You read the title correctly…We will be opening up a second location in the proud city of Detroit!
This has been the culmination of a lot of planning and hard work, not just from our team but also for the Detroit city government and our other financial partners. We are excited to be taking the first steps towards making the new location a reality.
With the Detroit facility, we will be able to more efficiently and affordably service clients in the midwestern United States. More importantly, we will be able to provide resources such as technology, low-cost internet, and digital literacy training to the community much more actively and effectively.
But why did we choose Detroit over all the other cities as our second location? Well, one reason is our co-founder, James Jack, is from the Detroit area and wanted to give back to the community that helped make him who he is. But there are also more serious reasons why we chose Detroit; Mainly, it is ranked last of all the major U.S. cities for digital inclusion.
To put what being ranked last in digital inclusion into some perspective:
- 1 in 4 Detroit households lack internet access
- 27% of students don’t have internet in their home
- Given the endless number of job resources that live online, Detroit’s digital divide exacerbates the unemployment rate.
Detroit is the city we must be in if we want to solve these issues and be true to our mission of creating more opportunities for our world to become more inclusive, sustainable, and bold. We inspire and empower people through technology and information to achieve their full potential. A potential, we see the residents of Detroit are yearning to express but just have not been given the opportunity.
That is why we are coming to Detroit, opportunity. Not just the opportunity to provide internet, technology, literacy, and jobs, but opportunity in every sense of the word. The opportunity for a child to do homework from home, mom to apply for a job, a grandfather to order his medication online. An opportunity for us to be one more piece that helps Detroit lift itself and its people up and become the great city it is destined to be once again. Opportunity for people of Detroit to show what they are capable of.
