We here at Human-I-T get really excited for the first week of October. This week, known as Digital Inclusion Week, offers local governments, businesses, and other organizations a chance to reflect on the importance of universal digital access in a society that is powered by digital technology. This year, our teams across the country spent Digital Inclusion Week a bit differently.
While our team in Detroit was capping off our Empowering Digital Detroit initiative and educating young people about digital equity, our Los Angeles staff was preparing for our first in-person distribution since the start of the pandemic.
This distribution was co-hosted between Human-I-T, SoLA Impact, and the Los Angeles Public Library in southern Los Angeles at The Beehive, a low-income housing community. During this event, we distributed 120 personal computers and hotspots to the residents of The Beehive to ensure they have the tools they need to uncover new opportunities and unlock their full potential in the digital age.
With local officials like Mayor Garcetti lending such ardent support to our mission, we are confident in our ability to create a society where everyone has equal access to digital opportunities.
We also had a special guest at this distribution: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
This was, in no small way, a big deal to us.
See, while our work has been undeniably effective at improving the material conditions of people who lack access to technology, it’s not as if we’ve been able to do it alone. Far from it.
Rather, our capability to shrink the digital divide has always been the result of creative collaboration between us and leaders of government to identify populations in need and connect them with digital technology. So, when local leaders like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti decide not only to join our celebration, but to actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us and directly empower his constituents with technology, it sends two, clear messages to us.
First, it tells us that more and more people in power are beginning to resonate with our guiding belief that access to technology is a right, not a privilege. The second message, and more important one for our purposes, is that we have the support we need from local governments to expand our operations and ensure nobody has to forgo an opportunity just because they lack access to technology.
With local officials like Mayor Garcetti lending such ardent support to our mission, we are confident in our ability to create a society where everyone has equal access to digital opportunities.
To listen to Mayor Garcetti’s remarks about the work that the City of Los Angeles is doing to shrink its digital divide, click on the short video above.
