Let's Talk Solutions To New Mexico's Digital Divide

Disseminating correct HIV information to the public can be difficult but an HIV prevention program for the homeless has used artificial intelligence to select 'influencers' who are more likely to spread information. These individuals help to extend information through their social networks, resulting in more and accurate information reaching the public.

Across the United States, tribal lands have the lowest access to internet, an issue that restricts opportunity and education in those areas. In New Mexico, several small tribes have partnered to lay fiber-optic cables that connect the libraries, which serve as primary sources of internet connection, to faster, cheaper internet.

A growing number of tenant-focused websites are trying to level the power dynamic between shoddy landlords and tenants by giving tenants a voice. “There is a big power mismatch in today’s rental market, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” Amongst those is Rentlogic, which grades 1.1 million apartment buildings, but rather than relying on subjective comments the website provides a grade based on an algorithm.

In order to bridge the digital divide one school district in Virginia is putting Wi-Fi routers on its school buses. They call them Smart Buses. They buses drive out to neighborhoods where students don't have access to fast, reliable internet. “Four of the Smart Buses go out every day. Each can serve about 40 students, covering about three-quarters of the need in the district.”

Around 20% of high school students in rural Moulton Independent School District in Texas don't have the vital internet connection they need to complete their assignments. Students at Shiner Independent School District, also a rural area school, faced similar issues. Both districts teamed up with Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, a non-profit utility company, which distributed 20 unlimited data hotspots to Moulton at a $40 monthly cost, as opposed to $200+ cost. Along with individual mobile hotspots, GVEC also turned the Shiner school parking lot into a larger hotspot.

Companies like Gaggle are typically used by school districts to track student online behavior, but now they are tracking something else—self-harm. Machine learning flags words that might indicate a student is thinking of hurting themselves. “It gives us insight into what the student's thinking.” Gaggle identified 64,000 student references to suicide and self-harm. The company claims to have saved 927 student lives. In Mason City, districts receive alerts when a student’s search is flagged. “Nicole Pfirman says there have been a few times where she believes an alert saved a kid's life.”

Project ACT provides support services to 1,000 Cleveland public school students experiencing homelessness or living with guardians other than their parents. Students are set up with a life skills coach who provides emotional and academic support to cope with traumatic life experiences. To ensure stability during COVID-19, Project ACT distributed hotspots and Chromebooks to all 1,000 children they work with. Life coach sessions transitioned to Zoom, where weekly online tutoring sessions were also hosted. Students could also receive gift cards, enrichment packets, school supplies, and hygiene items if needed.

A New York-based nonprofit called Students for a Free Tibet is training Tibetans in "how to stage nonviolent protests." This effort, in conjunction with other Tibetan NGOs, has helped activists in Dharamsala, India to become "more organized, media savvy and technologically sophisticated," which in turn has increased the number of people who have come together to participate in the nonviolent protests.

Chicago Connected is a $50 million four-year program that has already provided high-speed broadband to over 40,000 households in need, representing around 64,000 Chicago public school students, and plans to expand. On-the-ground community outreach in multiple languages was key to connecting residents to the program quickly, which was needed as school went virtual due to COVID-19. The public schools helped identify eligible low-income students whose parents were then contacted by outreach workers.

The Elevate program is a free, eight-week course that helps guides couples to reconnect with each other and develop their parenting skills. The program helps between 30 and 40 couples each year, in-person and virtually. Since its start in 2021, the program has reached more than 470 couples, 96% of which have said they leave the program feeling happier with their partners.