July 24, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

8:24PM Jul 25, 2025

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Paul Ross

Andy Ridley

Lucy Howell

Vaughn Croft

Megan Hammond

Marilyn Anderson

Bill D'Agostino

Michael Kendall

Matthew Roclevitch

Rachael Maddock-Hughes

Skye Downing

Amanda Abens

Keywords:

Digital access

broadband operations

workforce development

wireless infrastructure

spectrum issues

digital literacy

public networks

digital equity

community colleges

digital navigators

capacity building

digital inclusion

AI initiative

federal funding

state library.

Matt, okay, good morning, everybody. Glad to see you all here this morning. Let's start with, do we have anybody who's new joining us today? Matthew, it's been a while since you've been here. You just want to tell people who you are again, please?

Oh yes, absolutely. I'm Matt rocklevich, Senior Manager of broadband operations with Mission telecom. I presented to this audience, I think about a month ago, Steve, if that's that's accurate, and I actually made some really good connections here. I see Gordon's on the call right now. Randy involved me afterwards too. I think we've got a catch up we've got to do, but we're a non profit wireless broadband provider and grant making organization.

Great. Thanks. Matthew. Who else do we have that's new here this morning? Anybody I haven't been on before? Good morning, Amanda. I was just looking for you Sure.

So my name is Amanda Abens. I'm with Pima Community College. I serve as assistant vice chancellor for workforce development, and I'm joining today alongside my colleague, Sarah Jane,

great. Thanks, Amanda, glad you're glad you're here. I Okay, anybody else that's new that I missed this morning? Okay, if not, let's go ahead and get started here. So the agenda for today, we have actually two presentations, assuming guys sky shows up. Here is Bill the Augustino, who many of you know, Bill has been a pretty regular attendee at our meetings. Is a senior advisor on wireless infrastructure Association and talk to us a little bit about although, of course, we've heard from Bill before, but he can talk to us a little bit more about the association, but also some of the wireless and spectrum issues that have been floating around in Congress recently. And so we'll be hearing from him, and then sky Downing, who is the Deputy Director for digital lift. So look forward to hearing from from both of them, and so just a couple of quick things before we get started this morning. I don't know if I didn't just check. I don't know if anybody from the broadband office is here today. I don't know if they can. They can be public yet. Excuse me, so we probably won't hear from them. I'm sorry. Okay, so a couple of things real quickly. Lucy, Are you online? Lucy, how not here. Okay,

I am. Can you hear me? Oh, there you are. Lucy, good morning.

So you want to update on what's happening with the health project.

So this is an off week for us, as many of you may know, Steve and I are co hosting a Health and Education Task Force as an outreach of the ACBS and focus on making sure stakeholders are coming together and understanding the implications of digital connectivity outside of this kind of group, and so we're about eight, nine sessions in. We had our one last week. It was a small but mighty group, and we are landing on really being able to kind of deliver this monthly type of format that can reach families through partnerships with some school districts and then with possibly the libraries, so that we can kind of have a one to many type of reach out for education on the importance of digital literacy and connectivity. So that's kind of a big deal, because that helps us cross the box or tick the box of a lot of our objectives, which is, we'll be working with some rural schools. We're focused on the accessibility, and we are hopefully taking a pilot that we can scale within the libraries, so that we're a little bit more connected everybody you know, and understanding what we're doing. So that's where we're at now. The next meeting is at three o'clock next week, and it was designed to be a 10 week, 10 session type of pilot, and we've we're going to go ahead and expand it to to continue during the fall, and then we'll also have kind of a live broadcast that will kick off next month as well. So another kind of place to put some of our voices and get out there. So thanks for the opportunity. You caught me early, Steve, so I don't have the link ready, I will put it in. The chat for the next one, and then hopefully we can get that over on the azbs and page too, so that it can be easy, because a lot of people are like, where's that link? And so, so anyways, that's feel free. I will put my contact and the link in there, but next week, we are expecting a robust conversation with key leaders from the healthcare and key school district players. So if you haven't been around because it's summer, it's light and you want to get involved, you can come in at any time. So heads up for that link.

Thank you, Lucy, for all your work, for making this happen. Really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Okay, so just a couple of quick announcements, and then want to go ahead and and jump into the agenda. We have two people presenting this morning, and I want to make sure they have plenty of time. But I did want to announce that tentatively, a couple of days ago, I had a great meeting with Carlos Contreras, who many of you know, is the director of the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, and so I had a great conversation with him about where and how, what, how they're engaged with digital inclusion kinds of things, and also the governor's cabinet on workforce development and a lot of other kinds of issues. And so he basically said, so he is tentatively, I have to confirm with his assistant today, but we're looking at probably August the seventh for him to join us and I, and I kind of said that that's going to be both a presentation and discussion with him. He wanted to hear from us about what he thinks, but what we think. How do we address the ongoing issues about digital inclusion, and, of course, whatever term we want to use for that these days, but, but anyway, it'll be a great discussion. He's very enthusiastic about about meeting with us. So that's tentatively on the seventh and then I have started to work on our, our project on, excuse me, on public networks. What is a public network? How is it different from a municipal network? What's What's the pros and cons? How do you set one up, and all that sort of thing. And so I'm working on trying to get that, get that going here in the near future. So moving on. Do we have anybody from the broadband office? Kelly, are you here today? I can't see the list right now. I didn't think so. Okay, so moving on, Mala, are you on today?

