The City of Portland, through the Office for Community Technology (OCT), has launched a funding initiative in response to community identified solutions to addressing digital adoption barriers experienced by community members disproportionately impacted by the digital divide and the COVID pandemic: Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), individuals with disabilities, seniors, and other community members in isolation and at high risk of exclusion.
Donor Name: Office for Community Technology (OCT)
State: Oregon
City: Portland
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 04/11/2022
Size of the Grant: $87,500
Details:
The City of Portland, through the Office for Community Technology (OCT), is launching a funding initiative in response to community identified solutions to addressing digital adoption barriers experienced by community members disproportionately impacted by the digital divide and the COVID pandemic: Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), individuals with disabilities, seniors, and other community members in isolation and at high risk of exclusion.
There are three goals for this pilot grant program:
- To ensure people, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, People with disabilities, and Seniors, receive on-demand support and relevant information to secure internet access and devices, as well as the opportunity to build foundational digital skills that improve a person’s economic, health, and social wellbeing. All from a trusted, local source.
- To ensure trusted community-based organizations are building capacity—by sustaining existing services or innovating new services—to serve the digital adoption needs of people disproportionately affected by the digital divide.
- To learn from the Digital Navigators about persistent digital adoption barriers and to document the types of services and supports people affected by the digital divide need that could potentially be supported by the Digital Inclusion Fund.
Funding Information
OCT’s Digital Inclusion Fund has $175,000 available in the 2021-2022 fiscal year and anticipates granting $87,500 each to no more than two (2) community-based organizations in this funding round.
Eligibility Criteria
To be considered, applicant organizations and the proposed project must fulfill all of the following minimum requirements:
- Applicant Organization must be a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, or have a registered fiscal agent, located in the City of Portland, OR.
- Applicant Organization must build or scale a Digital Navigator program that provides on-demand, one-to-one and/or small group dedicated support to people experiencing barriers to digital adoption via phone, email, text, video chat, in-person, and/or other communication methods.
- Applicant Organization agrees to commit time (approx. 10-20 hours) to negotiate a grant agreement with City OCT staff in April/May.
- Applicant Organization agrees to commit some of the digital navigator(s) time (approx. 1 hour/month) during the proposed project period to share learnings.
- Application is signed by a duly authorized representative of the applicant organization.
For more information, visit Community Digital Navigator Pilot Grant.
