Digital Dignity and More Choices for Underserved Residents in Kansas City

KC Digital Drive is an organization that focuses on civic engagement in digital inclusion and emerging technology. To do so, we offer several programs to help combat the digital divide in the bi-state Kansas City region. We leverage the talents and resources available to us in the surrounding community. Notably, through our collaboration with Google Fiber, we received 400 Chromecasts. Wanting to make the best of this opportunity, Peter Smith, an AmeriCorps Vista member working with KC Digital Drive, got creative and developed a new educational workshop that illustrated the power of switching from cable TV to streaming services (like added flexibility and more money in your pocket each month). Since introducing this curriculum in April of 2023, we’ve distributed more than 325 Chromecasts donated by GFiber, across 19 events with nine different partner organizations. We have been so pleased to see the demand for these workshops grow as our partners and community engage with options that boost equity and understanding of the technology and digital skills that fuel such a big part of daily life.

[Brynna Darley is a Digital Equity Coordinator at KC Digital Drive.]