Comcast to invest $500K in Chicago YMCAs to create tech hubs as part of Digital Equity Project

Comcast will invest $500,000 in Chicago YMCA facilities to make the Internet more accessible to residents.

For more than three years, the company has operated technology centers with computers and Internet access at six YMCAs in Irving Park, Humboldt Park, Lake View, Logan Square, Little Village and Woodlawn.

The commitment is the largest Comcast has ever made to a community organization in Chicago, the company announced Wednesday during a busy day at the South Side YMCA in Woodlawn.

“When I look at these young faces, I know you are our future leaders,” said Delilah Wilson-Scott, executive vice president of Comcast, as she stood in front of a YMCA group of 30 10- to 12-year-olds. Members. We need to make sure you are all equipped with the best tools, resources, connections and skills to lead us into a new chapter.

The project is part of Comcast’s $1 billion digital inequity initiative, Project UP, to expand Internet access to disadvantaged areas.

Part of the collaboration will include training “digital sensors” in the institutions, staff to help visitors access them, help them build digital skills on the Internet, and help them become familiar with available programs.

“There’s a good number of people who take good access,” Wilson-Scott said. “We are awake, connected and able to fully participate in the digital economy. But there are still many people in the country, especially in many cities around America where people are simply not connected.

Wilson-Scott said digital equity is not just about connecting to the Internet, but connecting people to skills, tools and resources through the Internet.

“There’s no career you can enter without a baseline of digital skill sets. There are jobs you can’t even apply for until you have access to the Internet,” she says. You can’t go the way of economic activity.

The broadband company has opted for YMCA facilities in areas where internet access is limited. Wilson-Scott said the technology centers will be critical for students and children who need Internet access to do their work.

To kick off the partnership, Comcast gave away brand new Samsung laptops to 30 children who attended the ad, who giggled, smiled and grumbled in between when they heard the news.

South Side YMCA Executive Director Kenequia Howell said that prior to Comcast’s announcement, Internet service at the facility was problematic and difficult to navigate on their older computers.

“The Internet worked best in one place in the entire building, which is near the pool,” Howell said.

Now YMCA visitors of all ages can use a technology center with 10 new desktop computers and the fastest Wi-Fi in the building, Howell said.

Wilson-Scott says having access to the Internet is not enough. That’s where digital browsers come in.

“In our research earlier this year, we know that when a senior citizen has a digital navigator to help them connect, that person can now access other resources and people can attend job training or get hired,” she said.

The study, published with the Boston Consulting Group, found that about 20% of Americans — mostly people of color and in low-income communities — don’t have Internet access at home. Digital sensors, when deployed in these communities, can help inform people about Wi-Fi options available to low-income residents.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made digital access essential by multiplying the number of services that are now only available online, Wilson-Scott said.

“If you’re not connected, you’re cut off from a lot of things,” she said.

Howell said she hopes the addition of the tech center and the Comcast partnership will help the South Side YMCA become more of a community hub.

“Here at the South Side Y, our goal is to make everyone who walks through the doors feel like they’ve stepped into another dimension of their home,” Howell said. “Welcome home.”