This Guidebook was developed by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance with support from Media Democracy Fund and Cleveland Foundation.
Libraries, community-based organizations, local governments, housing authorities and others in cities across the country have organized coalitions to cooperatively address equitable access and use of communication technologies. This Guidebook reflects lessons learned from six established community-wide digital inclusion coalitions.
Bill Callahan, Tianca Crocker and Angela Siefer
This Guidebook is for people who are already committed to working for digital inclusion and equity in our communities. And it’s for people who already understand the value of working together, across a variety of organizations and institutions, to advance these goals.
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Members of community-wide digital inclusion coalitions address digital inequities through their own programs, through partnerships within the community and by acting as one unified entity setting goals, educating and advocating.
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All digital inclusion coalitions begin from a unique starting point. The only common feature of emerging coalitions is frank, nonlinear conversation about how digital divides present uniquely in the community by a set of stakeholders who are working to address a range of societal challenges. These leaders use networks of connections to talk about how digital divides manifest in the community and to identify shared experiences for further exploration in a larger forum.
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Like any organization, your community-wide digital inclusion coalition exists to enable its members, working together, to accomplish goals they can’t accomplish separately. And like any organization, your community-wide digital inclusion coalition needs a strategic plan to accomplish those goals.
The lessons shared in this Guidebook come from the invaluable input of the following coalition leaders. Thank you for your commitment to the success of this project.