A Glimpse of Digital Equity Work from the Perspective of the Digital Equity Manager at Evergreen Goodwill
A blog post by Danyl Stephan Kok
The Definition of Digital Equity according to Matthew Peel, Digital Equity Manager at Evergreen Goodwill
For Matt, digital equity means providing three things to everyone. The first is providing digital devices, like computers, tablets, smartphones, or any other hardware that contributes to giving someone access to digital tools and platforms. The second is providing access to the internet, which continues to host more and more of the activities a lot of people do today. The third is providing digital skills, making sure that people know how to use their device and the internet, AND that they know how to use it safely and not get scammed or get in trouble.
“Just because you give someone a computer and internet access, doesn’t mean they know what to do.” -Matt
A three-circled Venn diagram illustrating the trinity that make up digital equity according to Matt Peel.
Evergreen Goodwill Digital Equity Bus
Matt manages a bus that Evergreen Goodwill purchased and customized to turn into a mobile classroom. The bus resembles a large airport shuttle bus with all the seats taken out, completely gutted, and reconfigured with classroom-style seating instead, along with a huge interactive whiteboard. It’s also got an antenna on it so it can pick up AT&T or T-Mobile cell signals that then produce a wi-fi network for the internet.
Matt sees this as one of the ways Evergreen Goodwill responded to providing classes to people that couldn’t come into those classes, especially during the pandemic. With this mobile classroom, Evergreen Goodwill can go out into strategic locations in the counties and continue to offer classes that are held inside the bus. The classes provided are the same kind of classes that Evergreen Goodwill usually teaches in the classroom: digital skills, English, and computer skills.
This bus provides the three aspects of digital equity and brings those out to people rather than having them always coming in.
Their long-term goal is to have one of these buses in each of the five counties that they serve.
A landscape depicting a city on the left and rural houses on the right with the Digital Equity Bus driving towards the houses and bringing digital devices, digital skills, and internet access to these houses.
The Goodwill Connect Project
The Goodwill Connect Project is funded by the State of Washington. For the first time ever, the Goodwills across the state joined forces to apply for the funding. Up to this point, each franchise of Goodwill has been independent so to have them collaborating is significant.
Through this project, they’ve provided hundreds of laptops with internet access and hotspots, as well as resources on how to use their device along with where to take classes and where to get free or cheap internet.
Initially, the project was planned for only six months. But when that was winding down, the state extended it for another year.
Anyone in the State of Washington can call this hotline [844-GWCONNECT OR 844-492-6663] and see if they qualify for free devices or to ask questions related to digital skills.
A vector-drawn space view of Washington State highlighted against its surrounding lands with devices and hotspots distributed all throughout the state.
The Technology Lending Library
Before the pandemic, Evergreen Goodwill only taught in-person classes. When the pandemic hit, they had to shut down and switch to online classes. Now, Evergreen Goodwill offers hybrid concurrent classes — having in-person students and live remote students at the same time. This brings up the need for them to start getting devices for their students.
To solve that, a technology lending library system was made for any student taking their classes who does not have their own computer or internet at home to check out a laptop and a hotspot from this system. This allows them to have internet access at home and join their classes remotely.
Evergreen Goodwill has been steadily increasing the items in this tech library; they have built it up to over 1000 devices, a lot of which was done through grants from a significant number of other organizations.
An illustration, left half consisting of a class with in-person students without devices and missing online students and right half consisting of the Technology Lending Library’s shelf full of devices ready to be checked out.
An illustration, left half consisting of a class with all in-person students having devices and all online students present and right half consisting of the Technology Lending Library’s shelf with some devices checked out.
Matthew Peel, Digital Equity Manager at Evergreen Goodwill — 11/1/2022 4:00 PM Dear Digital Equity Interview by Danyl Stephan Kok and Caleb Brady
evergreengoodwill.org
