Now recording now, where's the caption? Show caption said. Okay. All righty. Good afternoon, everybody. Good to see you all here today. So to get started today, we got a couple of interesting things today. First of all, anybody new besides Allison, who we're going to hear from a little bit later? Anybody else who's new today? Going once, going twice. Okay. So let's see, just a reminder that after the meeting for anybody who's interested, we do do kibitzing with colleagues. It's just basically an informal gathering. We stopped the recording, and anybody who wants to stay online, to share some information to ask questions, get some help, or whatever. It could be two people, it could be 10 people, it could be five minutes, it could be an hour or so. It just kind of depends. Okay, with that? Let's move on. Nicole, I'm glad you're here today. I don't know if Cindy's gonna make it or not. You want to give us an update on what's happening, please? Sure. Is Cindy here? I don't think so. I haven't seen her. Okay, um,
well remind me to talk about the listening sessions. And then if Cindy does jump in, then she can she can go over those. But I think it's been a little while since we all had we're all able to focus on some of the major deliverables for the broadband office. So the Arizona Commerce Authority, which is where the broadband obviously is, is the recipient of these two grant funds. So I wanted this group to have a sense of those deliverables, because a lot of discussion about plans and challenge processes and proposals and what's the dates and when is it all happening. So just just really quickly with the B program, that's the broadband equity access and deployment program. The state has their planning funds for that, and they've selected their contractor in their beginning network. Their five year broadband plan is due August 28 of this year. That's one piece that they have to deliver with these planning funds. The they also have to do form locations with tribal nations, that's actually happening this Friday. Another piece is the state's mapping challenge process. So this is how the state intends it's their methodology for how they're going to run their states availability challenge that I'm not sure when the broadband office plans to submit that, but they're able to submit it as early as June 30, which is the notice of the award funding. And then finally, the fourth piece for bead is the initial proposal. That's a pretty key document, and it's heavily reviewed. And there's a formal, formal comment period. And this is the initial proposal. That's December 27. But that date is also based on the Notice of Funding Availability on June 30. For digital equity, really, the deliverable here is the state digital equity plan. As it stands now, Arizona's plan is due September 30, of 2023. So we'll be looking at drafts of that plan sometime in August so that there's enough time for public comment and review. And then that gets submitted to NTA. So those are some of the just the broad timeline that we have for this. Another piece that the state has to has to do is all the engagement and making sure everybody's represented in this process. And there's input that there's, you know, especially around the sub grant program, as well as these capacity programs. So finally, the I know Steven, your emails out the meetings for the monthly community table while they're calling it the Arizona internet for all community table, which is a monthly virtual meeting for the broadband office to give updates to everybody as well as to have some discussion around a few topics that they will be rolling out. So that first session is actually tomorrow. I think In the meeting notes for this meeting, there's links to the Commerce web page where you can register for that.
Nicole, do you know are each of those going to be different? Are they going to just be the same? repeated over and over?
Different? So different? Different themes, different examples highlighted around around a different topic? This first one should be more introductions.
Anything else? Nicole?
Nikolas, do you have anything else?
That's it for me. Unless there's other questions. Okay.
Well, hopefully one of these days, we'll get Sandip here. And Cindy, that I did talk with Sandip, and would like to schedule a meeting with him and representatives from this group with them. And you and Cindy and folks from Digital Equity Institute and so forth, digital Inclusion Institute, to really have a clear understanding. I appreciate you giving us a quickie overview. But would like to get more detail, and particularly how we can best intersect with all the planning and, and work that's going on. So hopefully we'll get that done in the next few weeks. Although Sandy posole sent so hard to catch. But anyway, that's the plan. Okay, any questions?
Let me know how I can help.
Sounds good. Any questions for Nicole? They take it out to be a no. So moving on. See? There's Elena here today. I don't see her either. Anybody want to do a quickie update? Who may have attended the reach out the FCC chair woman's visit to Phoenix and the train the trainer session.
Marlon and I were both there we can. Do you want to start Mala?
Well, you can use you get started. And I'll join you.
Okay, sounds good. Um, so it was wonderful. First of all, there were about 80 people at the the I press conference portion, which is what kicked off the morning. And then after the press conference, there was a train the trainer event where the FCC went over the ACP process and information that kind of a high level. And what was it about 70 people I think stayed for that. So that was pretty wonderful. And those are, those are folks who are essentially now digital navigators helping their community navigate that process, we were able to share some information about the other established groups of digital navigators from the digital equity Institute, as well as connect Arizona through the State Library, and the resources that we offer as well. And overall, it was a really wonderful day, you know, so it was very upbeat, very positive, very, you know, lots of great questions from the, the training session. And Marla, would you like to add anything?
