It Takes a Village: Solving the Broadband Adoption Problem in Rural America
“‘We were getting calls from people who didn’t know what telemedicine was and they needed help accessing it,’ said Robert Blatt, executive director for the Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension. The partnership between county, state and federal governments through Cornell University provides educational opportunities to people throughout the county. ‘People were really interested in online grocery ordering and delivery, but couldn’t figure out how to do it.’
Blatt said the shift to online was especially difficult for the county’s elderly residents who were too vulnerable to the virus to leave their homes for daily tasks like going to the grocery store. Groups and institutions already serving the community, like libraries, did their best to provide Wi-Fi hotspots and to field basic requests for digital help, but it wasn’t enough, he said.
That’s when Batt and others running nonprofit organizations in the area, such as the United Way and the local YMCA, got together to apply for a private COVID relief grant to help address the digital literacy gaps. Through a three-month assessment of community needs, they realized they had to not only teach the most novice of internet users, but also support people who, though already online, still struggled with technology. This included everything from helping people buy and set up their first computers to assisting parents with tech issues associated with online school.”