minutes caught on with my screen here today. Okay, good morning, everybody. Welcome.
But glad to see everybody today looks like folks were a little bit slow getting started this morning. But anyway, have a great program today and lots of stuff to talk about. So let's start with have to take a look at who's here. We have a couple of new people, I think who were on the call today. If you'd like to introduce yourselves, Kyle.
Sure. Thanks, Steve. Yeah, it's been. It's been a while been on a few of these. But it's been a while. So just this one worked well for my schedule. So I want to make sure I got back down. And I'm Kyle Hildebrand I'm with eX2 Technology. We're a company who works with quite a few different public and private fiber customers in Arizona. So I just wanted to sit in as many of these as I could. And this will work.
Great. Thanks. Welcome back. Yeah. And anybody else that we have new today. That's it. Except Kimber, while you were here last time, but we're going to hear from you. So we'll let you introduce yourself a little later. And Pam Wagner.
And we are you there?
There you are, I
had to go back into zoom. Sorry. Yes. I'm Pam Wagner with resolve networks.
Okay. Thank you. Anybody else that might be new today. Okay, if not, first of all, I want to thank our sponsors CareFirst healthplan, Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet and Triad, Wireless. So thank you guys. You guys are regular participants appreciate you, you participating with us. So getting on to the agenda. As always, we'd like to start with updates. So the Arizona Broadband office. And so, Erin, I'll turn it over to you, and Vanessa, and Christo and anybody else from the office that wants to jump in.
Awesome, thanks so much, Krystal, I'll leave all the BEAD stuff to you, I'll just briefly mention that. We just did post an RFQ for some contractor positions within our office. And so I think Steve is going to be sending it out. But if you're interested, if you head to the public notices board on the AC commerce website, and scroll down to requests for call for qualifications, the top one there is the one that's just recently opened. And I'm reading straight from the website. But the purpose of this RFQ is to identify vendors to provide Broadband and Digital Equity consulting and management services. And if you'd like to read the full document, you can click where it says Click here and you'll fill out a short form and the the full document will be sent to you. And the the questions are due March 14. And then the applications are due April 1. And so it'll take us a couple of weeks after that, of course to assess what what was delivered. But that's a big update from us. And then otherwise, on the D side of things, I am happy to announce that after our caring comments were received from NTIA, we resubmitted the Digital Equity plan late last evening. And so we are waiting with bated breath to see if we are in a better spot now than we were before the comments. There were very minor changes after the public comments. Thank you to call. The call is like oh good, I
have more work to do.
The the spot where the plan was after the public comments put us in such a great spot there were only a to two or three things that were you know, more substantial changes that they suggested after the the curing period. So So fingers crossed that we'll hear good news on that soon we'll be able to, to share that when when we do and those are the DD side of things updates. I'll pass it over to my esteemed colleagues to give BEAD updates. Okay,
so Vanessa would be you or Krystal .
Let's see. It's so Steve, I just, I can give you what I have. So just to let you know, Broadband wise on the team, we have one position open Broadband director and that job is posted. And hopefully we will be able to hire someone in the next the position of Senior Broadband and Engagement Manager have been filled, and those people were crossing fingers. That, you know, they do start them that they start soon.
Thank you. And before we move on, so, I think I saw Sandip just joined the Sandip, you have anything that you want to share with us this morning?
Absolutely. Good morning, Steve. Good morning team. Thank you so much for again, Steve for giving us the opportunity to update the whole group about our progress. So
I think everybody knows you, but Sandip is the state Broadband director. So sorry.
I thought I don't need any introduction.
