hello and welcome to the June digital Equity public webinar I'm Michelle the acting deputy director for Nia's digital Equity program today's webinar will focus on digital equity and Rural in small small communities deploying broadband and increasing Tech adoption and access has its unique set of challenges for people and communities and Rural and smaller communities such as the remote fishing villages and Alaska to states that line the Appalachian Mountains however these smaller communities like farmers in the US Virgin Islands and growup cooperatives in the Heartland are using Tech inclusion and adoption as a Catalyst for change for many people in communities who feel unseen and our solving for larger issues like food and security out migration Health disparities and declining small business growth our speakers today will highlight their work across this country and how their organizations are solving these unique challenges and providing innovative solutions moderating today's webinar is Philip Powell Nia's state federal program officer for Arkansas and Oklahoma after the presentations we will have a Q&A session with our speakers as a reminder we will share the recording of the webinar and post it on our website please use the Q&A feature to ask questions thank you for joining us today thank you Michelle uh I'm excited to be here to moderate and learn about rural communities and how digital Equity can help those communities I will start off with our first presenter Colby Hall Colby Hall is the current executive director of shaping our Appalachian region sore coming on board in November of 2020 kby was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky and he's grateful for the opportunity to serve the region and his interest in full-time capacity I'll hand it over to Colby for presentation thanks Phillip Philip can you hear me okay yes we can hear you all right perfect well good afternoon everybody as as Philip mentioned I'm Colby Hall um the executive director of a nonprofit in Eastern Kentucky uh called shaping our Appalachian region or or sore for short and uh excited to speak with you all today and and um tell a little bit about why we're so excited um for connectivity not just just getting connectivity but what we plan to do with it and how it plays into uh future Economic Development Community Development plans in Eastern Kentucky so if you can go to the next next slide please so this I just wanted to start with the visual in terms of kind of what brought our organization uh to life was the decline of a signature industry um our region signature industry um in the Eastern Kentucky coalfields was was coal mining and as you can see it's it's it's it's been on a decline in terms of the number of jobs um actually further back than 1990 but um just having to start somewhere you can see that um this graph shows in in some of our most distressed economically distressed counties the number of mining jobs has drastically um decreased and so next slide please from from from those Sor was born and and really we we have a um uh we have a lot of different programs and initiatives but kind of at the top of all of them is is to be a very high impact well performing nonprofit because we um believe that is what our region is asking us to be and at the at the top of our list um uh are a number of initiatives but Broadband connectivity is is is there but uh continuing on with a little bit just providing some more context on the region itself if you could go to the next slide please um this is showing a a map of the Appalachian Regional Commission territory as as noted by the Appalachian Regional Commission which is a federal state agency that's kind of the de facto expert on all things Appalachia and um between the left and the right what you have is the left is um you know a little over 60 years ago um when the arc territory was founded and then the right side is is a little bit more to date and I I wanted to to call this out specifically in Eastern Kentucky because um while overall the territory um read signifies economic distress which um means counties that are in the bottom 10% uh Nationwide um uh in in a couple of areas one three-year trailing unemployment um another one is household income uh and then another area is poverty rate you can see that um in terms of the rest of the region U there's there's been a a notable decline in the number of distressed counties in other states but for whatever reason in Eastern Kentucky that's been much a much more modest decline as as we've retained most of our economic distressed counties over this time frame uh and and actually uh we to today we we have over just about 50% of all distressed counties across this whole territory so I I point there to think you know what is happening that's that's driving the amount of distress um in Eastern Kentucky so next slide please we see these two things as as being two of our biggest challenges and and part of the reason that over the last 60 years um counties in Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky have not seen some of the same level of proog and and these are also forward-looking uh obstacles that we need to overcome and so um next slide please so I I compare because over the you know since 1980 so over the last 40 plus years the the total US population has um increased by just under 50% % um next slide but in our region especially in our most economically distressed counties what we've seen is actually a decline um of of you know anywhere between 6 and 10% depending on which counties you're you're looking at so while the rest of the country has gained what we've seen in our on our part of the State uh is a decline in population next slide please and not just that getting a little bit deeper in terms of who is leaving uh we spent a lot of time thinking about our prime age population uh which is the the the number of 25 to 54 year olds so really these are the folks that should that are the Bedrock of your Workforce and actually what we've seen since about the year the last 20 years the last 25 years is in our most economically distressed counties we're we're seeing a a pretty significant decline in the number of prime AG individuals in our communities and so you know we we dig a little bit in the you what's driving that next slide please well this is a um kind of a a representation this is forward looking in terms of population um that if the status quo