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Digital Download
Digital Access Monthly Newsletter
August 2025
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The Digital Download is your place for monthly updates from the Colorado Digital Access team.
The Digital Access Team is led by the Office of the Future of Work in partnership with the Office of eHealth Innovation. The state’s digital access infrastructure work is supported by the Colorado Broadband Office, which oversees Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) and other broadband infrastructure funding.
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Digital Access Updates
The Power of Partnerships
Over the past three years, Colorado’s Digital Access Team, stakeholders, working groups, and others have collaborated to advance digital equity in the state. While funding for digital access is very limited at this moment, the Digital Access Team strongly believes in the power of partnerships. That’s why before the capacity funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was terminated, we planned to create digital access coalitions. Coalitions bring diverse partners together to accomplish mutual goals. Since the lack of digital access impacts education, employment, health, social engagement, public safety and more, we encourage digital access stakeholders to think creatively about partnerships!
At last month’s Digital Access Stakeholder meeting, participants shared these suggestions to create and maintain healthy partnerships between organizations:
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Have shared directives with your partner organizations, such as having similar missions or serving the same populations.
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Be open to all possible partnerships! Partnerships can run the gamut; one partner organization may be able to offer a space for a technology class while another partner organization is able to fully fund projects.
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Establish clear expectations of all partners. This helps ensure the strength and longevity of partnerships. Sometimes memorandums of understanding or contracts may be written to ensure expectations are clear.
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Ensure all partners are comfortable providing input. This allows the partnership to evolve as circumstances change.
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Look for redundancies between partner organizations and eliminating them. One organization might be able to add more of what they do well already, and give something else for a partner to do better or more efficiently. Partnerships are collaborations, not competitions!
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Share Your Partnership Story!
The Digital Access Team wants to gather stories that shine a light on the value of partnerships! Let us know how partnerships have strengthened your work. Stories will be shared during National Digital Inclusion Week (October 6-10) and in future Digital Downloads.
We are collecting stories now through Sunday, August 24.
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 Digital Navigator Nook
Navigators Unite!
Although Colorado’s Digital Navigator Pilot Program has ended, the Digital Access Team still hosts the statewide Navigator Community of Practice. This monthly meeting offers space for learning and sharing for navigators of all kinds. People who help community members access the resources they need to thrive, many resources which are accessed online, are navigators.
The Digital Navigator Community of Practice meetings typically take place on the last Wednesday of the month. However, several dates have been changed later in the year due to holidays. There is also a new Zoom link! Be sure to register for future meetings and view upcoming meeting dates, so you don’t miss a meeting.
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Digital Access Events
Digital Access Stakeholders Meeting
If you are a digital inclusion practitioner or someone who wants to know more about digital inclusion work in Colorado, please join us for our bi-monthly Digital Access Stakeholders meetings! Register on Zoom to attend the next Digital Access Stakeholder meeting, on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, from 12:00 - 1:30 PM.
For those who have already registered, the November Stakeholder meeting was rescheduled from November 25 to November 18 due to the holiday. Please remove the November 25 meeting from your calendar and re-register for the November 18 meeting.
Digital Navigator Community of Practice
Navigators, staff who support them, and other stakeholders are invited to attend the monthly Community of Practice (CoP), which is on the last Wednesday of each month. Register to attend the next Digital Navigator CoP meeting on Wednesday, August 27, 2025, at 8:30 AM.
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Contact Us
Digital Access Team
Colorado Dept of Labor & Employment
633 17th Street, Suite, 201
Denver, CO 80202
digitalaccess@state.co.us
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