Probably not. But you never know. We do have some new people. So
absolutely. Absolutely. And sorry, I'm, I'm driving to Office. So it takes me almost one hour to go to office. But my name is Sandip Bhowmick, State Broadband Director here at Arizona Commerce Authority. So Steve, challenge, process material and the maps are currently open. It's on it's posted on ACA website. So any material the communities nonprofit organization, ISPs and local government tribal government need to submit the challenge process step by step navigator guide, How to take a speed test, unserved underserved BSL ID. We're also uploading the federal deduplication data today. So all the materials will be available under the challenge Process tab on ACA Broadband website, and we are revamping our Broadband website. So we're in the process it will take some time, because it needs fundamental major infrastructure change on the NCAA website. However, the good news is, if you go to ACF homepage now, the COVID resources nine COVID-19 resources was replaced with Broadband so anyone can basically go to ESEA homepage, click on Broadband directly go to the Broadband page. It was done temporarily to make sure there are more accessibility around accessing the Broadband website. So there is also a map link posted on the same challenge process website. So ISPs, tribal government, local government and nonprofit organization can request access under that ISP under that map, and you will be able to see see the whole challenge process map. It's open for public as well. But if you want to submit a challenge in a eligible entity have to send a request to us now. The local government and tribal governments are only here from Arizona can request access. For nonprofits there is no limit. It's a nationwide number. It can be a nationwide nonprofit or a local nonprofit, they can always request an access. We'll review that if we see that there are more documentation needed along with the form you're filling out when you are requesting an access. We'll reach out to you and request more information before we provide you the access in the in our portal. After that you will be able to submit a challenge the timeline was March 15. We kick off the challenge process it will be open for two months. So may 15, may 14 to close the challenge process. And there is a 15 day rebuttal phase. Any ISPs are getting challenged by local government or by other ISPs or tribal government nonprofit will be forwarded that challenge that will be forwarded to that particular ISP. That's why it's very, very, very important. I can not stress enough that how important this is for the ISPs to register in the challenge process. The the way the portal is currently set up. All the challenge is against any ISP will be rerouted to them. But if they're not registered in our system or in our portal, we won't be able to send it to them and they will have only 15 days to provide a justification or rebuttal against that challenge. If the ISPs failed to do that, or any entity fail to do that, that area will be open for BEAD funding. So it is very crucial for the ISPs to register. Keep their eye open and make sure that they are responding to any challenges they're receiving. To make sure that they have their side of the story to present. We are hosting calls, we'll be hosting training session webinars every single month. There is a call today for the tribal governments that how they can submit a challenge. There is a similar type of call next week for the ISPs that how they can submit a challenge against any other entity. And also same time how they can submit a rebuttal. It's very important for ISPs to attend those call if they cannot, or any entity cannot all these recordings will be posted on sei website.
For one second, those workshops are posted in my email, announcement of the meeting. So the dates on how to log in and all that stuff, you'll find available on the email announcement.
Great, great, great and there is an office hour in the at the end of the challenge process webpage. There is an office hour section, you can directly go to our calendar, and you can select a 30 minute slot to talk to the state face. regarding any difficulties, technical difficulties, you are having any questions you have regarding the challenge process, etc, etc. So that's the overall update on the BEAD actual reporting side, as you probably already aware, or volume one was approved. Volume Two, we got some really minor comments, like our D plan. We updated that send it to NTIA last night and we are waiting for a second round of comments or probably an approval from NTIA at this point regarding our volume two, there is no timeline at this point, because all 50 states and six senators are going through this process, NTIA is trying to expedite those. But also we have to remember that if Volume Two gets approved our final plan, due date shot clock of 65 days or one year starts from that point. So we are in no hurry because you have to go through the challenge process and definitely start distributing the dollars. But that's overall update any questions regarding challenge process? I will be happy to answer
any questions for Sandy? going once going twice. Any questions for the Broadband office before we move on? Nicole, I see you're here. And we're gonna get to you in one second. Anybody have any other questions for Sandy for Aaron or anybody? If not, let's move on. And Nicole was good to see you haven't seen in a while. And Nicole was the federal program officer for NTIA. And Nicole, you want to give us an update?
Okay, good morning, everybody. Not a ton anywhere all eagerly watching the state as they prepare for the state challenge process. And I do want to reiterate what Sandeep said, you have to be registered with the state's portal to participate in the challenge process. So that goes for both the ISPs who who may be engaging in that rebuttal period, as well as any eligible challengers. So that all has to occur in the state's portal for at least for the purposes of BEAD. You know, we're of course, looking at working through approvals for the plan drafts that have been submitted. And for this for this group, I'm not sure. I see Brian FinCon on the call the TCP round two, that's the tribal Broadband connectivity program. Round two, that program in application closes on March 22.
But I think I think that's the the main updates for the group right now.
Thanks, Nicole. Good to have you, Steve. Yeah, Mark. Yeah.
