Franklin County, Columbus partner to invest more than $20 million to lessen digital divide
About 200,000 people in more than 80,000 Franklin County households do not have a home internet subscription, and more than 66,000 don't have a computer, officials say.
So the county and the city of Columbus are partnering to invest more than $20 million with the Franklin County Digital Equity Coalition to help lessen this digital divide.
The funds will be used to help distribute 10,000 computers, tablets and smartphones to those without, increase access to affordable home internet service, create digital skills training programs, train community advocates to assist others with digital equity and provide hundreds of thousands for digital inclusion grants.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation it created exposed the extent of the divide between those with digital equipment and access and those without. The coalition's mission is to help bridge that divide.
Founded by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Council, Columbus Metropolitan Library and The Columbus Foundation in March 2020 in response to the pandemic, the coalition is now coordinated by Smart Columbus and involves more than 30 Franklin County and regional organizations representing government, education, health care, social service and various institutions.
For more information, visit https://franklincountydigitalequity.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County, Columbus invest over $20M in home internet, computers