persists or if nothing changes um what's what the what the population what would happen in our region by the year 2050 uh and what you can see is is red means um anywhere between a 25 and a 44% decline so um this is um a representation that if if nothing changes or if if we stay on the same course um experts are predicting even further declines in our population which just which which just can't happen next slide so going back to the the prime age population you know one of the the reasons that we believe um we're losing this this this part of our community is is something called the prim AG employment gap and so what you're looking at here and what's denoted in this red is the percentage of 25 to 54 year olds in our communities that are outside the workforce um so these are folks that have fallen outside the workforce so they're they're they're not NE they're not counted as unemployed they've they're not working and they're not looking for work um so we're we're we we we are losing individuals that um are mo more likely to be in the workforce they're leaving to to find employment elsewhere and then the 25 to 54 year olds that are saying in our communities are less likely to to to work um and and that Gap is a gap that is growing and something that's a huge priority of us to to solve next slide please so in terms of um of of employment and who our current employers are um healthc care is a very growing sector in our in our region um we also have um a number of retail driven opportunities and then um education and local government but this is a a snapshot of of who is hiring and and where job opportunities in our in our region are today but I point that out next slide please because actually when we sum it all up in this in this territory that I'm talking to you about what we what we know is there's actually roughly 8,500 unique job postings if we look at the last year so in the last 12 months 8,500 job openings um next slide but of these 8,500 job openings um roughly 70% of those are entry level wage jobs so when we think about that prime age employment gap we think about that we have 34,000 plus people in theory that need jobs but we only have 8,500 jobs available locally and the vast majority of those are entrylevel jobs where you're unable to support a family um we start to ask well how do we how do we how do we fill that Gap right how do we how do we quickly find chunks of jobs so that we can connect them to more of our of our prime age population next slide and we really think that a big part of that answer is with not just the internet but remote work opportunities and and and job opportunities that are that are found online next slide and when we when we've looked at the data in the same time frame uh what we've actually found is there's we estimate at least 2.5 million remote jobs um from hundreds of thousands of employers with median and and and wages across the board but all generally outpace uh wage averages and medians um in our region and we see this as a very promising opportunity these are jobs that are in um various departments across various uh skill levels um various Industries it's very wide- ranging actually next slide um this is not a slide that's meant to be read I realize it's a lot but this is just to show in those 2.5 million jobs I mean it's it's across a lot of different types of of of opportunities so we really see when we talk about digital Equity when we talk about digital Skilling when we talk about um digital literacy and and again what do we do with the internet how do we make sure we leverage it to the the benefit to the maximum for our our rural communities we see it as a emerging strategy to quickly increase the number of good paying opportunities so that we can retain more of our population and so that the only reason people leave or or are skilled people leave or young people leave is because they want to leave not because they feel like they have to leave so Philip that's all I have I believe so I'll turn it back over to you thank you Colby that was great and one thing I forgot to mention at the introduction was that uh we will have Q&A at the end of the penders so people have a chance to ask questions if we have time and again that great call be thank you I'll move on to our next presenter mayor Jim mallister from the city of Woodin North Carolina mayor mallister grew up in Alabama and went to the University of Alabama for a business degree and spent over 35 years in sales and Sales Management he was elected to the Woodfin Town Council in 20121 and as mayor in 2023 so mayor mallister we're happy to have you on board and we're looking forward to your presentation thank you very much it's it's good to be here my name is Jim mallister and if you haven't heard of Woodfin that's okay but if you've been to Asheville Woodfin is the first community on the north side of of Asheville next slide please it's a small town 8,300 people we have an Asheville zip code and U there are constantly people that I meet in Woodfin that don't know where even a separate town we have a unique uh demographic here we have the biggest latinx community in Western North Carolina um and in addition to that we're a little bit economic dis economically disadvantaged over 12% maybe as many as 15% of primary residences in our town are single wide mobile homes over 25 years old they are are really disadvantaged neighborhoods we have a single Public School in town it's an elementary school K through four and we had an event happen that got me involved very involved during the covid shutdown our neighborhood group had purchased tablets for the elementary school kids about four years ago they sent them home with tablets and thought this will be great we can conduct school by Zoom well guess what almost two-thirds of the kids didn't have any internet at home no high-speed internet at home primarily in mobile home parks we found out board of education scrambled they leased um hotspot devices and sent them home actually we had volunteers delivering them to homes and if you want to hear some funny stories I'll tell you about trying to explain to somebody who doesn't speak the same language as me through a window with mask on how to install and use a hotspot lo and behold it got worse the hotspots wouldn't support Zoom they didn't have enough enough juice we called it to support Zoom so a number of people in our community are volunteer at the school we are a small