Yeah. You know, basically, I expected that there would be walk through the application process, because one of the things that Lyle was saying was that ha how, how much shorter it could be if you knew what you were doing. Typically, when I have done the sessions that used to take anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes, sometimes even longer. But he was saying, we would, we could do it in 15 to 20 minutes. So I was hoping that I would see that we didn't really have that kind of session. But they did go through in detail how what the system would look like. In fact, there were questions from people, what would we do if the if the only person who qualified in that household was a child, but the bills were coming in the name of the parents, you know that that is typical question, because if the child is on the school nutrition program, they are eligible. But of course, the billing will not come in the child's name. What would we do if they were not undocumented immigrants? Those are the kinds of questions that they raised. and those are, you know, typically what we would find they're really, you know, in a situation like that. So they did answer those questions, what about household income and things like that. So basically, it was, it was a good, it was an interesting session for a newbie, or for someone who has not done this before. But those of us who have been doing this for a while we were looking for, I think, at least I was looking for nuggets of things that we encountered, and that didn't happen.
So now, Oops, hold on just a second, please. Okay, sorry about that. So I'm on while we're at it, while we're talking about this. And I also have it on the page here, that the FCC has launched a new application landing page, that's supposed to be easier for people to sign up, you have any comments about that you are ever in or anybody else on the call?
Basically, that page, actually, the thing that it's useful for is that you can look at it in advance and come prepared with the documents that you need to sign up. That's really helpful. Because when you're sitting there to sign up, and if you don't have all those documents with you, then you're going to end up with oh, okay, let me go back and get those and we'll start it start on the session some of the time, you know, kind of thing, it's a waste of time. But we, I know, in the flyers that we put out, we're saying bring documents that show blah, blah, blah, you know, so hopefully, they pay attention to that. And they bring those documents, if they're coming to the library to sign up. If they're signing up at home or anywhere else, if they're signing up to their phones, they, of course, can stop and start and do whatever they need to do. It is a useful landing page, though.
And one more note on that. That's actually one of the reasons why there was a slight delay in getting the printed materials that we had requested from the FCC that was being sent directly to our libraries, because that changeover happened. And so a few boxes had already been printed and shipped. But the majority of our libraries will be getting the flyers that have the new website, which both of course links to the same spot. So it won't be an issue. But just to follow up on the printing that we have requested as well. That's that was what the delay was so.
So Aaron, you have new fires also. Connect Arizona website. Is that correct?
Yes. We've updated all of our flyers on the principal on demand flyers and all the information on the connectors on our website has been updated to reflect the new website as
well. Their English and Spanish if I'm not mistaken, everything is English and Spanish. Yes. Okay.
And they do have it available in 19 other languages, they said.
Okay, anything more about that? So, so moving on. And again, Aaron Amala, put you on the spot again. Do you want to give us a recap of the healthcare and Transportation Technology Summit?
I did not physically attend that session. Janet did.
Yeah. Janet was all three of us for the morning. It was pretty fantastic. I hear she was sitting there with our name tags above her head like pretending to be each of us, depending on what was going on. I did I did get over there after the FCC event. And the second portion of the day there were was breakout sessions.
I'm sorry. Can you just give a recap of what the event was?
Yes. So this was a kind of a conversation workshop. They called it convened by Nate cog. So the Northern Arizona government. Thank you, counsel. I forgot what the fee ones. Oh, goodness. Anyway, they had received grant funding around conversations of the intersection of health care and transportation. And so they were convening people who had you know, had a stake in that in that game. And so it was held at the Maricopa Association of Governments offices in Phoenix and brought together people from libraries. People like Janet who work in Tala Hall. Lots of different folks. Some of our friends from this call were there as well. And so the second portion of the day, I think the beginning was mostly what organizations you're from and how you play into it. That we weren't there for that part. But then in the afternoon, they had a break count sessions, where there were kind of smaller conversations about how some groups could continue to work together. The one I sat in on, talked a lot about libraries being telehealth access points. And we talked a lot about, you know, the programs that were already happening that Malia and Janet had spearheaded with the kits in the libraries, with the materials needed to, you know, take data points and whatnot for your telehealth visits. And then we also talked about how even though there are libraries all over the place, getting to libraries is so sometimes prohibitive due to, you know, transportation and distance and all of that. And so we also kind of talked through other opportunities like mobile telehealth stations being built into buses, for example, and things like that, that could go directly to a person who needed the services and an offer them directly. We also talked a lot about how the drivers could be digital navigators or digital health navigators to help people through that process. You know, even if it's just getting them connected via the iPad, when they you know, come with their with their bus right, then that's, that's digital navigation. And so we talked a lot about that. Lots of the resources that Janet has shared in the space around the access points and those maps that she has shared, as well as the library maps and the public availability of Wi Fi maps, all of that came up in the conversation that I was in as well. And just to follow up, just so you know what the link is that I dropped in the chat. That's the folder that has the connectors on a digital navigators promotional information. That's why that's there from our previous conversation. Um, let's see. So the only other thing for the NIC hug event is that they do plan to have at least one more conversation like that. So if you're interested, Todd Morris, who has been in this group, and presented would be the point of contact for being involved with that, but they don't have it on the schedule, yet. They're they're hoping to eventually come out with a deliverable plan with options that you know, that the group comes up with around how to better present or how to better deliver telehealth.
