It means a lot because I'm giving back to the

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community, I'm able to, you know, help others and just show

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them that there's different opportunities within technology,

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things that they can learn to do with within themselves and with

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their families.

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Denya Isabelle-Davis: I'm hoping that the community will

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understand that, you know, we are transitioning to a really,

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really highly technical world. And so that they know that they

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won't be left behind there is someone in their corner that is

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there to assist them every step of the way.