Nicole, I just wanted to insert for anyone paying attention to reconnect five, the USDA grant program, there's $700 million dollars in four categories, grants and loans, that they days after they announced the program, they did push the deadline 30 days. So that deadline is now may 21. Not April 22 Or third that it was originally.
Thanks my great, great flag mark. I think this these are the programs we are still seeing coming to the states and any other tribal governments. I think that most challenging part and about this program interesting flowing into entities for state Broadband officers duplicating this on right time. So if any part of
You're breaking up, Sandy. I know you're, you're driving.
So, what I was trying to tell you that these funds wherever it's coming here in the state or any other part in the country, we're not allowed to spend the dollars to build infrastructure there if it's meeting the BEAD requirement. So we will go through the duplication process until the day we open the procurement, except application for BEAD funding. So there will be going on as Mark mentioned, but watch for these programs. And if you're from a community, town or cities, I would highly recommend watch closely that if your community or county got this kind of grant, because most probably those areas are not going to be eligible for BEAD funding. So it's very important to track them and keep in touch with the Broadband office.
Thanks. So Mark, or Sandy, you want to just explain briefly more about what the reconnect program is and does and funds. And just a reminder, that's also in my newsletter. So you will find information about about that there.
Sure, USDA has two primary Broadband grant programs Community Connect, and reconnect. So names are similar, but they're quite different. The Community Connect, we'll be coming back with another round of funding. But that was limited to $5 million. And a single integral US service area, reconnect is a larger grant opportunity, up to $50 million dollars can involve multiple geography, clusters clustered into the application. And the threshold is anything any area where they believe less than 25, three to 90% of the households is eligible for reconnect. And these are big, somewhat complex applications in that there's, you know, board resolutions for different things necessary and some financial criteria, it's actually just a little more difficult than the NTIA grants tend to be in that regard.
Okay, thanks. Any questions for Sandeep remark about those? Okay, so I'm sorry, Aaron, maybe you touched on this. But, Sandy, what's the status with your Broadband? Office a deputy director position?
It's under review. Mark. We are internally going through the process. Okay.
Are you still accepting applications or not? We are Yes. Okay. All righty. Thank you. Any questions for Sandy for Mark or? Anybody else? Anybody else from the Broadband office that has anything to share? Going once, going twice? If not, let's move on to our presentation this morning. Well, actually, before we do that, Elena, I know you're on the call. You want to give us the latest on the wind down? And then I don't know if there's any progress on the extension for ACP?
No, no progress. Okay, so I can make that quick. And as far as the wind down goes, I mean, they're happy hasn't been a lot of either the ISPs are getting most of the calls from consumers. We're just a common sense. We're just working with, you know, the folks that we helped sign up and you know, getting information out to them about the wind down and where they can go to ask questions and all of that. We're just trying to share that far and wide. But yeah, unfortunately, we don't think anything is going to happen until probably April, when, of course, the notice went out from the FCC saying that April would be the last month. So that's more official. That's really the only new news. And then from there, we'll just have to kind of wait and see. I think the key for all of us is to get on the horn and call or email your legislators and tell them how important ACP has been for your communities, whether it's rural or tribal. You know, they want to hear stories they want to hear real on the ground like this is who it's impacting, and, and all of that and just giving them the number for Arizona, which is over 525,000 households that are using ACP, we have to go beyond that. They know what the numbers are, we have to give them real life experiences and real life stories, to get them to really understand the magnitude of losing ACP. So that's really the only thing I can suggest right now.
Do we do know Elena about him? I'm assuming that most of our there was on a delegate delegation is supportive. Do we know any reason to believe otherwise?
And Mr. Kelly is definitely supportive. Kristen cinema is supportive. I don't know how much weight she's gonna carry anymore. So yes, you are correct, they are supportive. But I wouldn't leave that to chance. Other priorities and other things get in the way sometimes have that support. So I would just make sure if even if you have connections with, you know, folks, staff from other states, you know, if you if you can reach out to whoever you can reach out to, now's the time to do that. There's lots of coalition's out there, lots of letters floating around or have been submitted. But again, we keep hearing that they want to hear the stories, they want to hear about the real people and the real impact.