So great, thank you, Aaron. So we've all known that transportation is an issue, but hadn't really talked about it a lot. And this certainly kind of brought another dimension to the challenges on the issues of digital and digital inclusion. So I think it was great. And I know, Todd was very interested in continuing to have some dialogue and collaboration with those of you who are participating in the task force.
And one of the conversations we had with that I had with Todd, you know, although he said this was a transportation meeting, they really want to avoid transporting people long distance, you know, an hour up and down to their hospital or healthcare facility, they would rather take them to the nearest library, which probably could be at the most 15 minutes away. And the more important thing is that the caregiver himself himself or herself, is they are the ones that need health care, they oftentimes cannot get out of their homes, because they're taking care of little kids or taking care of someone else at home. If they bring them to the library, then it is much easier because they're in a safe environment, the light in the library that kids can do whatever they need to do, you know, there are programs in the library or if there is something that they can read or do while the parent or grandparent or whoever needs health care and is being taken care of, you know, using telehealth. So the library, the transporting to him to the library seemed like the best option for the Department of Transportation working on this.
Great thank you, Mama, actually AARP is is pushing some national legislation to support caregivers. And it might be interesting to take a look at that legislation and perhaps connect with ARB. And to make sure that this is an issue that gets included with the challenges and issues of being a caregiver. Okay, anything else? Any questions for Aaron? Oh, Are mama. Okay, so moving on. So Aaron looks like you're up again, do you want to give us the latest update on what I think you may already have kind of done this about what's happening with the ACP and sign up campaigns. So the ACP part
yes. Just recap on the access and Kids Care Benefits webinar, as well, that is coming up in just over two weeks. We're hosting Alan Smith from the Arizona or Premier and Children's Alliance action alliance to provide resources to library staff specifically, so they can better answer questions of folks who come in around the fact that as we know, in early April, the continuous enrollment ended for Medicaid and for access. And so a lot of folks are now you know, getting into that space where they realize that their benefits have ended. And so we're providing some information and resources related to that process of re enrollment and re verification. If anyone is interested in the link, or sharing it out to anyone who might like to attend, I just dropped the registration link from our event on on the State Library's website. And so it is geared towards, you know, people who are going to be that point of contact for information. So I won't go into, you know, really deep detail, but it'll provide the resources that can be passed along.
Thank you. Couple of one or two other quick things, and then want to get to our presentation for today. So, Lupe, I see you and Robert are online. I don't know if any of the other grant recipients are online today. Any changes that has gotten any more information from the feds? Not at the moment,
but we're on our end, like I had mentioned, we're kind of doing our due diligence. So the moment they let us know that we got the NRA and it's kind of coming through, we already have it kind of set aside for the positions ready to hire. We are promoting and kind of sharing people letting people know if they know anybody to let us know. And we're ready to hit the ground running. So we're just waiting for that so we can move forward. So we are knocking on wood.
This is a wood table, I'm going to take a rubber, this is we hereby this week are no later than next week. So go ahead and get that going on our end.
So hurry up and wait.
So this what is it looks like it's a pure oak wood.
Robert, did you want to add anything? Are we pretty much? No. Okay. does a good job.
Yeah, Lupe is she's his main job. She's He's our lead. She's now taking our digital equity and running with it. So she's doing an amazing job. So yeah, we're just now trying to get all our states set up. And she's done a good job of getting all our events and all that going. So
moving along. Good. Okay, I don't think any of the other representatives with those other grants are here today. So we'll just move on. So with all of that, are there any other updates before we get to? Well, we excuse me, we do have some other updates a little later today. But I want to go to our presentation this morning, or this afternoon, excuse me. And so I want to introduce Allison Katarski , is that correct? Allison? That's correct. So Allison is with an organization called Compudopt with that I had never heard of until I got the invitation to attend their, their event in Mesa. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Allison to tell us about who copied up, stop this and the event that they've got coming up and all that kind of good stuff. Alison, did you have anything you want to share a PowerPoint or anything?
