| Name | Geoff |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Millener |
| Home Address | 1255 Duane Rd. Chattanooga, TN 37405 United States |
| Organization Name | The Enterprise Center |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | I serve as Chief Operating Officer for The Enterprise Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under Deb Socia's leadership, where I am privileged to work with a dynamic team, community partners and residents to leverage our city’s unique infrastructure to develop, test, deploy and scale solutions for the 21st century, with a focus on digital equity, economic mobility and Smart City innovation. |
| Organization Address | 1100 Market St., Suite 500 Chattanooga, TN 37402 United States |
| Website | https://theenterprisectr.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 423.619.5008 |
| Alternate Phone Number | 423.661.3300 |
| Email Address | geoff@theenterprisectr.org |
| Alternate Email Address | gmillener@gmail.com |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | When the COVID pandemic necessitated a rapid transition to at-home and online learning in March of 2020, thousands of students and families struggled in their educational efforts because they lacked access to a home broadband connection. The digital divide had already been a growing challenge in our community, but the pandemic exacerbated the issue and made it immediately clear that broadband access is an imperative for student and family success. While other cities and school districts across the country scrambled to work with private internet and wireless providers to provide limited internet access for the first year of the pandemic, Chattanooga was uniquely well- positioned to provide a more comprehensive and long-term solution. EdConnect - a partnership between Hamilton County Schools (HCS), EPB, the City of Chattanooga, and the Enterprise Center - was launched in July 2020, with an initial commitment to provide all low-income K-12 students (up to 17,000 households) with free home broadband access for as long as they remain enrolled in Hamilton County Schools. By leveraging the City’s municipally-owned broadband infrastructure (operated by EPB), existing local partnerships that were already working to address digital equity, and a new sense of urgency created by the pandemic, EdConnect has become a nationally-recognized model for how communities can significantly address digital equity for their residents. Nearly 18 months into the implementation of EdConnect, project partners have developed a comprehensive outreach and tracking system and they’ve learned a great deal about the opportunities that this initiative unlocks for families. It’s clear that home broadband access benefits not just students, but entire households by helping them better connect to critical employment, financial, healthcare, and community services. While EdConnect represents a significant first step in bridging the digital divide in our community, with a renewed community commitment partners will be able to expand on this groundbreaking model to provide home broadband to additional low-income Chattanooga residents and households that lack access. Additional groups that could be targeted for increasing home broadband access include: - Families with young children (including those enrolled in Head Start) in order to support improved early learning and health outcomes; - Graduates of Hamilton County Schools that go on to enroll in Chattanooga State or UTC, in order to support postsecondary degree attainment; - Residents that are participating in workforce training programs, in order to provide access to online education, job applications, and remote work opportunities; - Residents living in subsidized housing; and Elderly residents, in order to support better access to healthcare, financial and community services online. We propose establishing the Chattanooga Digital Equity Fund, which will be used to expand the EdConnect model to provide home broadband to additional residents (to be identified in collaboration with the City and community partners). Based on the EdConnect model, the Digital Equity Fund would cover the up-front cost of providing home connectivity for residents, which comes out to about $900 per home. Community service partners, such as Head Start/Office of Early Learning, Chattanooga State, La Paz, Habitat for Humanity, and others would help identify eligible residents among their clients. The Enterprise Center would expand its outreach and tracking system, in order to ensure that eligible households are being quickly connected with EPB and to help follow up on any problems, as needed. In addition, dedicated leadership at The Enterprise Center will help to ensure that the Digital Equity Fund is fully leveraging additional Federal and State funding opportunities to continue to expand broadband access for low-income families in Chattanooga. This proposal is intended to provide a starting framework for how Chattanooga could achieve digital equity locally, based on the success of the EdConnect model. As with EdConnect, the full details around implementation - which groups to target, and overall investment - must be developed in full collaboration with the City and all other partners, in order to ensure full alignment with top priorities. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | The COVID pandemic exacerbated digital inequities and made it clear that home broadband access is critical infrastructure to support the well-being of residents and families. This is recognized in the ARP guidelines which specifically allow for investment in broadband infrastructure. In addition, expanding access to home broadband provides financial relief for low-income families and those most likely to have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. An investment in broadband access for low-income residents and households - the majority of which are led by people of color - will help mitigate some of the ongoing impacts of the COVID pandemic, as well as ensure that our community will be more resilient in the face of any future crisis. The Treasury Department’s Final Rule on Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds states that, “Recipients may fund high-speed broadband infrastructure in areas of need that the recipient identifies, such as areas without access to adequate speeds, affordable options, or where