Hey, thank you. Any other comments about ACP before we move on, other than we're all frustrated that nothing's happened with it. But anyway. So moving on. So we have an interesting presentation this morning. I want to introduce Kemper tower with tell Aveda, who's She's the director of sustainability. And they're doing some very interesting things. And so I'm just going to turn it over to you Kimber. And do you need to share? Yes, please. Thank you. Okay.
Thank you so much. Give me one moment. Fun fact, for all of you. I live out in a very rural area. So if my Internet has any mental health issues, you are please be prepared. All right. Can you see my screen?
So you're actually not here in Arizona?
I'm not I live in Wyoming actually. So I live out in the wild west. But am I good to start? Steve? You are. And you can see my screen everyone. Yeah, wonderful. Okay, I'll try and move somewhat quickly. Because I know you all have a lot to do. But thank you for having me. My name is Kimber tower. And just so you have a little information about me. Prior to working with Televisa, I actually had a role more in the direct service realm, my experience is more specifically to serving victims, and working within the nonprofit arenas and within the public health sector. So a lot of what I share and when I present has a little bit of a public health lens, just so you're aware. So some of you may have heard of televator this is something a lot of people see is where our focus is a lot of digital and hybrid to serve communities. So from there, a lot of what we do is we talk about our mission, which is fighting isolation, social isolation and loneliness. Right here, I really love this particular screen just because it shows the health issues that come from being socially isolated from loneliness, it impacts our physical health it impacts are mental health. And these are just some of the different areas. Just a quick note, if you hear noise around me, my co workers today are my two dogs and my two cats and they are not respectful of my presentation time. So apologies if you hear them. Something that I think is important to know is in 2023, it was noted that I saw social isolation and loneliness is a public health issue. So with that said, there's a lot of indicators and risk factors for why people may may choose to or may be isolated from others and it can come from adverse childhood experiences living in a resource desert, I happen to be someone who lives in a very rural area where there is a resource desert, there isn't a lot of access to Broadband, to internet to connections to those types of things. combat exposure, having family that's far away, illiteracy, whether that's digital illiteracy or otherwise, intergenerational trauma, there are just a lot of reasons why people can become isolated from community. So from there, we like to go Because on the fact that community is what heals us, and that's to elevate his focus is we want to connect people to others. We know that having that strong social connection is the reason that people live longer, why they have better physical and mental health. And that's, that's something that's very important to us just as our ideals. So I want to share our why so you understand the how of the work that we do. So now that you know our why this is our house, our focus is on outreach and awareness, bridging the digital divide by providing digital literacy, education and support, and building access and engagement through connecting with communities through individual support and developing digital hubs sites, which I will talk about a little bit more. Again, a lot of our tenants are that everyone is welcome with us. We meet people where they are, a lot of what televator does is we we have standardized plans that we customize to individuals so that we can help them get the individualized support and education that we need. And then we have continuing relationships with people we work with because we don't want to just hand somebody a device and say you're on your own. We want to make sure they know what to do next, and they stay included. Some of the initiatives that I want to talk about specifically is beyond walls, or digital Pathfinders, the hero story and missionary connect. So starting with beyond walls, this is our social connectedness and digital literacy campaign that we started this year. It is a it's an initiative where we're working in person at events with volunteers, and with local experts in different states in different cities. We teach digital literacy through our every fourth Thursday, we do something called Tech Thursdays. That's where we have in person and virtual support to help. It started with senior citizens and senior centers. And it's moved beyond that to all different populations, including veterans, including people who come from underserved populations, who need some support with learning how to use devices and learning how to work in the digital landscape safely. So that's something that we do at no charge to anyone. And like I said that starts with our we do bingo and we do our our last Thursday of the month tech Thursdays, then we have our digital navigators. Hopefully this video will play we'll see if it does that just shows the system the program that we're using. It rolled out initially again to senior centers and it's expanded from there to other communities.