Yes, I am. Hi, Mala, hi. Want

to give us some quick updates on what's happening, State Library and, of course, all the federal stuff that's happening,

as far as the State Library is concerned, we are still at status quo. So Anthony is here too if he wants to give any updates, but not much that I can say about what's happening right now. As far as the federal is concerned, there are lots of things, as you know, that are happening, and some of it is on hold right now, the Wi Fi on school busses, which is what we've been looking at for a while, is still on hold, you know. And in some ways, you know, I don't think any of the applications that have been put up sent out for E Rate, E Rate help for Wi Fi on school busses, they're all pending. None of them have been so far, you know, they they have not been looked at, or they're not going to be approved until FCC and Congress takes a decision on it. So that's where we are at, as far as Wi Fi on school busses. The the good news, of course, that I shared last time is that the USF funds is has been approved. I mean, at least that has not been disapproved. Let me put it that way, by the Supreme Court. So, you know, it's continuing to exist, and that is a good thing, so we can go ahead with all of the meetings to reform the USF contributions, and there, there are already groups that are working on it. Senator lubman group is working actively on reform, and let's see what comes of it. Of. Of that those meetings, that is the update I have so far. There's also, I don't know if you noticed that the Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved the fiscal year 2026, commerce justice, science related appropriations, which includes i, j, which is our bead, as well as de digital Equity Act. I'm just waiting to see what comes of it, because before they could go any further on it Congress has adjourned, or has been adjourned, and so we don't really know what, how that will move for the further forward, because then they would the next step would be to for NTIA, To create the NOFO, the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the digital Equity Act. But as of now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed, and I hope all of you are for the continuation of the digital Equity Act. So back to you. Steve, okay. Do you have anything, Anthony? I think I saw Anthony on the call. Megan is also there. Megan, I was

just going to say Megan's on the call, too. Megan, do you have anything else you want to add?

Good morning? No, I don't have anything to add today. Thanks. Okay, okay,

okay, thank you. Okay. Michael Kendall, I think I saw you on the call. Anything with the Department of Ed?

Yes. Michael Kendall, I am the I am broadband Project Manager for Arizona Department of Education, things have been relatively quiet in our office. My focus, our our focus has been on, you know, closing out last year's projects and and so

not a lot to share this week. Steve,

okay, thank you. Well, let's just jump, jump into our presentations discussions this morning. And Bill, let's start, start with you again. Bill is a senior advisor with the wireless infrastructure Association. Bill has been a regular attendee in our meetings. And Bill, I'm going to stop sharing them and turn it over to you. And I don't know if you have anything to share or not, but I'll leave it up to you.

I do. Thank you, Steve, let me. Let me share my desktop here.

How's that

perfect? Good?

Well, thank you, everybody and Steve, thank you. I appreciate the chance to just give you an update on who we are at wi a and what we do. My focus today is to just really touch on our priorities and some of our key focus areas in terms of workforce development. Steve also asked me to take a look at the big, beautiful bill that was just passed to see what implications that might have from an industry standpoint. So I do have one slide we'll talk about on that. So let me just jump right in at W, I A, we are the association that represents all of the companies who own, build and operate infrastructure in in the wireless space. And it's really broader than wireless, when you think about it, some of the companies that are members of our association would be very familiar names to you. You know the at and Ts, the ericksons of the world, the major tower owners, like American Tower and crown Castle, all the smaller tower owners, and then the whole ecosystem, if you will, of services Companies that provide all of the permitting, engineering, design and deployment for infrastructure across the nation. You know, we are very focused on workforce development and other

advocacy issues that are important. Important to the infrastructure development in the US. These are really our priorities. And if you look at each of the three of these, they they fit very neatly together. The first one is making sure that we have just consistent rules of the road for permitting, as many of you may know, who try to deploy infrastructure,

rules are all over the map, and they are not very predictable and or transparent in many places. And so w, I A, works at the local level. We work at the state level and the national level to advocate for the predictable and proportionate setting of rules for all of the permitting associated with deployment of infrastructure.

