 Digital Access Plan Updates
What is a digital access ecosystem?
To build Colorado’s statewide digital access infrastructure - or digital access ecosystem – the Digital Access Team will establish regional digital inclusion coalitions. These coalitions will have planning support and funding to create regional, cross-sector collaboratives and strategic plans specific to digital access in their communities.
The coalitions will be geographically dispersed across the state and include organizations and community members, as well as representatives from business, health, and education sectors.
Each coalition will create a Digital Access Plan that will describe the specific digital inclusion needs identified by the community for funding. Colorado State University Extension and the Digital Access Team will guide communities through these efforts to help alleviate the administrative burden of convening coalitions.
What kind of support will be provided?
The Digital Access Team has allocated funds for regions across the state, based on what percentage of the population in the region identifies as a covered population. These covered populations are named in the Digital Equity Act, the legislation funding digital equity work across the country, and include:
- Veterans
- Households earning below 150% of federal poverty level
- Individuals living in rural areas
- Individuals with disabilities
- Racial and ethnic minorities
- Individuals over the age of 60
- Individuals with barriers to English language
- Individuals who are incarcerated
The funding will be managed by Colorado State University Extension, which will also support communities in bringing people together to create unique digital access plans that meet stakeholders’ digital access needs. Once coalitions have been established and have plans in place, they will be eligible to use the remainder of their regional allocation to pilot and assess digital access interventions to inform their long term strategy.
Additionally, the Digital Access Team will create a community of practice for coalition members to share their experiences building coalitions, identifying assets and barriers, seeking additional funding, and other topics, including any success or challenges they encounter along the way.
The creation of coalitions, along with a statewide community of practice, will provide opportunities for collaboration and consistency in digital access work while honoring the unique characteristics of individual regions across Colorado.
Details about the partnership between Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado Digital Access Team are forthcoming!
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