In an era where digital connectivity is key. Televisa is proud to introduce a groundbreaking initiative, the digital Pathfinder program for seniors, our mission to bridge the digital divide and foster meaningful connections. This program isn't just about teaching technology, it's about unlocking a world of opportunities for our senior community. Our digital navigators, the champions of this journey are more than instructors. They are companions, guiding seniors through the digital landscape with patience and expertise. In collaboration, healthcare case managers play a crucial role. They're the bridge between potential participants and the program, ensuring no one is left behind in this digital era. Our goals are clear, we aim to improve access to health services, enhance communication and social connectedness, and promote health equity among seniors. The journey begins with a comprehensive assessment, identifying each individual's digital prowess and crafting a personalized development plan. Part of this process includes social determinants of health screenings, to ensure better care coordination. From in home to virtual training. Our personalized approach caters to every learning style. We recognize that literacy is an ongoing journey, making every senior a lifelong learner with continuous access to our community events. And it's not just about learning. It's about celebrating achievements and big and small, every milestone is a step towards greater digital empowerment. But what's technology without community. Our program extends beyond the screen, creating a vibrant community of learners, fostering social connections that defy distances. Regular evaluations and feedback ensure our program involves staying aligned with the needs and aspirations of our seniors. Through these efforts, we're improving the utilization of services, ensuring our health tech interventions are as effective as they are empowering. Because at the end of the day, it's not just about being digitally literate. It's about feeling connected, engaged and valued. Together. Let's redefine aging in the digital age televator connecting seniors one emoji at a time
in an era Oh see it almost stuff smarter than me. So part of that work that we're doing beyond that digital navigator who does go in person to homes or to to community areas to teach people how to use devices, we are also putting together some end to end services. So we're installing subsidized devices in internet and low income neighborhoods, so that every community has resources to connect, what we're creating is digital hub spots. So when we identify a partner who's able to let us build a hub spot in their area, we set that up, we get the hardware put together, we work on making sure our connectivity is set up. And then we provide digital literacy education, once we have those other pieces in place. So that's something that we've been working on to make sure that even communities that are underserved or historically do not have access to those types of services, we want to make sure they have it, and that they also have the ability to participate and be involved in that area. From there, we've been moving forward and working within the suicide prevention realm. Now I want to be clear, in my prior line of work, I worked more within the intervention, mitigation and intervention realm, and this is very specifically prevention. So we're working within that with the VA, and with our partners in that realm, to hopefully reduce suicides and lessen the impact of suicidal ideation, through directly confronting social isolation and loneliness. So the goal here is that we're blending traditional healing practices, group therapy models and peer support as an evidence based model to serve populations, who historically have not been served as well as they should have been. Our goal is not to reinvent the wheel, it's just connecting those wheels to the vehicle so that more people are able to access these services. The final thing that we're working on in, in the state of Arizona specifically, is missionary connect. And this is again, where we are providing all the services I talked about before digital literacy, access to devices, digital hub spots, we are working with partners and continuously seeking partners who work within the employment realm in order to get these services and education available to veterans who would like access to it in order to improve their access to employment education, job services, and if they're struggling with being unhoused, helping them get access to services that might help them find a permanent home. So from there, what we always like to let people know is we are actively seeking collaborators and partners, we love to find other programs who want to have their events, their education hosted on our platform, we want to share it whether it's statewide, or nationally, we want to collaborate on programming. And if you want to learn more about us, I would love to invite you to hop on televator.com and join the platform, there's no cost to join the platform, you can look around, you can see the classes that we have, you can try a few things. If you use the code, if you ask for a code, use AZ vets, and you're able to use that to learn a little bit more about us. And of course, please connect with me. You're welcome to call me or text me or email me anytime. And I'm happy to share information. I know I move through all of this very quickly. But I know that all of you have other things that you need to do and your time is valuable. So that is that is the information I had to share unless people have questions. Thank you for letting me tell you about what we do at televi. That
sounds great, awesome stuff, got a camper. And by the way, kimbers contact information also is in the newsletter that I sent out. So if you need to reach her questions, I'm sure people got to have questions. Comments. So Kimber, one question, obviously is where does your funding come from?
Our funding comes through a variety of sources. That happens to be my area of expertise. We have contracts we work through, some are municipal contracts, some are county contracts, state contracts, we work closely with the Arizona Department of Veterans Services, and we have some contracts with them and the Arizona department of human health services. We also work through some grant funding, and then we have private contracts with some health companies. We're always looking for people who want to expand in that area too. So feel free to reach out but we have very diverse funding.
Okay, any questions or comments for Kimber before we move on? Okay. I'm sorry.
Hi, Kimberly and Sandy Sinclair with the Arizona department of economic security. You and I talked very briefly through an email. I would like to invite you to present at our upcoming May Community Economic Development Advisory Consortium. I see a lot of the people and organizations you're working with also matched organizations that we We work with that def. So I will be getting in touch with you.