The second one is about spectrum. And you know spectrum, you hear it talked about in multiple ways, but really the simplest form that we like to think about is spectrum is the fuel that drives, that makes the engine go for infrastructure development. And as we've talked about on this call, there has been a delay in the deployment of or the rollout of additional spectrum for quite some time, part of that due to the fact that the FCC needed to have its auction authority restored, and that has recently happened. And the second reason is there, you know, NTIA needed to look at several bands where there were potential,

how do I want to say this, where there was additional spectrum that potentially could be auctioned off, and that was also delayed due to the the whole FCC not having auction authority. So, you know, we've supported that, and that has now been restored. And we are also working to support the legislation to identify new areas of spectrum that can be auctioned off, and I'll share that in in the final slide. And then the last point is when, when we look at what's important in terms of infrastructure development, WIA has been working to ensure that when we deploy infrastructure that it's on a technology neutral basis. And you know, as we all are probably familiar with, the bead program, prior to this recent change, was heavily, heavily weighted towards fiber deployment, which made it very difficult for the states to have enough money to go far enough to cover all of the underserved and unserved households. Because at some point fiber becomes a technology, although it's a great technology from a deployment standpoint, there's an inflection point where you the cost to deploy fiber is just prohibitive, and the interest in doing that, you know, wanes significantly. So we were promoting the technology neutral program, and we're happy to see now that that is what is going to be in place. And I think the states will be able to do a much better job of making, you know, the bead funds, stretching those to cover more of the unserved and underserved households. And then the last point here, under the, you know, invest, investment in broadband is all about closing the workforce gap. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in the next couple of slides. So we have sort of three pillars of our workforce solution. The first one is our tie wrap program, which is the telecommunications industry registered apprentice program. This has been around since 2017 we have with Ty rap, I believe the number is we've had more than 6000 apprentices go through the program. There are about 110 companies that are currently signed up as partners with WIA to support this program. The second pillar is our telecommunications Education Center, which is, think about it as this is our on the shelf ready to go curriculum. It. Is available for integration into our, you know, junior colleges, into like minded organizations and into the universities across the state. It's also something that, you know, our industry partners use to, you know, continue to train and educate their employees. And then the third part is, again, our workforce development services. One of the things there is that, you know, we are an industry intermediary. And one of our the highlights, I think, that I would share with you is that we have been working in Ohio and with the governor's office and the Center of Excellence being the Ohio State University, to work with them on closing the workforce gap and building an infrastructure there that not only attracts people to the industry, trains them, incorporates them into job matching, and, you know, helps Ohio kind of work towards closing the the gap of resources that will exist there, which Obviously fuels the the economy for the state as well as we, you know, continue to get those people gainfully employed.

I think I've touched on a lot of this, but this slide I put in for your use later, if you'd like, I connected at the bottom a link to each of these areas, where you can go back to the WIA information on our website and see more about these programs. But I talked about tie rap already under Workforce Development leadership. I don't think there's anything else I would add to that. One our tech center, 30 plus industry leading courses,

obviously focused on broadband and 5g but you know, we also have, I think I should mention those courses can be taken online. They can be taken with instructors that we will put in the field. And obviously, they can become cohorts in some of the junior colleges and colleges, and the curriculum can be integrated into their programs. And then the third bullet here, I would encourage you to take a look at this. It's a very unique and interesting tool. It's called the career pathways tool, and this is a mapping, if you will, of entry level jobs into the wireless industry, how those careers can progress, and what some of the various forks in the road can be in terms of the individual's choice of how they want to move, whether it's into more of a technical field, more of a management field. And the pathways tool is extremely, extremely interesting, because it not only shows the job title and the career path, but it also shows the potential salary ranges for those roles, and it can be broken down into geographic level to show actual openings, current openings, in those positions across the industry.

And the last point on this slide is the sector partnership. And I think I talked about that already in terms of what we're doing with the state of Ohio, but that has been a very successful program where we are continuing to replicate that model and talk with other states about implementing that going forward.

Let me stop for a minute and just ask, are there any questions about anything so far, or should I just continue on to the last slide, which is all about the one big, beautiful bill.

Yeah. Bill, so Marilyn Anderson, do you want to ask your question?

Yeah, can students earn industry recognized credentials with those asynchronous courses that you're talking about.

Yes, you can,

all right, I want to connect with you, Bill and get your email. I work with adult education services, so I think there might be a potential partnership, because we also support that workforce development, and we have something called iets that I think that there could be a good connection there. So

happy to do, so, Paul, you have a

question, yeah, along the same lines in terms of integrating it into like a community college offerings, what are the what's the process for that, and what are the costs associated with that?

Well, it's interesting. I think. You, Josie, I think I saw you on here. Josie Milliken as an example, we we've been talking with Pima College and sharing some information with them. The process is a little bit different for each of the organizations, because obviously there's different levels of approvals and need, but the cost associated with it. Paul, we view it as you know, basically a pay as you go model, no cost upfront, just a licensing agreement with our curriculum. So as as you know, students take on the the courses, and as there's some type of, obviously, fee for, you know, the units that they take, then W I would negotiate a small portion of that for compensation for the curriculum.