town we got very concerned and we started talking about what can we do about this and as things will happen I was discussing it with a friend telling him about the problem and he said you know what next slide please I have a friend friend that works in Washington DC and he's part of a group at the Department of Commerce that has access to millions of dollars in grant money I don't understand so I talked to sorry Siri's talking to me um I talked to him and he said I know the guy that handles North Carolina and he introduced me to a great young man named will Ralph will actually came to whin and if you'll do the next slide came to Woodin and we met with a school principal I'm let him meet our town manager some state holders in the community because this is a serious a serious problem it's bad enough the disadvantages these kids have but if they're not going to be able to go to school for months and months it was even worse so will gave us some very good advice you need to find a partner who's an expert in obtaining grants luckily based here in Ashville we have an organization called land of Sky they're a regional planning organization funded by grants and the eight counties that they cover they have a wonderful track record of obtaining grants and we met with their staff and they agreed to help us chase down some money that would provide hopefully to provide a real computer and internet service paid in these students homes in wooden as a first step but you probably know more about grants than I do and to get a grant you've got to have data you've got to have legitimate data that is statistically significant so we worked with the monam County School Board as well as the principal the local elementary school on how to get data next slide please we decided to invite the school students and their families to an event and we had this event back in March and if you want to get a bunch of kids excited and go home and tell their parents we have to come to the school on Thursday at 4M because free supper from um chick Tay and there was also going to be a soccer Clinic we partnered with the University of North Carolina campus here in Asheville their CH Chancellor is a very big supporter of hours the men's soccer team agreed to entertain the kids in the gym with a soccer clinic and that was a barrel of fun while the parents were being interviewed in the school we have a wonderful neighborhood group we put together a group to support from some of the local churches and neighborhood associations we found we we had 15 teams of people of three where at least one of the per people at the table in that group of three spoke Spanish L of Sky put together a survey asking questions do you have internet at home if so do you know what kind how much do you pay and if you don't why not well the data we gathered at this event which was well attended is that 60% of the families that attended confirm we don't have Internet at home we cannot afford it even the the $30 a month grant that wouldn't even make a D in it and more than 60% confirm that the only device they have in their household is the school supplied tablet and that was okay but those tablets are now getting old and some of them have started to fail next slide so we had good data land of Sky got to work the Town has cooperated with us we went for the first quick hit and the town of Woodin Our Town manager fortunately U had a good relationship with Will Ralph from Department of Commerce and she agreed at no charge to let land of Sky tap into our police force our Police Department radio interet tower on top of town hall so we're immediately going to wire the park which is next door to the elementary school with high-speed internet it's something we can do and we can do fast they're also continuing to chase grants uh that would provide internet for the residences it turns out that the a quicker hit is going to be they're building a device refurbishment program many Merchants including like a Best Buy they take computers back you can also turn in a computer at a Rec cing Center they have they have obtained grant money to refurbish those devices so we're hoping perhaps at back school time we'll be able to get a real device a laptop or a computer into all those homes while we're continuing to chase grants that would provide at no charge highspeed internet and if we can do it for the school we think we might be able to do it for bigger parts of the community Landis sky is also Comm continuing to work with the maps we've challenged the maps from the that show who has what internet at their homes we found a lot of discrepancies in our community and they're using the maps to taste other avenues called one of them called stop Gap and other infrastructure programs there's also some funding called Cai that may provide some relief for wood pin residents so I'm honored to be here and we just wanted to tell a quick story I doubt I'm the only small town mayor with a problem like this and we hear that there's Millions hundreds of millions available we need some of it we don't want to be greedy we just need a little bit of it we want to help some kids so if anybody listening here uh next slide please my last one if you have any ideas for me or can help us in any way please reach out I'm all ears and thank you to to this organization for allowing me to be on today thank you mayor mall that was great and a spiritful country where you are so that's great um next we have Krista Benson who will be giving us a presentation kristofh Benson is the senior program officer for Broadband in infrastructure with rural Lisk Christa leads the broadband and infrastructure pillar at R list a multia strategy to increase the Digital support available in the social safety net and to deliver the Economic Opportunity Employment and placemaking benefits of broadband internet infrastructure to rural Arkansas and we'll have a presentation from her here well hello thank you for having me today I'm Christa Vincent I'm senior program officer for Broadband at rural Lisk that's the local initiatives support Corporation and I'm delighted to talk to you about our experience working in the field with Community networks and partner relationships all over the country to advance digital equity and I really want to emphasize that we've learned a lot from our efforts at both end of the value stream both in terms of working with Broadband planners who are building the technical