Thank you, I look forward to it.
And he puts on a great program. A lot of good people, particularly in, in the healthcare arena. So
that's wonderful. Thank you. And just so you know, if I reached out to any of you, I am, I am new to Arizona since I don't even live there. So I might reach out sometimes if that's okay.
Okay, thank you, Kimber. Appreciate it. And I'm sure we're gonna look forward to finding better way more ways for you to collaborate with you. Okay, so moving on, I'm gonna go back to sharing my screen again.
And so let's do some more updates that I didn't see John Kelly. John, are you online? Don't believe so. So any other any other federal updates? Mala. Judy couldn't be here today with this under Mark Kelly's office. And Drew isn't online today either. But Mala Do you have any federal? Well, why don't you just do an update? And if you have anything about anything happening federally, that we should know what? We share that too?
I think you you all are aware of the chaos that's going on. Really no significant updates on any of the programs. In fact, I've been looking to see if there's something that talks about the transition, you know, from ACP, and haven't found anything, you know, there is going to be a gap even when, even if it is renewed. And what do people do during that gap? Is it are those who are signed in going to be allowed to continue after the gap? Or do they have to reapply and all of that kind of thing? You know, I haven't found anything yet. I'm hoping that we do hear back from them. In the meanwhile, I've been working with our rerate applicants because the deadline is fast approaching, it's the 27th of March for all schools and libraries that are applying for this cycle starting July 120 24 to June 30 of 2025. schools and libraries can't do their RFPs anymore, because if they're doing their individual RFPs, they have to wait 28 days before they can award a contract. So the RFP tight deadline has passed, but they can use state master contracts that are available to them. The state master contracts or internet carrier service was expiring this year this June, but it's been extended for one year to 2025 June 30. I don't think it's up on the school website yet as the State Procurement Office website. So if anyone plans on using any of those services, please contact me. I'll give them the contract numbers. Also, the Mojave educational cooperative has new contracts for internal connections and hubs and routers and switches, which schools and libraries can use. Any other organization can also use it if they need to, but they have to be a member of the Mojave Education Cooperative.
Oh, can you explain briefly what the Mojave collaboration is? He's
Yes, I will. Mojave Education Cooperative is was actually started to help. The started from Mojave contracts, of course, but those contracts are now available for the entire state to use. It's you can see them all on the website measc dot orgy and I'll put the link in the chat as soon as I'm done. And those are there are contracts for everything mean whether you're going for electrical wiring cables, or our non telecom stuff as well. You have to be a member. I don't know what the membership fee is, but you will find it on their website. But schools libraries are all part of it because the Department of Ed as well as the state. The Secretary of State's office is a member so we can buy by off of those contracts which means you You don't have to go through the legal legalese of a contract, you just got that contract number and get in touch with the vendor that you are interested in. Doing business with. Of course, each state has its own process, you've got to do a mini bid process of those that serve in your area. But otherwise, you just use the contract that is on the Mojave Education Cooperative website, it is erased eligible, which means it went through the process that each state has for filing for RFPs and getting their bids and selecting the from those bids. So that that is available currently, and can be used. The deadline, as I said for application is March 27. Other than that, I don't have any other updates. Right now, Steve.
And I don't think Megan's online today. Is she
out out of the stage?
Yeah. Megan is, is at a conference in Washington. So I'll just say that. We are very close to an announcement of a new Digital Inclusion consultant, but not quite ready to release a name yet.
Okay. And how are you just want to introduce yourself real quickly?
Hi, I'm Holly Henley and a state librarian working at Arizona State Library, which is a division of the Secretary of State's office.
Good to see you. How are we? Thank you. Okay, any questions for Holloway or Mala before we move on? If not, what's going on Mike Holcomb and also carry foot carry on winner in you know, want to introduce you all. So, Mike, can you give us a quick update on what's happened with telemedicine?