I don't I I'm happy to but I've got everything kind of in my head. So I roll through and if everybody's good with that. Yeah, thank you first for having me. I really appreciate it. And on very short notice. And as Steve mentioned, we are we have been hitting him from all sides, trying to get some, some support. So we are a nonprofit that was started in 2007 in Houston by a gentleman by the name of John Osho, who was a IP lawyer and saw that in his in his law firm, he was watching his IT staff come in and refresh their computers every you know, two years or so. And, and he said well what happens to those computers when you you know, when we when we get rid of them and they say well, we you know, I don't know the ones that can be used will will keep on a shelf for a little while and those that can't we'll we'll just go To basically throw away right and and what he saw was there was a lot of utility left in those devices and started a nonprofit to recondition those devices, and then get them back out into the hands of community members that didn't have computers. So that's how we started. At the end of 2019, our board said, you know, we've been doing this for quite some time in Houston and Galveston, but we think that we can take it national. So let's do this. And so we put together a fairly modest growth plan to to become national starting in January of 2020. And as we all know, in March of 2020, COVID hit and when COVID hit kind of the our whole mission, and what we do every day was highlighted through the lack of access to computers for students with e learning and for individuals needing computers to navigate just about every every
everything, right.
So what what was a very much growth plan quickly scaled, and we began serving all over the country through doing device distributions. So in 2020, we distributed 21,000 devices across the country. And we've continued to to keep that pace in the last couple of years. We are a full digital equity solution, right? We provide digital, we provide access to computers, we provide technology education, we provide digital literacy programs and connectivity. And I'm going to speak to all of those momentarily. I did see somebody gave a shout out to AZ stret. And they are actually a an a partner of ours in Mesa. So we are working with AZ strat to help us recondition the computers that we have, that we're going to be giving out in Mesa. So over the last couple of years, we've expanded to 39 cities and 19 or 40 cities now sorry, we just added one last week, and in 19 different states. Mesa is our newest city that we are launching with a brick and mortar site. So we received at the end of 2021, a very large gift from Santander Consumer USA who is it's a Spanish bank, but they have a big office in Dallas, they've got an office in Mesa, and they're interested in in bringing our digital equity solution to the Mesa area. And so over the next two years within Mesa, we will be distributing 7500 computers, at no cost to community members be helping to connect 10,000 households to to the internet, providing digital literacy skill building classes for 24,000 Plus individuals, and providing our technology education programs to 300 students all through the gift from Santander. Our goal is to is to stay in Mesa longterm, which is why we're investing in finding a brick and mortar location that will be officing out of and we're hiring some staff people from from the Mesa area. So just to give you a kind of a quick rundown of those four pillars that I touched on. So device access, we, as I mentioned, we reconditioned the computers that we receive, sometimes some are donated to us and others we go out we purchase them through computer refreshers, like AC stret, who is again, our nonprofit partner out there. And we recondition those devices, and we get them out to individuals who do not own the computer in their home. So we are firm believers that, that the individuals need access to computers in their home. Right. And I heard from from all and from Aaron about all of the good work with the library is doing and you've got people coming into the library and attending telehealth and, and finding different different avenues for them. And I think that's amazing. We, we love to partner with libraries. And I've done so in many different cities that particularly for education programs, the only qualifier for our for our services is for a household to be at 200% of the poverty line or below. That's it right. And and to not own the computer in their home. We give them the computer free of charge. There's a two year warranty attached to it right so we if anything happens with the computer, we'll replace it or we'll repair it or replace it for two years that also comes with two years of free support. Our technology education programs are geared for K through 12th grade, and we're currently working on a workforce development program as well. The technology education programs that we offer in in most of the time are offered alongside community partners like libraries, community centers, YMCAs churches, where we come into the location that has students and we In the staff, we bring the materials, we bring the curriculum, and we teach students, it's about a 25 hour program, each one of those, and they're designed to create a sense of curiosity around technology allow students to understand that technology isn't something to be scared of, and that they can, they can do it just the same as anybody else. Right. We also believe that through these technology education programs that we're offering, as, as well as through our device access program, that students are able to foster a social and emotional connection that otherwise they might not be able to by having a computer and understanding technology and the way that they're their peers in school, right. So one of the things that we often hear from students is our youth that receive our computers is that they're so excited, because now they'll be able to play Roblox with their friends and understand what it is. So, so it's super exciting for us, our technology programs are broken down into elementary, middle and high school. And again, just to give you an idea, kind of how they're structured. So our early adopters program is our elementary school program. And we it's called admission, innovation, all of our all of our programs are themed, they're project based. So we turn the kids into astronauts and the astronauts, so it could be first day of class, they get a golden envelope, kind of like Willy Wonka, right, and they open their envelope, and inside is that old school madlib and they fill out the madlib and then that kind of directs their quest. So if I were filling it out, I might I might say, Steve, and Alison, we're on a rocket ship to Mars, and on the way to Mars, they passed a purple planet with pink