Okay, so I will, let some we'll connect up. We'll connect offline. Sounds good. All right, thanks, Bill, you're welcome

any any other questions or comments for Bill, before he moves to the next part. Okay? Bill,

all right, Steve, you asked me to take a look at the one big, beautiful bill from wi A's perspective. And you know, the big thing that jumped out, and what I wanted to share today was really all about a lot about spectrum. But first of all, it did restore, as I said, the FCC auction authority, and that's through September of 2034 now it made available 800 megahertz of spectrum to NTIA and the FCC for auction. And then there's some some mandates in the bill, one of which is the first 100 megahertz of that which is gets a little technical, but the upper C band has to be auctioned off by July of 2027 and then the next point is that mtia NTIA needs to identify another 200 megahertz of spectrum to be auctioned by July of 2029, so if you think about it, it's not a huge 800 megahertz is great, but it's not a huge pipeline immediately, as you know, first of all, the first tranche comes out July of 2027, The second one has to be by July of 2029, and then there's some requirements that NTIA needs to investigate another 300 megahertz and have that auction by 2033 so you know, Those are just some of the points about near term what has to happen. The

other thing that I pulled out of the bill was that there's $50 million for band studies for NTIA to look at these other areas to see if there is spectrum that can be auctioned off. And then there's also $3 billion in funding to replace the FAA air surveillance radar systems. So those were the highlights from the big, beautiful Bill perspective, we're continuing to work on lobbying for the whole, you know, permitting consistency. And you know, we'll continue to do that across all levels. So I hope that was helpful.

This is my information. I will I'm sure Steve will share the deck, but I'll also put my email in the chat when we finish up.

Sounds good. Thanks, Bill, questions or comments for Bill.

I had a quick question. Bill, just the CBRs and satellite spectrum, any perspective on that? I know, I know those are sort of on the docket, and, and, but just any thoughts you might have on what, what's likely to happen in each of the in those bands? Well,

we think, because we've seen, you know, success in the in the initial CBRs auctions, that will be the first area they'll focus on and and that will continue to see more sharing in that area. I didn't mention, but the points on that last slide, you know the there are certain bands that have been excluded because of national security. That was a concern with CBRs, as you remember in the beginning, you. And so I think we'll see that be kind of the first area where we see some expansion in that upper sea. And hopefully that will be the next segment they look at for, you know, the 300 megahertz that they're looking to identify, to roll out after that. Yeah,

Okay, other questions or comments for Bill.

Bill, this is Mala from the State Library, Arizona State Library. I was wondering if you could share with us any innovative uses of the CBRs band that anchor institutions are using them for.

I can certainly go get some examples and share them with you. None come to the right to the top of my head right now. Mala, uh huh, but I'll make a note of that.

Yes, certainly we can connect offline and see if you can share something with me, or I'm happy if you can share it with Steve, and they'll share it with the group. Sure. Thank you.

You're welcome

any other questions or comments for Bill before we move on? No,

I have my hand up, I don't know, but just very, very, very quickly, and maybe it's an extension off of what Mala just said. But I love bill that you have this national industry perspective top down, right? And so I'm just curious, are there any you mentioned Ohio several times, right, with good examples of maybe acceleration and workforce programs and stuff. Are there any other places across the country that you feel are like, wow, they're doing it like, really well in terms of responding right collaboratively, because everything's kind of moving, and then also kind of placement for workforce gap fills. Like, are, do you have any perspective on that, like, are we towards the top, like, motherly in the middle, you know? Or

I think we're in Arizona. I think we're in sort of the top of the top of the middle section, if you will. And the challenge for Arizona, really, is that the funding wasn't enough to cover the deployment and have non deployment enough, non deployment funds available to really focus on workforce. So it's been a difficult, you know, carve it out where you can, I think, from the broadband Office perspective, when I look at other states, and I'm probably not qualified to answer this completely, because our team has a better national perspective on it than I do, but I know that, for example, There is, I would say in Arizona, we have some, you know, other workforce development focused opportunities that are implemented at the state level, but not associated with bead. And I can share those. I have them in my notes from earlier this week. And then I know, for example, that Texas is looking at funding workforce development and using state funds outside of the bead program to really implement that. And I'm sure there are many others that are doing the same thing.