documents to deploy infrastructure and our work with direct service organizations those uh human Serv groups that work directly with community members on digital adoption um and the relationship that infrastructure planning and and household adoption uh have with one another uh in this really important moment to Advan digital Equity across the US so Lisk started this work more than a decade ago uh working with those Human Service organizations on Digital support uh to support job Seekers uh folks that wanted to learn how to use telea Health um at school age folks all the way up to uh you know seniors um engaging with technology and um we work with we did this work with and through uh uh organizations that that are that work at the front lines and we really think about that as uh capacity building work and so with the Advent of the infrastructure investment and jobs act uh we were thinking further up the value stream on a role we could play uh with place-based organizations to support Broadband infrastructure planning especially in rural markets Nationwide and so um this idea of capacity building uh both to the organizational level um and then to Regional planners um is is is an insightful one uh as as we think about how to U maximize absorption um of the available funding support uh to communities and so um this idea of capacity building can really be thought of a as a virtual cycle of um you know seating uh those place-based organizations and equipping them and infusing them with the tools and knowledge to uh Advance their Local Economic Development or Broadband infrastructure planning agenda as it were um and seasoning in uh technical assistance um the provision of that when it can be helpful list does it itself um as an intermediary a technical assistance intermediary um but State Broadband offices are now the resource for that uh uh certainly with the with the um uh with the current programs um and can help Community planners uh really resource their plans well uh to get to the investment stage right that really drives um that infrastructure deployment I'll talk a little bit more about who else is doing this work as well so as Lisk was building a portfolio uh to provide this technical assistance for bra and planning we sought out others that had come before in this work individuals uh organizations local governments state governments uh industry uh advisors uh investors and I wanted to share the list with the audience today just to note um how diverse um and Broad broadly reaching um those potential uh resources are uh to support local um robing planning um internet adoption uh and in the total digital Equity package there um and as we were having these conversation with prati conversations with practitioners as we were working with uh Community planners as we were leveraging these relationships that we had with place-based organizations um especially those direct service organizations about their ability to lean in to um an enhanced role uh on the infrastructure planning and economic development um uh side um it became very clear that having that message and being able to talk about it um that um important work of working really at the Speed Of Trust um as as households uh you know consider uh if the internet is relevant uh to their lives um how to afford it um what are the skills to use it what are the appropriate technology um for me to feel comfortable um you know working with the internet as we were working with the nonprofit organizations that were providing those types of training we were having a conversation with organizations about um how their role changes and and how their service delivery model might be adapted um by thinking about uh you know their role in supporting technology adoption and then once these nonprofit relationships uh you know so really evolved to talk about what was learned and and you know how households were reached and how uh the like the work streams that those nonprofits changed as as they leaned in to their role as technology Advocates to then turn around and bring that message forward uh to community planners um that were thinking about how to expand uh internet access in a market and so one very real and tangible way um that this transpire let Sol this uh in places all over the country is those organizations that we had supported with what we call a digital connector Grant which is a is a pass through Grant to support digital navigation Services those um those entities were turning right around and speaking to um their County leadership um and and other uh decision makers about utilizing leftover uh Co relief dollars and and channeling those into digital digital Equity programs uh and so the message really became kind of bridging between um the the knowledge that uh those entities that were working um patiently with individuals and families as they cross the digital divide uh how that information can help um the Comm Community planners really Charter next steps uh and so we've come to the conclusion especially in this moment as the bead program uh begins to roll out that um planning for digital literacy programs planning for uh you know digital inclusion programs really should proceed and Co ordinate with infrastructure construction um and these these these latent nonprofit uh partner relationships in communities everywhere uh can really support robust infrastructure plans so I'll show you a few more examples in the next slide these are the locations where rural Lisk uh seated those capacity supports uh and we came to the conclusion after making grants to Workforce Development organizations Civic institutions librar cultural resource centers fire stations uh were even among those entities that received a pass through Grant from rural Lisk to support their digital navigation Services Program we concluded that any deeply anchored Community organization is an ally in this work uh and can really talk about their learnings in a way that can be productive uh for other long time long-term Economic Development uh decision making or infrastructure planning um so this cohort uh of seven seven cohorts of digital Navigators make up a network uh that covers 25 States uh an Indian Country um on Navajo and hopy lands um that have seated the capacity of of nonprofits to nonprofits to really contribute to uh local and Regional Economic Development planning um and everywhere LZ took this program you know there was that sort of