Sure, not too many FTC just put a couple things in the chat about ECP as basically the FCC side. Notice something new there that I hadn't seen before. They haven't. What I believe it is labeled ASL videos. So they looks like they have an American Sign Language video maybe that people could access to about the wind down. And the the other thing I just like to put a plug in for as our upcoming Arizona telemedicine council meeting. April 17. We have we haven't yet posted the agenda, but we have it pretty well set now. expecting to have presentations from the American Indian Health Area Health Education Center, from Phoenix Children's Hospital, about their innovative use of Alexa and telehealth and other things and then a couple of presentations, or a joint presentation from Desert Signia about remote patient monitoring and then presentation from our Associate Director for telehealth law and policy, tariffs floor about closing gaps in healthcare and she'll have some session about Broadband in that discussion as well. So I'll put the link to that in the chat if anyone would like to register for that. Lovely, happy to have you join us. Thank you
so much just to iterate that that is open to anybody who wishes to participate and share the link to those chats. Carrie, do you have anything that you want to add? I do not see but thank you for asking. Okay. All righty. Let's see. Do we have somebody from the from data in from the Arizona Digital Inclusion network here today? Okay, Karina, I think I saw you online. Are you still there and anything that you want to share from Department of Ed these days?
Yeah, hi, Steve. Yes, I'm online. Nothing specific to share we continue to work on on. Remember the other day we were presenting the learning object repository data, instructional data that is available to school districts across Arizona with the effort of achieving equity and opportunities for all and other than that, the work continues on the cybersecurity space supported by Homeland Security and Dima and very to help in Digital Equity as it becomes available.
Thank you, Karina. Any questions for Karina going once going twice. The I don't believe Derek's here today, Rory, you're not here are you? And my husband's not here. So I think we're done or today. Any other announcements, questions, comments? And the people have things coming up that we want people to know about.
Uh, Steve, did you include the NIST 2.0 release in your email blasts yet?
I don't think I did mark.
Right, I'm gonna put it in the chat again. So NIST cybersecurity standards have gone through an evolutionary process and a brand new version 2.0 with a lot of useful tools. There's a lot of presentations for different kinds of stakeholders, small business schools, large business, nonprofits and others. So besides the normal spec itself, there's a spreadsheet checklist. And, as I said, a number of targeted presentations that may help you in your stakeholder role. So that's in the chat.
Thank you, Mark. So Andy, do you want to take a minute and just talk about the what you mentioned earlier about your economic development forum?
And are you still there? Okay, this is not there. Okay, anything else? Ricky white? Good to see you. I haven't seen you in a while. I'm
here. I was trying to. Okay. I apologize. Your question again,
I was just saying, you want to just tell people about your economic development forum that you that you host. Yeah, you did a great job last time on workforce development. At the
Arizona department of economic security. I and a former manager put together a consortium is the Community Economic Development Advisory Consortium. The idea is to look at non traditional ways of fighting poverty. And I will bring in people to address the internet, such as the State Library, I brought in people to address housing, health care. The heat emergencies we had last year, we have community action agencies throughout the state that help fight poverty, providing our rental assistance, utility assessments, and a variety of special assistance programs. But going back to the 60s with President Johnson here for the war on poverty, at that time, the poverty rate was about 25 30%. The rate did drop to about 15%. Again, back in the 60s, but it's still in that area right now. And if I look at certain areas, Arizona, we have poverty rates that are well over 30 35%. So it's a matter of while we're doing a good job at dBs, it's a matter of what else has been done out there in a non traditional way of looking at poverty that can help reduce poverty. So that's what the consortium is all about. We're going to Economic Development Advisory Consortium.
Okay, thank you, Andy. You did a great job who workforce last time you had your your session? This? Yeah. Okay, so a couple of other quick things. And there's lots of events and things going on. But a couple of things I just wanted to share with you. And I don't have all the details because they're just in the process of planning that. But on March 25, the Arizona internet for all is planning a state of Broadband in Arizona, from 11 o'clock to one o'clock with the flint foundation in Phoenix. And of course want to get more details. I will share that with you. And then on May 14, the Arizona Technology Council cybersecurity Summit is taking place. And again that information is in the email in my email newsletter. There are other events and things for you to know about. Again, all of the workshops that excuse me that Broadband office mentioned, the links and time schedule and all is also in that newsletter, as well as the governors and governor's interagency task force. Working Groups has been meeting and the links to those meetings are also included in that newsletter. And so with that, anybody have anything else that they want to share? I'm going to stop recording and we can do a chat if people want or if we're done we're done. Okay
