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LYNN DODSON
Hello, I'm Lynn Dodson and I’m with Spectrum. I'm Vice President of Sales for the Community Solutions Team.
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LYNN DODSON
we're excited as a company to be participating in the program. You know, we're a very large company, but we have a large local footprint. So we have a 100 ... thousands of local
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LYNN DODSON
employees here. And I think we're all excited to be part of the program and to support the program.
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LYNN DODSON
Our broadband infrastructure is already in all the buildings. So we'll be able to move quickly to access, activate services for the residents and start the digital adoption.
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LYNN DODSON
public private partnership is a great way to get the underserved community access quickly. Our partnership with Access Charlotte is just that, you know, we intend to quickly roll out our program to all the underserved and be able to access the services for the residents.
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LYNN DODSON
I think we all found during the pandemic how important connectivity was. And I think we saw a lot of folks who were left behind during that time. And I think this was a great opportunity to get access to Access Charlotte and Spectrum for all those folks who can really use the connectivity.
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
Partner Liaison Analyst at 311 is someone who we talk with the back end departments. We're in constant communication with the back end departments about the new policies, about the processes that they have. Making sure that we have the information updated
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
for our agents so that they can provide seamless and excellent customer service and so that they're also following the things that the back end departments want done.
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
we also have partnered with several outside organizations such as the CDE, the Center for Digital Equity. So we actually take calls for them and we refer them over to their digital navigators program, which kind of ties in to Access Charlotte, which is why we're so excited that they included 311.
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
when people call in, they are in need of something, whether it's “I need to know about financial assistance” or “I need to know about tech help”. So when they call in and we're like, hey, did you know, we have this program here in Charlotte and we can
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
bridge that divide where there's people who don't have Internet access, who don't have access to to laptops and things of that nature.
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KESHIA BRINKLEY
And so by us teaming up with Access Charlotte, as well as the CDE, it allows us to make our community stronger, which is part of our part of the 311 mission, like we want to strengthen the community, make it a strong community, one interaction at a time.
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EMERY ORTIZ
I'm Emery Ortiz. I am the chief strategy and innovation officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library.
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EMERY ORTIZ
right now we are focusing a lot on digital equity work and just the various resources that we can bring to the community in that way.
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EMERY ORTIZ
public libraries have been at the forefront of digital equity work for decades, and we really appreciate the chance to collaborate with organizations like the Center for Digital Equity in providing our communities with vital resources.
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EMERY ORTIZ
Access Charlotte is something we're really excited to be a part of. This work is, you know, vast and none of us have the capacity to do it on our own.
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EMERY ORTIZ
So again, going back to that collaboration, we want to help be information centers for Access Charlotte, making sure our citizens know how they can get connected, where services are available, and also be a provider of resources in terms of technology.
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EMERY ORTIZ
digital access is such an essential component to everyday life. Now that the equity piece of that we do not want to leave anyone behind, we want everyone to have the same opportunities as everyone else. And so digital equity is a key component to that.
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EMERY ORTIZ
with the access that Access Charlotte will provide, that Internet connectivity piece will be there for so many of our citizens and which is absolutely critical where other organizations like the CDE and the public library can fill in is with the hardware, the technology, with the resources and with guided, you know, digital literacy and information courses to really help, you know, someone get from point A to point B in that journey.
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EMERY ORTIZ
This is really valuable work and it's really rewarding to see the benefits that the community receives from having enhanced access, more device connectivity, more resources spread throughout the community.
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EMERY ORTIZ
Through our laptop distributions, we've heard stories of grandparents being able to speak to their grandkids that live far away now that they have access to Facebook or to Zoom, you know, we've heard from people who have new job opportunities because they have access to technology.
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EMERY ORTIZ
So seeing that direct positive impacts that we're able to have is just the most rewarding thing about my position.
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NATALI BETANCUR
I'm Natali Betancur and the Deputy Director at the Center for Digital Equity with Queen's University of Charlotte.
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NATALI BETANCUR
we bring together the public sector, the private sector, nonprofit organizations and community members to co-create solutions that ultimately help our community members thrive in today's modern culture.
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NATALI BETANCUR
the Center for Digital Equity has a critical role in the Access Charlotte program. And what we're going to do is really bring a holistic approach to getting community members connected.
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NATALI BETANCUR
we're not only looking at getting individuals and households connected to the Internet, but also do they need a device that they can utilize that Internet on?
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NATALI BETANCUR
Digital equity is is no longer a luxury, right?
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NATALI BETANCUR
Having access is not a luxury. Having access in today's society is as necessary as your electricity and as your water.
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NATALI BETANCUR
access itself is critical to thrive in today's modern society.
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NATALI BETANCUR
as an immigrant myself, I think I firsthand experience the immense amount of barriers around not only access, navigating and language and all of these different barriers.
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NATALI BETANCUR
it's on a personal level, I feel very invested in this, but it's also as a team, our mission is to make Mecklenburg County the most digitally equitable community in America.