period um of adoption and adaptation uh again that these nonprofits experienced and then they were um finding themselves in conversations uh to advance the work um at at a at a higher uh more systems level and one great example of that is comes from Alabama where uh we funded a chamber of commerce which also housed a Workforce Development program uh with our digital Navigator uh work and um the chamber was convening other key stakeholders K2 12 uh higher education industry leaders and um I will'll never forget sort of a the way that this work was described was uh coming together to Summit the mountain together um because each of these entities recognized that they were doing some piece of this work they were doing some piece of um digital Equity planning right um or digital Equity implementation um but the region would be stronger together it could really add up to um you know ultimately what everyone's mission was but the chamber Chief among among them right to grow this local economy and in cab uh Alabama there many stories uh from across the country like that there some uh real human endeavor here um the these are uh actual practitioners um doing the work of the digital navigation program um again these were diverse organizations right because we came to the conclusion that um if you have a trusted reach into the community uh you can add value um at this time when you know when we're all thinking about how to advance um our communities um and and strengthen uh their ties to the economy by participating uh in the digital economy uh and and these are the faces of that work uh from all of the country um you know referencing the map from the previous slide so uh computer distribution programs digital UPS Skilling programs telea Health um Public Safety uh building um stakeholder networks right um the center photo um is is really uh a story of um building a network uh to address uh Rockingham North Carolina's um Economic Development goals through their through their broadband and digital Equity planning um building a tech Workforce whether that's uh is installing equipment on Navajo uh as the example on the upper left or repairing a computer through a trades program it was developed in Lin Texas uh human infrastructure moves digital infrastructure forward right so so much of this work is really about um building you know kind of local network capacity uh to advance uh Economic Development goals and I think the next slide might sum it up a little bit more in terms of of some real concrete examples um of where Broadband is building local capacity so um very proud of this example on the left where uh rural Lisk was resourcing a regional planning organization the Council of governments um that was working with 45 member governments uh counties and uh and localities um and they were attacking their Public Safety Network problem so there was not enough connectivity uh and bandwidth to support public sa safety functions um and that was really uh leading to uh a lack of capacity for for other public services and so rather than just thinking about how to problem solve uh for that specific locality's uh local network uh connectivity uh capacity issues it was an opportunity to to um sort of copy paste right in terms of what other localities in this eastern North Carolina region could be and and should be thinking about um as they try to advance uh in this in this realm um and so our support led to the velopment of a um a Playbook um that the Council of governments could share across the region and likewise um on the right is a great example of a place-based organization that wanted to step in the role of digital Equity Advocate um serving the Alabama black belt which is 17 counties in in Central Alabama um and uh the resources to build that entity's capacity really led to um the expanded capacity across the region as um this organization set up a circuit Rider program so that they could present to every County Commission um as the state Broadband office is doing its work uh under nti's charge to to get to get prepared um for the um for the forthcoming programs um under the uh infrastructure act uh the next slide is another example but focusing on that Workforce Development stream so uh a really compelling story here in Brownsville Texas where um a fiber internet service provider was already building out the community at the same time that the economic data was showing that this was a place in the country that had the uh lowest capacity to absorb tech-based jobs right um the kind of the lease capacity to uh just given existing conditions to attract that industry and and build those labor pipelines and yet household level adoption of this new fiber internet service was through the roof you know 90% uh in many neighborhoods and so the storyline that um our pass through Partners in our grant program really wanted to tell is we can advance this work together we can build a tech Workforce we can attract um industry and we can deliver we can solution um for improvements to our Workforce Development delivery system by thinking about the role that that technology and our our our local investment and infrastructure is playing in that uh and tell the story and and and build the alliances and the Partnerships to get the next level of work done so they called the work level up Rio Grand Valley uh and they continue to do um really important uh things to advance this initiative and this is a story all over the country so so Lis is thinking about through a new uh program that we've launched a technical assistance program that I'll tell you a little bit about here at the the end of the uh presentation called the Broadband helphub um and we started with some knowledge um that we usually take into um our program of work as a community development financial institution we're thinking about places across the country um to uh to make investments um based on some economic characteristics of those locations um and so considering that that data against the Broadband availability mapping um that Lisk has done there are a number of communities right that are at risk for uh drawing down you know their share of uh the largest Federal investment uh in closing the digital divide uh in Generations um and so uh taking this information into um things that we've learned from our community- based stakeholders on the ground as is shown here these are uh those uh community- based organizations that list