marshmallows floating around it. And then we teach them how to code using augmented reality, this purple planet with pink marshmallows, and then they take a merge cube, which is like, I should have one on my desk. But it's a six sided foam dice, that when they hold it up to the camera on the laptop, they see in augmented reality, the purple planet with pink marshmallows floating around it, right. And it's kind of this mind blown moment where they see the technology isn't necessarily always always, you know, on, you know, typing on it on a keyboard, right, but that they can see it. We tie all of these things back to to workforce development and career pathways, right. So I'm sure you guys are have seen the the research around, you know, students as young as you know, five years old when they're introduced to different careers, it can set them on a trajectory, much different than if they had never been made aware of the careers in the past. And you see that oftentimes with you know, got local schools and daycares, bringing in dentists and bringing in doctors to talk about careers. And so we do that, but through technology. Our digital literacy skill builder programs are geared towards anybody that is helping to support the student. So we understand that many of the households that we suffer intergenerational, right, you've got grandparents living with parents and younger students. And everybody's working together in support of that student. So our our digital literacy skill builder classes cover everything from building a resume to creating an email address, to understanding how to search on the web, to setting up an online bank account, or attending a telehealth appointment. Right, so they're broken down into modules. So we felt like tech for life tech for business, we've got just general, we've got Internet safety, right, all of those different things. And all of our digital literacy classes can be accessed via our website, or they can be when we give our computers out, we also give a USB stick that has the digital literacy programs on it as well so that the individual doesn't need to have internet connectivity to be able to access those classes. And then our last pillar, if you will, of our of our four offerings, is connectivity. As I mentioned with it through the gift from Santander we are committed to helping to connect to 10,000 households in Mesa, and I failed to mention backup. So Mesa is one of five cities that we will be doing this or that we are doing this work in for this this gift. So the first city that we that we started in is Dallas, followed quickly by Atlanta. And now Mesa is our third. And so through connectivity, we are doing two different things. We have partnered with the city of Mesa, and Motorola to be able to connect via our own network households that are within a certain service area. And we're doing that through with help of Motorola. Those individuals that are in that service area that meet the criteria again at 200% of the poverty line or below and they have access to the Internet for free on our internet, and the speeds that we're promising are 50 At least 50. Meg's down, a 10. Meg's up. And then we're also helping to connect households that might not be in our in our network, but need internet because they're either under connected or not connected, we help them get connected through ACP. So all of all of our staff are in the process. Some of our staff are already, quote unquote, certified in ACP. So we've partnered with education superhighway folks who have created a certification for enrolling individuals in ACP that helps those that are helping families get connected, navigate the ACP program.
Yeah. Yes, that's a great question Ryan and I'll share so so with the ACP, we help them get connected to the major American major carrier that is, that is the with a plan that's conducive for them with our own network. We are doing it again, with Motorola, we've got towers, I think there's 21 different towers in all throughout Mesa right now. And we're looking to continue to build some more that using LTE technology where we send out the signal, we get them connected with CPS, and they've got then the connectivity at their home are part of the ACP program in ACP outreach rather includes our comprehensive support center, which is a support center that's open right now nine to six Central time. But we are Monday through Friday, and then Saturday, nine to two, we're working on revamping some of those hours as we was we do go into Mesa, because the time difference is a little bit different for us. And the call center, our Support Center staff is trained on tech support, as well as ACP outreach, getting people connected. They can answer any question about, you know, how to do something on someone's computer, how to access a microphone, how to get on Zoom, all of that type of thing. But then additionally, we have a community portal as part of our service offering where if an individual calls into our Support Center and says, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm wondering, I just moved into this area, and I, I need, you know, I need housing support, or I need food support, or I need something like that our community portal can help that individual, as well. So I say all that to just give you an overview of who we are. And then but but my main point of being here today was to share with you that we are entering into the Mesa market. And and we are diligently working to find community advocates and those that can share the word that were coming, Mesa. Not surprisingly, when people hear that, we'd like to give you a free computer, right, we've we've got a bunch of laptops, and we'd like to give them to you for free. There is a general sometimes distrust of that. Many people think that we're a scam. And so it really helps to have individuals that are part of the community already and trusted within the community be able to say, Yeah, I know, you know, coffee shop does a legit thing, right? They, they do provide technology access and education, right? They do hand out free computers, it's not a scam. It is free. They do provide a warranty and all of that good stuff. So first and foremost. If you can just know that if you see anybody and talk to anybody, and they say, Oh, I just got this weird. You know, I got a weird text message. Somebody says I want a computer as a 200% below the poverty line. Are 200% above the poverty line. I'm sorry. We go off of Alice, which is asset limited income constrained, employed, right. So 200% of the poverty line or below, right, which equates nowadays about $60,000 for a household before that anybody that has annual household income of $60,000, or or lower right. And family of four would absolutely be eligible to receive advice.
At all.
Sorry, I was just reading Mala's I didn't want to miss this question.