connections are inconsistent or unreliable; completed projects must participate in a low-income subsidy program” (p.20), precisely the goals of this . The Rule specifically calls attentions to the the issue of affordability, addressed by this project, highlighting that “[e]ven in areas where broadband infrastructure exists, broadband access may be out of reach for millions of Americans because it is unaffordable” (p. 87) and requiring that broadband infrastructure projects, “Otherwise provide access to a broad-based affordability program to low-income consumers in the proposed service area of the broadband infrastructure that provides benefits to households commensurate with those provided under the ACP [Affordable Connectivity Plan” (p. 308). The final rule expands on the discretion of localities to make determinations, “expand[ing] eligible areas for investment by requiring recipients to invest in projects designed to provide service to households and businesses with an identified need for additional broadband infrastructure investment. Recipients have flexibility to identify a need for additional broadband infrastructure investment” (p. 302-3) - further supporting this project’s intent on allowing community voice and a localized equity lens to drive our response. |
| Where would your project take place? | These funds could be used to connect low-income households across the City of Chattanooga. Outreach efforts could be targeted in neighborhoods with the lowest rates of connectivity, which include East Lake, East Chattanooga, and Brainerd. |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 4500000 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | It is estimated that about one in five households in Chattanooga lack broadband access - about 15,000 households total. EdConnect has already or is in the process of connecting about 10,000 of those households within Chattanooga, which leaves an additional 5,000 that may still lack access. Based on the EdConnect funding model, with infrastructure and deployment costs of approximately $900 per household, we believe that a $4.5M commitment will be enough to eliminate access and affordability's dual impacts on the digital divide in Chattanooga. Partners reasonably expect to receive up to $2 million from a combination of County ARP funds, additional State and Federal broadband focused funds and philanthropic dollars. |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | $2.5-3M. Partners reasonably expect to receive up to $2 million from a combination of County ARP funds, additional State and Federal broadband focused funds and philanthropic dollars. |
| If funded, when would your project start? | June 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | The project would be completed (in terms of connection of the first wave of households) by the end of 2024, or within the allowable ARP window; as with EdConnect, speed and community trust would be in balance to ensure both timeliness and breadth of servive, reaching the most disconnected residents. |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | As with EdConnect, progress would be measured by the number of households connected to broadband. The EdConnect Implementation team currently receives daily updates on connected households - and based on progress or challenges, the team identifies residents in need of additional outreach or support. This process would be expanded for the Digital Equity Fund. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | The Digital Equity Fund would be overseen by an Advisory Committee that could include representatives of government, nonprofit and community partners. Building upon the Enterprise Centers comprehensive database for EdConnect, the Fund would be able to regularly report on the numbers, demographic and neighborhood location of those being connected. In addition, a team from Boston College is in the process of conducting an evaluation on the processes and impacts of EdConnect and it is likely that this research could be expanded to include the Digital Equity Fund. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | We are living in a period of unprecedented technological change, navigating a rapid, Internet-fueled evolution in healthcare, commerce, communications and other essential services and activities. No aspect of life remains untouched by technology. But resources and support often lag behind innovation, and barriers such as cost and access have an outsized impact on those who are already isolated or disconnected — compounding the impact on marginalized communities. In Chattanooga, we are uniquely prepared to leverage our investments and infrastructure in a way that both meets the immediate connectivity needs highlighted and exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic in a way that will continue to meet those same needs sustainably, for long into the future.Helping to ensure that residents have access to home broadband directly enables better work, education, health, and financial opportunities for residents. This vital step towards fully bridging the digital divide will enable government and community organizations to better connect with and serve their constituents, as well allow for constituents to fully participate in the services and opportunities a city like Chattanooga provides — and to do so on their own terms. This effort represents a significant and vital expansion of public infrastructure, which will support a short-term recovery to the pandemic, as well as long term resiliency for Chattanooga. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | HCS EdConnect’s success has outlined both the need for, and positive community response, to broadband access and affordability initiatives like the one proposed here. Community, and community partner input is essential to its success; we will leverage existing relationships built through HCS EdConnect, and through the multi-stakeholder partnership behind this proposal. |
| Name | Lori Quillen |
| Contact Information | lquillen@benwood.org |
| Name | Evann Freeman |
| Contact Information | freemaned@epb.net |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | This proposal represents a multi-stakeholder partnership, including The Enterprise Center, EPB, the City of Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Office of Early Learning, Hamilton County Schools and the Smart City Venture Fund. |