works with that have put their up and said we're ready for an infusion of technical assistance support so that we can plan for Broadband infrastructure um we are launching uh again this Broadband helphub um as part of the national Broadband technical assistance Marketplace so Lis is contributing uh 50 technical assistance plans at no cost to applicants that are approved into the program we're also partnering with other technical assistance providers and intermediaries some of whom you saw there on the first slide under the national band technical assistance Marketplace uh so that together you we can offer to do our part uh to help as many communities Advance their infrastructure plans um ensure that um act reliable access to the internet is the way that um community members can move forward and then taken together uh with available infrastructure and adoption uh we can see the revitalization of of neighbor neighborhoods and uh communities rural communities uh local economies all over the country it was a real pleasure to be with you today thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about List's work and I welcome uh hearing from anyone today my contact information if you're on the last slide thank you Christ that's great as as someone who's the FP over Arkansas very grateful the work here in Arkansas and across the country in rural areas um I believe we are now into the Q&A portion and I see that we've already have some questions in the chat here and um I see one here for colby colby is a question from Richard Chambers and he asked what are the top strategies you plan to use to address the challenges and take advantage of the online opportunity uh well Richard I I think what we've seen is um there's nothing really proven out there so we're we're we're um trying to be Innovative and creative where we're starting I'll say a couple of quick things um one we are uh creating a an Eastern Kentucky job board where we're trying to aggregate uh different types of remote job opportunities along with jobs that are found locally and regionally so have one place where you can find jobs uh and then we're also going to have an Eastern Kentucky Talent Network where we're aggregating job Seekers and talent folks that are um seeking employment um and really um using that uh for for prime age employment folks but also you know High School grads College grads anybody that's really working hard to try to find a job so they don't have to leave Eastern Kentucky uh we're in the middle trying to play matchmaker um the last thing I'll say in in terms of adding to the job database the employee your database um we've kind of built an inside sales model where I have a person that's on the phones that sending a bunch of emails that's building lists every day of employers with open remote positions and doing anything we can to get them uh to say hey would you consider we have these candidates and we're really really interested in getting them in an interview process for some roles that we've seen so that's where we're going to start thanks Colby and um and so I I do have another question here uh thank for let see if I can go through the chat here everybody's being very engaged in the chat which is great and um I think this let me see if I can find it oh okay well here's one for everybody I see here is for all the speakers is anyone working with either in organizations such as 4 AG boys and girls and that's open to the panel here we have not as part of the uh Arkansas partnership that Christa mentioned in her presentation uh one of those um one of those Partnerships was was with life skills for youth um so that that was U maybe on on the youth side but we don't have any particular uh specific Partnerships with youth organizations um like targeting in that particular area thanks and yes I forgot to uh introduce you on behalf of Christa and Reagan works with Christa ruist so she'll be here to answer questions on her behalf so thanks Reagan right let me see um oh okay here's one for everybody also um um maybe more focused on mayor mallister but have there been conversations in your community about Municipal ownership of broadband infrastructure for these rural communities it's not allowed legally in in our state it's against the law the telecom companies have a firm control of our general assembly we can give it away if we pay for it but we can't solicit we cannot we cannot meddle in that business unfortunately thank you mayor um well here's one for Colby um is there training for the community members in being successful in remote jobs and this can apply to everyone else I think on the panel I I can answer quickly for us yes there is but we need to do more and plan to do more um so uh we have a digital navigator on staff that um is is providing basic digital skills training for folks that have very very limited use I mean computer Basics up to um some certification courses in Microsoft Office or commonly used technology um but you know for to to really think about the skill it would take to to to to get remote jobs or middle skilled remote jobs that are that are competitive there's obviously we're going to have to continue to get more Niche and and go further with those types of of of trainings so the answer is yes but we need to do more as well and plan to do so do the other speakers have any thoughts on that as well it's the the the situation is is tragic but being what we're dealing with and what we talked about here uh we we've just got a band together and and fight harder to to correct some of this otherwise like in our case and with children in Woodin they're doomed um if you don't have a computer at home these days and don't have access to Internet and you're in the third grade future is not looking particularly Rosy for you um that a lot of the the digital literacy training that Lisk supports um through our pass through grants or through our Partnerships is targeted um at you know uring people that people have these digital literacy skills to you know increase your income to um you know ensure that you have access to more Equitable job opportunities so um yeah echoing those sentiments and definitely what we're pushing towards as well and kby I will say that in our survey with parents to the school 100% of those surveyed said that if you can get us a computer and internet they checked all the boxes you know basic internet skills introduction to word how to do a teleconference