Yeah, thanks. I was just curious. Thanks. You're welcome. Andy,

yeah, Bill, you put up your information real quick. And like others that are in the meeting, we'd want to connect with you. So any chance you could put it in the chat for us because I didn't catch it quick enough. I

will, no worries. I'll put it in there. Thanks very

much. So, Andy, while you're mentioning chat, and I will remind people again that you can download the chat. So as you know, I try to send out the chat as a follow up to the meeting. But in the meantime, since there is a lot of good information, contacts and links in the chat that you can go you can download the chat to your computer after the meeting. If you go to chat and in the upper corner, you will see three ellipses, and if you click on that, it says, download the chat, and you can download that to your computer, and you'd have it available immediately. Amanda, you have a question or comment,

I do so from the workforce development perspective, and supporting our employers and having the workforce they need. Need. And we at Pima Community College, and I would say, you know, perhaps other community colleges as well. And I don't want to speak for my colleagues across the state, but I know that we feel like we need greater detail, and what I feel like I'm lacking is understand how many jobs are going unfilled because we don't have trained workers. What's the gap between the training that employers are doing now that we at the community college could perhaps fill so for us to do our due diligence before we start any kind of a program, I have to have a lot more detail, and so I definitely look forward to working with and it could be through we work very closely with OEO Carlos and the team. So when that discussion gets underway, perhaps it's working through OEO to get get those greater details, but it's time for for Pima Community College to really get a little more in the weeds and start talking to our employers in both Pima County and Santa Cruz County, since we also do support the Santa Cruz County provisional district as well.

Yeah, completely understand. And I would just point out a couple of things there. One,

current job openings is an important data point, but I don't think it's the critical data point. I think what we have to look at is what's the potential for the gap when bead is fully operational, you know, and deployment needs to happen within the bead time frame window. That's where the projected gap becomes a very important, you know, number to look at. And then the challenge is always, how do we get through the pipeline quickly enough to meet that gap? And you know, of course, from our perspective, it's we have to start sooner rather than than later on it, but I totally understand the need for the data, and I was working with Josie on some of that, by the way, and we're continuing to try and pull that information at a at a more granular level to help you, and we'll continue to do that.

Yeah, appreciate it, and in totally agree with your point on projections versus current needs for employment. So yeah, getting down into the weeds with those timelines for those projections, and then understanding kind of the term of when those folks will be needed in those roles will be super helpful. Awesome. We look forward to we have a whole business development and engagement team that this is what they do. And Sarah Jane, who's on this call, also colleagues with Josie and myself, can really be a good support as we get into those weeds. So thank you, Bill for your support.

Absolutely. And Josie, you can speaking of Josie, you have your hand up.

Josie, are you there? She's on mute.

We can't hear

her. Microphones not working. She's not on mute. Put her mind here, right?

David, I've got a short one for you. Okay, go ahead, yup, Bill, just as a kind of a reminder, because Bill is pretty familiar, I think, with Job Corps, because he's communicated with me in the past. But you know, we're nationwide, and when you get into the area that all this broadband and it and computers and telecommunications is is about cross the Job Corps centers. There is those training programs for workforce development. So I know that those centers that have those programs are really paying close attention to all of the developments that you're talking about. So they're going to be producing some some future workforce folks that will fit right in with these needs as they grow. So thank you so much for helping to push this forward.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more, and we, we have a lot of empathy for your challenges right now.

Okay, anything else for for bill? Okay, if not, let's move on to our next one. So in case you guys need a lift, I'm glad to introduce sky downing with digital lift and some of the really interesting work that they're doing. And how you folks can take advantage of and partner with them. So with that sky, I'm going to turn it over to you.

Thank you so much, Steve, thanks for having me. I love that. That is, that is our catch phrase. Me to lift. Let me see if let's hope that the tech trainer does not have technical difficulties today. Okay, I am going to go full screen with you here. Just give me one moment. Okay, all right, are you guys able to see my presentation, or

we're seeing your presentation and your calendar?

Okay? Well, that's not what we wanted. Hold on. How about now?

See now.