And
let's see. What about
households that have computer devices that are out of date and not working? Yeah, absolutely. Anybody, anybody that does not have a working computer in their home, or does not own a working computer. So one of the things that we make the distinction with is that we do not count, work based school based devices as having a computer in your home, right because one day you're going to have to give those computers back at the end of the school. Are the kids after school, or at the end of you know, if someone, you know, unfortunately loses their job or decides to change jobs, they may lose that computer. In addition, those computers oftentimes come with some restrictions, right. So sometimes there's some difficulty getting into zoom, you know, to zoom meetings where there's websites that an individual can access by day of speaking with a mom the other day, who was find it to do some job search and make some police have applications for a job. And she kept getting blocked, because whatever whatever software was on the computer that she had received, was prohibiting that particular website. So again, we believe that we, we believe that device ownership is key to economic mobility, and being able to transact in today's digital world. And so we're coming to Mesa to try to help the community members that are that are there to to get some, some additional access. We do have a an event coming up next Wednesday, the 24th, it will be held at at the Santander corporate offices, we're going to be doing a computer distribution got 150 computers to give out that will you know, quote unquote, launch us there. So 150 computers to distribute again, they're free, no cost, they come to us for free tech support. And then we're also going to be doing kind of a little Meet and Greet afterwards. So we would love anybody that's in the area. To come out. I can send Steve the invitation with the with the information. And Steve, if you could be surprised to share it out with the group. We'd love to have every any and everybody come out and and get to know us and get to know what you know what we see firsthand what we do. There's really nothing more rewarding than handing a computer to a kid who's never had one. And their eyes just kind of light up. And then I do see this last. So Andy, thank you for that. I will absolutely get this information and see if I can get connected with you. Yeah. So I'm going to pause there because I feel like I've been talking for a really long time. And I'm usually the one that likes to sit in the back. Quiet. So what questions do you all have of me? Or how can I? What can I? What can I answer for you?
First gotta have questions.
Allison, this is my last couple of questions for you. One is there are a lot of folks that we from the library give out computers too, but they're on loan. They don't own them. So would they qualify for a laptop? And the second question is, what proof Are you looking for for poverty? You know, is it school lunch program? Is it you know, the household income or what?
Yeah, great question. Thank you. So, so to answer your your first question again, yes, absolutely. If if individuals that have computers on loan from the library, the absolutely, they're absolutely eligible. And if they're, if they're chosen to receive a laptop, then then they can return went to the library, and that one at the library can go to somebody else that needs it, right? All of our, all of our distributions are done as a lottery, right, there's no guarantee that someone's going to receive it. But what we do is on our website, that is location specific. Individuals will fill it out. And then we will randomly select the number of people that we have computers ready for. So if we've got 100 computers in inventory, we will pick 100 names, send them a text message, say, hey, you've been selected to receive or this is the date and time of the event come on out. And we'll give you your computer. Your second question as to how do we know or how do they qualify? So filling out that form? We do ask for individuals to fill out their household income it is self reported, we do not do any you don't have to supply any tax information. We don't we do not care about documentation or status or immigration status. Right. We don't ask for any of those types of documents. We're just asking, do you on the computer at home? And and what is your household income? And as long as those two things fit our criteria, which again to understand the poverty line or below, and you don't own the computer in your home, then you are eligible.
So Alison, when we talked, I was asking about obviously you're starting now in Mesa, but how can people take advantage who are in other parts of the state?
Thank you. That's great question. A couple of different ways, right? As I shared we've got our Support Center, which which supports are now national efforts, right. So all all 50 states, we support and and so anybody that is located outside of Mesa, they can absolutely feel free to use our, to use our Support Center, we would love to help get individuals connected to ACP, or through to the internet through ACP. So if they're, you know, maybe you're in an area, and there's not a whole lot of maybe digital navigators, or there aren't enough people or
time for people
to help individuals get get connected to ACP, you can certainly share and I can share our phone number out as well certainly share our Support Center. And we are happy to get them connected through ACP and walk them through the process. We also, we're always looking for partners in other areas, even though we're we're about to come to me. So right now, oftentimes, we do have funders that contact us and say, Hey, I'd like to do some work here, or I'd like to do some work here. Can you help support us in those efforts? And so I know that Phoenix is very close to Mesa, but we were in Phoenix with a different funder funding partner, just earlier this year. So there's always opportunity to get connected with us. And and we will absolutely come where we can serve.
So what about the literacy digital literacy?