of Zoom so we've got the digital Navigator stuff available we just don't have the the way to train the people to use it it's tragic thank you yeah so sorry I'm trying to look through the chat here and catch up with all the questions here and again we're in the Q&A session so please feel feel free to draw questions in here and so let me just look here oh okay maybe I see a more recent question here uh have there been attempts to partner with NN service providers who are seeking Grant funds mayor I'm happy I mean I if you want to tell I'm yeah we partner with anybody that um on the infrastructure side that's um um interested I mean in Eastern Kentucky we're very fortunate to have a great group of locally based internet service providers many are um nonprofit telephone cooperatives others are locally owned cable companies that have have made Fay into um fiber internet access and um we're always pushing them to go after every piece of dollar or every every available dollar or anything that we can do to work with them on applications from Charter did receive two grants in the last year to expand their footprint they basically own this area of the state so they've been successful but again if you the people don't have computers and can't afford to sign up it's not gonna help I do have a question for I think this would reply to everyone here how do you all decide what to prioritize in your communities such as digital Lo access to devices need for Broadband infrastructure Etc do y all have you try PR ortize these issues or how are you tackling these issues all at the same time they're they're all literally in my situation they're all connected equally so we're treating them as as part of the same bucket uh I don't know how you do it in Kentucky or Arkansas yeah mayor Philip I would just say we we draw everything back from kind of what I tried to weave in my presentation which is um population loss and U in Prim age employment there's been a strong jobs emphasis um with sore from our from our very beginning so um yeah we we feel like that if we can increase the number of jobs available in our region that's going to be a huge retention um opportunity so that we um can stop the loss of population and eventually get to a point where we can gain more as well okay so Colby um kind of following up on that how how are you thinking about artificial intelligence and his impact a feature digital Skilling and remote job placement has AI been something you thought about in your work well I think about it a lot I'm not an expert I read about it I listen to it I know there's a lot of wide ranging opinions I think it's almost universally accepted that it's a really big deal that we're just at the very beginning of I tend to be very optimistic and positive about it I think it's going to lower the barriers to entry um it's going to change it's going to bring new types of employment and then for generally regions like ours where you can look at the Education data and you can look at a lot of data that maybe uh before AI would have put us at a severe disadvantage to different types of employment opportunities I think AI is going to offer some ways to maybe cut down the time to get the skills needed to be able to compete for some some of those types of jobs so I would just say Phil I think about it all the time not exactly sure how it's going to play but feel like it's going to be a real positive for for RO communities like the ones that we have in Eastern Kentucky thanks Co yeah was interested instancy where it goes in the future yeah um oh so here's a question from the chat um I think this applies to everyone here how prevalent are smartphones in communities they obviously can't do many of the important things but I wonder if that's a strong point or even or even these tools are really limited so yeah how how big smartphones in your communities how big all do they play in your Outreach it's for Kobe I think that was for me I don't mayor and and Reagan I don't mean to to hog all the all the questions um obviously Philip super super important I think we can look at data and show that actually there's a larger number of individuals or population in our area that have smartphones even than um laptops or desktop computers so they seem to be um uh an area where if a household lacks an a computer that that's a way that they stay connected obviously there's some CH the same challenges that plague uh Broadband connectivity plague um mobile connectivity in our part of the country given the topography and geography challenges but um obviously we're super excited for future Technologies and in in in Mobile and applications and I mean obviously knowing how to navigate a phone is just about as important as how to navigate a computer so we we see that as being kind of maybe two sides of the same coin mayor mallister would you like to add to that as well absolutely critical in everything that we do we have found in communicating with our residents and there was a question in chat about how we're trying to Target the latinx community we have found that texting and via cell phones is a super effective tool in everything that we do so we have to make sure in every initiative in the community and with the town government that we remember don't forget text we've got to do that component you can't just put it on our website we can't just put it on the Marquee we've got to get it out to every text number that we that we've been able to collect I don't see that changing um anytime soon thank you um so see one about digital Equity plans and how how are yall aligning your strategies to your State's digital Equity plans well the you know trying to chase grants um using digital equity and affordability is our only option because the service providers have gotten millions of dollars in North Carolina to extend their Footprints and maybe we're unique in whin maybe maybe we're the only Community with a um a demographic with such a high percent that you know live in poverty and can't afford internet subscriptions maybe we're maybe we're unique there but for us it's about equity and in the true meaning of the word but as you can tell we're struggling with it I I would just answer philp actually I've tried to bid as much of the state's digital Equity plan to the priorities that we have in Eastern Kentucky knowing there are other parts of the state but I think a lot of the challenges that we face in our rural