Best laid plans. All right, so if we are all good and you're not seeing anything else that you should, we'll move along. Here I am, Sky Downing. I serve as the deputy director at Digital lift, which is formerly known as community tech network. So if you don't recognize the name digital lift, this was a relatively recent change, or you may know us as CTN. So here at Digital lift, we believe that digital access is foundational to health, opportunity and connected communities, all of the things, right? So workforce development, everything, we partner with organizations across sectors. So we work with everybody to deliver multilingual, community, rooted, digital training programs that uplift both individuals and strengthen internal systems. So capacity building for organizations, excuse me, our mission is to transform lives through digital access, education and empowerment, and we envision a world where everyone can thrive through digital connectivity. Hopefully, that sounds familiar and rings true with all of you. Our core values are community centered, capacity building culturally responsive engagement and practical innovation and radical inclusivity. With more than a decade of digital innovation and inclusion expertise, digital lift has delivered high impact training and tools to communities across the country for over 17 years, and this includes, you can see, here are our bigger picture numbers from 2020 on, but I'll also share some numbers just for our capacity building work, which was actually started and launched in 2022 so we've delivered, in capacity building alone, 13,385 hours of training have been delivered to our partners for the purpose of building their capacity and training their trainers. 188 partners nationwide have now identified staff and or volunteer trainers and have them on hand to sustain their work. And those those partner trainers are certified by digital lift. We have delivered 500 devices just in the last two, one and a half years, actually, from January 2024, to now, through a partnership with the Methodist healthcare ministries. They are community partners here in Texas. So just over the last year and a half, we have an additional 250 devices to deploy inside of this partnership in 2026 Additionally, we proudly offer a library of linguistically proficient digital skills curricula to be used in your classrooms. This is available on a multitude of devices, and is specific to digital skills building for classroom or workshop settings. We currently speak 10 languages fluently in house, and that is, you know, that is what assists us in our translation needs. But we also have a robust partnership with a translation house, so we do have the ability to customize and translate curriculum and materials into whatever language is needed. We believe in meeting people where they are at, and this includes our partners. So that said, we want you to train the team that you need without starting from scratch, whether you're launching a new digital inclusion effort or strengthening existing programs, we're all in this together, and right now we are being tasked with doing more with less. So we must be strategic about this, and they're just i. We really have a strong belief that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. So let's work together to understand what each other's strengths are and feed those strengths and support each other in partnership. We believe that digital lift offers targeted capacity building solutions that will help your team grow with confidence in this ecosystem. And we begin every partnership with a structured diagnostic needs assessment, which helps us identify those most critical areas in which your organization could benefit from our training and additional resources. And then we, we, we then tailor each agency's training package to meet those specific needs. We offer three core training pathways designed to meet different organizational roles, providing program managers with the tools to confidently lead strategy, evaluation and implementation activities. We train digital navigators to deliver one on one support that bridges access and breaks down barriers while building trust inside their communities. And we train classroom trainers to confidently facilitate workshops and short term classroom activities using our multilingual, modular curricula or any curricula that they've provided on their own, we also provide that sector specific focus as well, which is tailored to currently our public libraries, the aging and senior services agencies, community health and wellness providers and public benefits enrollment specialists. So it's through these dynamic partnerships that we equip teams with the tools, resources, curriculum and coaching needed to lead in their field without reinventing the wheel. Our lift programs are tailored to meet local needs and workforce demands across states. We do. We are national serving currently, right now, we are working largely in, you know, with with a large focus in Texas and California. But we also are starting partnership with the New Mexico State library system as well. As, you know, we're working in Oklahoma and Iowa and Chicago and so we're all Illinois. Excuse me, we're all over the place. So, so we're happy to talk about partnership in any state, and particularly in this case, obviously Arizona, but if you are national serving as well, there's potential for additional scaling. That said, we we offer training to community health workers or CHWs as digital navigators, supporting telehealth, access benefits, enrollment and digital wellness literacy, serving rural, aging, disabled, low income veteran, reintegrating in mono or multilingual communities safely and approachably right now with mhm in the Capital, Alamo and mid border regions, is where we're working, as well as the upper Rio Grande Valley. We meet the partners and learners where they are. We have literally and figuratively, we meet them where they are. So we've actually put together programming where we have remotely dialed in and taught youth navigators in Spanish and for colonias in the upper Rio Grande Valley. So it's been very, a very profound outcome of the work to learn how we can stretch and work together. That said, we have are able to, under the mhm grant, serve 30 community partners currently over a three year time period, as well as building more than 30 plus digital equity partners, supplying 30 plus digital equity partners with training resources, multilingual curriculum, devices and digital navigator support services. So those digital equity partners are the folks that mhm actually awarded, like us, and mhm was pretty groundbreaking in the fact that they they noticed in the applications that they were receiving for this award that their partners were asking for training, they were asking for help and indicating that they needed that capacity building support in order for their programs to be more successful. So mhm saw to it that they brought us on in partnership to support in that way as well, in addition to operating our own programming and serving those community partners. So so far this year, within this partnership, we've conducted and supported over 150 community outreach events. We've seen nearly 500 unique enrollments in trainer training alone, distributed those data enabled devices over over two years time, provided 521 unique individuals with over 1300 hours of digital navigator support. Services through over 198 sessions across the 60 plus partner sites, one example, one specific example of this partnership is our partner, MHP salud. They are in the rural, rural South Texas, and they have a huge they have a huge reach across Texas, but specifically working in rural and historically disconnected communities there in South Texas. So what really sets this up, this training, apart from others is it's multi dimensional focus. So not only do their CHWs now help clients enroll in benefits or access patient portals, but they're also learning how to use digital medical devices and equipping and they're also equipped to teach those other things, those basic digital skills, applying adult learning methods and managing digital inclusion programs from within their organizations, so they're able to really provide more robust service delivery to their patients, and because we tailor every element to meet local context and organizational need, language, regional resources, cultural relevance. This ensures that our partners are not just participating in a training, but they're actually gaining that from a transformational learning experience which multiplies their impact sustainably inside their communities.

