Black Brilliance Analysis (BBR) is thrilled to announce that it has been awarded an Web for All Grant from the Nationwide Telecommunications and Info Administration. BBR received the grant in partnership with the College of Washington Tacoma (UWT) for the Join Throughout Tacoma challenge. The funding, a part of the administration’s dedication to increasing web entry in underserved communities, will present Black Brilliance Analysis with almost $3 million to assist its efforts to advertise digital fairness and inclusion.

The Join Throughout Tacoma challenge distributes laptops to in-need college students and members of the Tacoma group by way of the Black Brilliance Analysis Challenge, enrolls households with Web subscriptions, and supplies Digital Stewards to coach digital literacy in the neighborhood. These digital fairness initiatives align with the imaginative and prescient of Governor Jay Inslee, who has been aggressively working to make sure all Washingtonians have digital entry.

The Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program is a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Web for All Initiative to attach everybody in america with inexpensive, dependable high-speed Web service. This program directs $268 million from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 for increasing high-speed Web entry and connectivity to eligible HBCUs, Tribal Schools or Universities (TCUs), and different Minority-serving establishments (MSIs). The BBR and UWT staff was awarded $2.9 million from this fund.

“We’re honored to obtain this grant from the U.S. Division of Commerce’s Nationwide Telecommunications and Info Administration (NTIA) Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program and to be acknowledged for our work selling digital fairness and inclusion,” mentioned Shaun Glaze, Lead Researcher and Director of Black Brilliance Analysis. “This funding will permit us to proceed our efforts to bridge the digital divide and empower underserved communities with the instruments and sources they should thrive within the digital age.”

Black Brilliance Analysis deliberately amplifies the facility of lived expertise to create a world the place everybody can thrive. The staff is a Black-led collaboration of group members and organizations in Seattle, Washington, and surrounding areas. BBR assembled through the George Floyd uprisings to heart the Black group in conversations about Black liberation. This grant will function the work of groups in Tacoma and Pierce County in Washington.

“We consider that entry to the web is a fundamental human proper and that everybody ought to have the chance to take part totally within the digital economic system,” mentioned Chris Webb, M.S.I. “This grant will assist us to develop our attain and empower us to proceed our work coaching group members to create their very own digital and financial futures.”

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Web for All Grants program is a part of the American Rescue Plan, which incorporates greater than $175 million in funding to develop web entry and digital fairness initiatives in underserved communities nationwide.

“We’re impressed by the Detroit Group Expertise Challenge, a Black-led nationwide chief and originator in community-based expertise and digital fairness. We’re excited to collaborate with them and different core companions like The Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective, Harriet Tubman Basis for Protected  Passage, Native Connectivity Lab, and the College of Washington Tacoma on this work.”

Chris Webb (he/him) leads the BBR Digital Fairness Group and is a school member within the STEM+B Division of Seattle Central School. He leads the Digital Stewards coaching program and internships. He has 12 years of expertise instructing digital and data literacy in group and college settings. His expertise contains two NSF-funded initiatives, a PIT-UN grant, and native grants funded by the Marguerite Casey Basis and the Metropolis of Seattle.

The UWT work will likely be directed by Emma Slager (they/them), assistant professor within the Faculty of City Research. Slager has partnered with BBR on earlier initiatives on digital fairness and labored with the Detroit Group Expertise Challenge in Detroit, MI.

For extra details about Black Brilliance Analysis and its work to advertise digital fairness and inclusion, go to https://www.blackbrillianceresearch.com/house.

SOURCE Black Brilliance Analysis