part of the state um are not too dissimilar from U lower income parts of even our larger cities in Kentucky or or in other rural parts of of of the state so um we've been fortunate to be a part of the the planning the digital Equity planning steering committee in the state we've got great relationship with our education labor cabinet which is where that program a project has housed in Kentucky and they're doing a great job and they've really really prioritized um our rural areas the covered populations there um and they've been very receptive to our push to really think about Skilling and literacy and a lot of the different priorities and goals inside of our of our plan and attaching that to employment into things that are going to help Eastern Kentucky retain and and and and become more prosperous region in the future like not just having goals to have goals right but connecting it to some sort of really positive long-term outcome yeah I was thinking about your regions at Eastern Kentucky and where mayor Mall in North Carolina you've got mountains it's beautiful country I've driven through both areas it's beautiful countries so I so this a question I have for both of yall have y all seen an influx of remote workers coming to your regions because they enjoy the nature aspect in those things you seen a growth in remote Workforce due to that even with your lack of b band access our population grew by over 10% during covid um people came and rented every Airbnb and stayed in every basement in town and they just didn't want to leave and we've confirmed a little over 800 new residents so and I would bet you they're all remote workers you know Philip I I think um again when we think about population loss we we think about in two different pots um obviously one being retention of our domestic population which we think over the long term just in terms of scale and size uh we have to do a better job of making sure that um water doesn't come out of the bottom of the boat or out of the bathtub right that that's going to be our biggest bang for our buck but we also have a dedicated remote worker attraction program a program called KY remote in partnership with a private company called make my move and we stood that up about a year ago to really try to take advantage of that trend of folks that are looking to relocate to maybe a more rural um affordable area that offers a high quality of life like many of our communities in Eastern Kentucky do and I can tell you we've had at the at the very highest level over 3,000 um individuals or households apply for our program and that's resulted uh so far in um just about 10 households relocating and over 20 plus people um we're just getting started we recently this past general assembly session at the state government level received an appropriation to expand that program into more communities so we definitely see a positive or a promising opportunity in trying to attract more folks with that flexibility to work from anywhere to to to come and and work uh in our in our part of the state Al So speaking of okay so yeah everybody wants to talk about remote Workforce Development but for the for the people that are there right now I think this apply to Colby and mayor mallister what how have you all worked with your older adults in the in your communities we talk a lot about uh childhood education digital ly but can you talk about how you all have worked with the senior citizens and older members of your community in that space we're struggling with that um we work with an organization called Mana food bank and a number of elderly people have come there and Mana provides a wonderful program in uh teaching people how to cook and maybe how to cook with things that they're not familiar with that they can get for free and I've personally seen a number of senior citizens say well I don't have a I don't have I don't even have a phone I don't how do I access that so we've you know kind of seen the Heartbreak we got something available so that's something I don't have an answer for but I'd like to hear if anybody else has a suggestion from Reagan or Kobe Reagan I feel like I've spoken way too much here I'm going to defer to you to let you answer next J well I think the rean the question was uh have you done anything to deal not you know put childhood children aside what about senior citizens and the elderly I think that was your question Phil sure um I'm not aware of anything that Lisk has done i' I've been with the the organization for just a couple of months now I'm not aware of anything that's been done specifically for seniors but a lot of our digital literacy training and the digital Equity training that we offer um is is teaching people of all ages so we are prioritizing the goal of teaching literacy skills is to teach people of all ages um and of all backgrounds and and situations how to navigate the internet and how to navigate devices um so I would say that it's sort of you know non-discriminatory in the sense that trying to provide that training to everybody um but I don't believe that we offer anything specifically for seniors but I I would agree that that's certainly a targeted population that also is in need of digital skills just as much as children or any other age range Philip I I don't have too much to add to that I agree with mayor McAllister it's a challenge um our organization was specifically tasked with um I think sections of the population that aren't senior citiz and and and we have some other partners in the region like ARP some of our extension service centers or Agricultural Extension offices that that deal with that so we don't get a chance to interface with those populations um as much as as others great I not this great I I just I just looked at the time and saw we're almost out of time I I don't know if Michelle wants to jump in here I want go over time and take people's time away from them um so I can not sure if I need to close out the meeting I'll tur it over to Michelle no you can close out the meeting Philip um yeah excellent job I just want to thank everyone today for their time so many great questions um thank you Philip for moderating um it has been wonderful um so with that uh thank you all for joining we will uh post this uh webinar the recording and also um the slides to our website um so have a great day and um look forward to seeing you at the next webinar Take Care thank you thank you by for