I'm sure you all are familiar with the old adage that if you you know you give a person to fish, give, give a person a fish, they eat for one meal, but if you teach them how to fish, then they eat for a lifetime. So another example of this partnership is something that I did mention earlier, and that is our partnership with one of the digital equity partners under me, Jim, here in Texas, the intercultural Development Research Association Idra. We launched with them a virtual bilingual training session for youth navigators, like I said, across four colonists. This was a surprise outcome of our partnership, as we weren't originally slated to serve partners in the Rio Grande Valley, but through the digital equity partnerships that mhm had established and the very thoughtful approach that the grants management team had taken to meeting these needs, we were able to respond and continue to address the need. Virtually this year, we've been able to provide six sequential bilingual training sessions to 10 youth navigator learners, and are looking forward to providing ongoing support to that community through the end of the grant cycle in 2026 so we'd like to share some of the things that people are saying about us. So one of our partners, prosumers International, they came to us through the libraries for Health Initiative, which was funded by St David's foundation here in Texas. They have enrolled four trainers into our lift wellness training so far this year, with the focus being on digital equity and health care as it pertains to mental health services. They received 25 HP laptops with six month data plans, and so far, they've served 55 clients as a result of this support and have benefited from 15 hours of digital navigator support services provided by our lift navigators. The Ed of this organization is quoted as saying that they are excited about having access to quality training for people with lived experience of mental health concerns. They had just finished a meeting with one of their participants, who shared that his lack of computer skills was indeed affecting his ability to move forward in work, and that it was becoming a hindrance in his recovery. So she is credited saying as well that our work is making it possible for people to even consider entering the workforce, which I see as an incredible outcome. And then that is, that is actually it. I'm at the end of my notes. So, so if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer questions. I know we've all, you know, we've all been gathering our thoughts for these last few moments or weeks, months. I don't know the days are all kind of running together these days, but I think we're, we're landing on our feet, and we're all starting to get our foot and back, we would love to talk about your needs and just understand if there's possibility for partnership, and we would absolutely love to assist in bridging the divide there in the state of Arizona. So fire away if you have any questions. Yeah.

Questions for sky. So sky, can you just talk a little bit? Maybe I missed it. But how would a community college, for example, be able to take advantage of your resources?

Sure? So we have, well, we have a couple of different ways that we can engage there. So it depends upon if a community college wanted to actually seek, you know, seek out partnership where we could talk about, and this is something we have had multiple conversations, both with San Antonio colleges, Austin Community College, we're talking to the Texas A and M team right now. So there's lots of conversation in higher ed about how we can approach this. But one way that we're thinking about it is, it would be really wonderful to combine our resources and create a digital navigator training pathway as a, you know, continuing education opportunity, but also, you know, continuing education professional development, but also as something that really ties into almost any, almost any learning pathway. So if somebody is going into healthcare, education, what have you having the ability to navigate the digital landscape with their their clients, their patients, their you know, whoever they may be serving in the end, is is a really great tool to have. So there are multiple ways we can go about it. We have, and we also have a number of free resources available on our website. So we do have, we offer the digital navigator overview. This is something that many, if not all of you are probably pretty well versed in already. It is a high level overview of the digital navigator landscape. This is something that our partners at NTIA have been providing us information about for some time now. You name it so it's, it's, it is more of that. From there, you go into advanced digital navigator training. And that is actually where the training of trainers comes in. We also offer, because we believe in it so strongly, we also offer free of charge our internet teaching Internet safety and responsibility. So that is actually for the trainer, how to teach digital citizenship free of charge. And we also are offering a classroom curricula on Internet safety and responsibility for trainers, so those things can all be accessed free of charge. And then if you want to have conversation about further partnership, we just suggest setting up a phone call so that we can get to know you, you can get to know us, and we can explore the many ways that we might be able to partner.

So a couple of quick things. Rachel, I know you have your hand up and Randy, I believe you. You did too, but I just want to remind you that, excuse me, Bill did put his presentation in the chat, but I want to remind you, I will be sending that out. Excuse me, want my follow up newsletter. But in the meantime, if you want that today, you need to download it now, because when you when I close out the meeting, you can't download it from the chat after the meeting. So just a reminder, if you want that presentation right away, to download it now. And so, Rachel, you have a question?

Yeah, Sky, this is, this is great work. I do see from your guys's website that you're not in Oregon yet, where we also work. I work with World prosperity partners, and I would just love to have a conversation with you about Oregon. We were what some of the founding members of the digital equity network that established itself in Oregon, although our focus is primarily on infrastructure, but, yeah, I would just love to connect because this is great work.