Sorry, Steve, I know you have to work hard today outside, it's I guess I'm not on my I'm not on my game here. I needed I guess, another cup of coffee today. Our digital literacy skill builder classes are available. As I mentioned off of our website, we also have them into USB form, for those that aren't connected to the Internet or need something maybe more stable, because they're connected to be maybe a spotty in the area in which they live. And so we can support partners through ACR through the digital literacy skill building classes. As I mentioned, we, they're online, but we also offer them on Zoom. And if we've got a big enough group that it makes sense, we can, we can also offer them in person as well. There, there are five different modules, we usually deliver. We usually break them up into you know, every single module is a different core or different class if we do it in person, but up but we can certainly work with our partners to be able to do that. We're also happy looking to train the trainer model with our curriculum as well.
So Alison, I might just toss this out there, besides your event coming up in Mesa, that maybe you want to have a nother gathering with some of our folks and others that are out there to really have a discussion about how they best collaborate and partner with you.
Yeah, I would, I would love that I'd welcome any and all conversations. As I shared, I'm looking to make a hire in in Mesa within the next couple of weeks. And, and then once we have that higher and a location, it'll make it much easier to be able to connect with individuals. But um, but I would love to have a conversation with anybody. In regards to how we can partner our goal, our only goal is to serve as as many people as possible, we'd ultimately like to put ourselves out of business. As I'm sure we all would right closing the digital divide. And, yeah, we're happy to partner in whatever way shape or form that feels. It feels right for the partner. There are a couple more questions if I could just real quickly just to answer these wondering about an operating system. So when we recondition the devices, we typically put Linux Lubuntu on them. Bun two is I'm sure you guys know this, but it is a an open source operating system with no known viruses very safe for students and families. And it looks very much like Microsoft. There's for processing and in spreadsheets and things that we put on that as well as anything that a student needs to be able to discuss learning for the devices that we end up getting from Reek reconditioned from reconditioning partners. We do put Microsoft on those devices. We are able to use a citizenship licenses for that. Do they have to be residents of Mesa if we have an event in Mesa or anybody apply? So anybody could apply but we do. We do give priority to those that are closest right so like so for this mate in particular for Mesa we would be putting anybody that's in Mesa. However, we've also as I mentioned, have some events going on in Phoenix as well. So I would encourage any any and everybody to put their name on the list and then we will pulled from that list as we have plans to go to other areas. And I will absolutely put my information in. Oh, somebody did. Thank you. Yeah. And then yes, we would love to come to a conference. Yes, absolutely. Looking on it right now.
Hey, what other questions? Okay, if there's no questions, and I think we're done for for that. Thank you, Alison, great to hear about what you're doing. And I'm sure there's folks here, we're gonna want to be able to partner and connect with you.
Yeah, I would love that. I will. As I shared, I'll send the invitation for the invite over your way. And I will be out in Mesa, next Tuesday and Wednesday. So we'd love to see everybody, anybody there. And and I'll also send along my contact information. Welcome.
Allison did I remember that the invitation was a PDF. It has a PDF. So I would suggest that you put it into the chat and download it because that's the fastest way with the time coming up pretty quickly. The fastest way for people to be able to get it, and I'll be sending it out also, but the quickest way is for it to put it in the chat today. And people can download it today. And then I'll also send out additional information.
Right. Oh, I just said so I love I love Fast and Furious. Okay, just sent this. Just to Rory though. So hold on. I'm gonna send it again. Yeah, perfect.
Okay, any other questions for Alison? Okay, well, thanks, Alison.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys time. You bet.
So I want to circle back I saw Cindy has joined us. Hey, Cindy. Hello. So do you have a good vacation?
I did. I did.
So you were in Europe or someplace like that. It's
funny. She was talking about a Spanish bank. And I just spent two weeks in in Spain, and I saw Santander banks all over the place. So
cool. Yeah. Funny. So are you just back this week? Yes. Yep. Today's you're probably catching up. But you have any things that Nicole gave us a quickie rundown. But do you have any things that you want to talk to us about?
What's the colon earlier today? Yes. Oh, wow. I thought it was only two minutes late. Um, I'll just say I'll just say what what i Our office has going on. Tomorrow we start is our kickoff, monthly table conversation where I'm trying to get. Basically, we're trying to hold open office hours for the state broadband office once a week. And I should say I'm Cindy Hogan. I'm the digital equity program manager for the state broadband office out of the Arizona commerce authority. And so we're what we're trying to do is it's a big state, we want to talk we want to have two way conversations with with everybody that we can, it seemed easiest to to start up a monthly conversation that people can attend. And so the first one is tomorrow, I will put the address for the webpage where you can register in the chat. I know I believe, Steve, you and probably most of the most of the people on the call received invitations, but if not, I'll put that
there. And I did send it out also Sandy.
Excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah, so we just we just want as much conversation going on about the digital equity plan as we can possibly have reaching all kinds of people, all kinds of organizations. So please join us for that.
San Diego's virtual, yes, they're all virtual.