Absolutely, I did put my contact information in the chat, if you want to share yours as well. Rachel, I'd be happy to Yeah, yeah. The beauty of our work is that we are offering everything virtual, asynchronous. We do bring folks together in a virtual but in person debrief, you know, to kind of a capstone experience of the learning, to talk about the, you know, the practical application of the learning. But we really aren't, you know. So when we move from state to state and build these partnerships, we are not looking to come in as a, as a, you know, big fish in a small pond. We are, we are looking to come in and partner with the organizations that are already on the ground doing the work and empower them to do the work more effectively. And so these partnerships, partnership conversations, are very, very important to

us. Okay? And Randy, did you have your hand up earlier? Oh,

yeah, yeah. So I had a quick question. I. So sky, this is sort of hypothetical. If you were, if a big bump bucket of money were dropped on you to put together a digital equity, digital Opportunity Program for a state. How would you spend it like if you were to create a pie chart between digital navigators or devices and so forth? What? That's question number one, the other other is, if you were setting up a state program saying, we want to carve out some allocation for digital opportunity work, how many dollars per pop would you allocate? So if you have a million people in the city, how much would you spend per year on this kind of work?

Questions, that's it. That's a tricky question to just fly out my mouth, but I would have to be much more thoughtful to get you distinct numbers there. But we would start with needs assessment and and then once we go from there, we would be able to establish a better understanding of where, yeah, and this is, were there that bucket of money, you know, where the money is best, best resourced, you know. So we find that, you know, we do like to provide as well rounded a service package as possible. So devices, training of trainers, so the capacity building the curricula in multiple languages, and then, if possible, actually even providing digital navigator support services for the shadowing mentoring, so that when we leave the organization is stronger and better equipped. As far as putting $1 sign on that the best thing I could do without, like, actually sitting down and crunching numbers. It would be irresponsible have made us say like, oh, well, that looks like this, because it's different from case to case. But I will say we were one of the agencies that applied for digital Equity Act funding specific to public housing providers, and so we had listed that we would serve 46 no excuse me, 60 public housing providers nationwide. We had identified 46 of those ahead of time. We did make it partially into a curing process where we had conversations with the management team saying that this was a very strong application. We were expecting to hear more information in December, January. And of course, we all know what happened there. So that said we approached that application, and that was about a $12 million ask, and we approached that from the standpoint of working directly with the housing providers providing them devices that were data enabled for their residents, and then identifying residents that would serve as digital ambassadors. So resident ambassadors on site, and those residents would then be trained up and deployed to their site to assist other residents with their their inclusion or their literacy needs. From there, we were making the connection with our partners at lead for America in order to offer some of those, you know, higher performing or the standout, you know, those standout residents that just really are taking to the work to offer them that opportunity to move into a paid internship, externship type experience, where they could then, through a stipend that we were providing to the partners, or would have provided to the partners, they could actually pay lead for America to then employ one, one or more of their residents to be a digital navigator ambassador, but through the AmeriCorps program, and then from there, our hope was that that would then lead them, you know, on down through the pipeline into to greater opportunity from there. So this is just kind of one, one picture, and, yeah, it had about a $12 million price tag on it to serve. And that was, again, nationwide, and that was providing really full wraparound services, the capacity building training for trainers, the direct service provision, the, you know, the partnership with with the other organizations. And then the other thing that we had folded into this application that is important to keep in mind, because it had a good price tag on it as well, was that we were looking to develop a universal data monitoring system that we could deploy so that we could actually track the impact of all of this. Very good, yeah,

questions or comments. Sky, thank you very much. Please send me your presentation if you don't mind, no problem. But also suggest, if you can, like I said, attentively, that we will see. The Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, possibly next week. And I would really encourage you to try to make that meeting and or connect with him. Part of my discussion with him is, what can or should they be doing in this whole space? And I think you could be a great resource for them.

Yeah, we have enjoyed working closely with our our so I'm located in Austin, Texas actually, and I'm sure you all are aware of the many challenges we face in this state, but our broadband Development Office is excellent, and we've been working closely with them. So yeah, those those relationships, I think starting there is is a really good place to to begin. So yeah, I'm happy to attend these meetings as often as I'm able to. It's a good time of day for me. So whenever I can, I'll plan on being here to support you.

Sounds good. Thanks, Skye, all right, thank you. So one question this was not related specifically to sky, but one of the questions in the chat was about the feds, new AI initiative. Anybody want to share comment about about that just not okay. Any other announcements or anything people want to share before we end for today? So Steve, yeah, go ahead.

I will just add that I have actually paneled on the subject matter of AI at NTIA, and we do our approach with AI, as you know, a relatively okay so not as not as new learners, but in that we work specifically with new learners. Our approach has been to add into all of our curricula and all of our courses the best practices for introducing AI to new learners, so that is written into everything that we do, and then we're continuing to expand services as much as possible. I know human it is also doing a lot of good work around AI as well. And, yeah, I actually paneled with them at net inclusion, and they've got some great stuff going on in that way as well. So

okay, thank you. Any other announcements, questions, anything people want to share before we end the meeting? For today, I'm going to stop the the recording now and people.