Yep. And that sorry, yeah, just because there's, there's no way we can cross the state as many times as we would like to. But the other thing that we're doing is we're setting up listening a listening tour, we're going to go to at least 15 different spots, physically across the state and have we're going to hold to two types of listening sessions. One will be for community members, the other will be for community organizations and local governments and anybody, get agencies that sort of thing. So we're getting, we're getting to hear the lived experience, we're also getting to hear the experience of people that are working with with people trying to get people connected. So we're going to get all that kind of and they're going to be surveys as part of that as part of that tour. So we hope and we're also they're still working on the survey. The the surveys that they want to use To collect data for the state. And once those are out, we're going to want to spread those far and wide. So there'll be there'll be available to everyone in this group and, and for everybody to pass around to the people that they want to be included in this effort. I will also save for this, these monthly calls, I would love it if people, people who are attending will reach out to people that they know and other parts of the state outside their own locale because again, we want to, we really want to cover the state. And I think that's about all I have for now.
So Cindy, when Nicole was on, she was saying that those sessions are going to be different each week. They're not going to be the same. And so is there a possibility on your website and are sharing with us or others about what the topics are going to be for each one, so that people will know what the topic is gonna be for each of those sessions?
So you mean monthly? Not weekly, monthly? I'm
sorry. Okay. Yeah,
yeah, we're gonna try to do that. i We, Nicole, and I were jamming trying to figure out if we could get a an agenda done today. And I don't think we will be for the meeting tomorrow. But yes, that's the intent is to be sure that, that we get the topics out. So yes, people can can choose the sessions they want to attend.
Thank you. So, Cindy, is there anything else in regard to the broadband office that you want to share?
That I'm not at this time? Not on my first day back?
What the can't be very much happening, right. Okay, well, thanks, Andy. Appreciate it.
I missed it. Are you? Did you say you're going to record and post virtual sessions?
I don't,
I haven't really gotten clarity on that just yet. I their public. And I'm just want to be really careful about how we, how we I want people to be able to freely speak freely and everybody to be comfortable. I think I think I need to have one more conversation before we decide on that. So I have to be determined.
Okay, thank you. Okay, anything else for Cindy? If not, John, are you still online? Kelly? Okay, that's not. All righty. So moving on. Mama, do you have anything else regarding E Rate and libraries?
Not really, we, like I said last time, I think I mentioned at the ATI C meeting that we got about 35 million back for from ERate. For our application this year. We this is just within the first two waves. And we are I mean, that's much more than we got any time in these last 20 plus years that it has been in existence, so hoping that they're actually reviewing fast and giving us our funding commitments faster this year.
So
yeah, and we crossed the 400,000. Mark with the ACP enrollment. We are at 406,000. Now, households that have signed up for ACP.
Anything else? No. Thank you, back to you. Okay. Anything else with a telehealth and libraries project?
We're still working on our first tribal event, which is going to be at Tuba City. Coming up next month, actually. So once once I have more concrete updates, I'll share it with you. Probably the next sbsm. Meeting.
Dave? Yeah, Mark, Mark. And so I did see an odd news blurb that was telehealth related that the governor signed a bill enabling veterinary telehealth for your pets. And so I hadn't seen that while it was in development. Surprise me, but apparently, a bill was signed for that. And you asked for John. He had put in the chat that he had to jump or I just saw that. But he did post a link to the JL BC breakdown of the governor's budget. And just to recap, and you reported on it in your notes. Most recently there was 23 point 6 million I believe, for a approved for a new fund at Commerce that can provide matching funds for the upcoming bead grants. And mollah. I believe John confirmed to me in a meeting that the $5 million for ERate leveraging was in the sustained budget as well.
That's right. And that's right. And that is similar to what we got in 2017, we got 3 million and 8 million from Department of Ed, and this is my 5 million from the governor's office. So we're really excited about that. And hopefully we can do more middle mile with that fiber or fiber build out in those areas that really need it the most. And the pact, telemedicine was something new that even I hadn't, you know, seen any whispers. So I'm excited about it as well. Thank you for sharing that.
And that budget has been approved now, if I'm not mistaken. It's been to the Senate and the Governor, right? Yes. Okay, well, that's some good news. Hey, moving on. Aaron. Do you have anything else that you want to? I haven't had you speak at all today, but I know I feel like I haven't
said anything. But
you're so quiet. You have anything else Aaron that you want to talk about? No, thank you. Okay. Well, of course Janet's not here today. Phillip, I believe you are online. Want to give us a quick update? What's happening with Department of Ed? You still here? Yeah, I guess he's gone. Okay, Derek's not here, Rory. I think you're online. You want to give us anything new about the final mile project or anything else? He just had to leave as well. Okay. And I guess we're done for today. Anybody have any other information or announcements before we end for today? Oh, invite once going twice. Okay. Then I will end the call and if anybody wants to stay in Kibbutz for a little while. If not, we'll be done.