Portland nonprofit Free Geek and telecom giant Comcast Corp. are teaming up for a new Center for Technology Education and Digital Equity.
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) will provide $300,000 to build a center to help people access internet service and learn digital skills and also play for marketing for the center and its services.
Free Geek’s mission is divert electronic waste by refurbishing computers and making those computers available to those in need. It also provides computer skills training. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic the group was fielding thousands of requests for technology.
The Comcast donation is in two parts:
- $60,000 is going toward the new center and providing free, high-speed Wi-Fi service. This is through the Comcast Lift Zone program. Since 2020 Comcast has created 20 Lift Zones with free Wi-Fi in more than 20 community centers across the state.
- $240,000 is going toward a “digital navigation campaign.” This is designed to deepen community relationships and help eligible people enrolled in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The ACP provides vouchers for internet service. These vouchers can be combined with Comcast's Internet Essentials programs that offers discounted service for qualifying households.
The digital navigation campaign will work with community-based groups who can meet eligible families in their communities and in their native languages.
"Free Geek is proud of our ongoing partnership with Comcast and collaborative effort to deliver technology education, digital navigation, internet access, and devices to communities in our region,” said Juan M. Muro Jr., executive director of Free Geek in a written statement. “We are excited to open The Center for Technology Education and Digital Equity in East Portland through the Comcast Lift Zone program, marking the first step towards our vision of advancing digital equity for those who need connectivity the most in our communities.”
For Comcast this is part of a $1 billion initiative called Project Up that is designed to address economic mobility through digital equity.
“As the world becomes more digital, we must work harder than ever to help people get online and learn digital skills to make the most of the internet and all that it has to offer,” said Broderick Johnson, executive vice president of public policy and digital equity for Comcast in a written statement. “We’re so appreciative of our commitment with Free Geek, an organization who changes lives here in Portland, who believe in our same mission of closing the digital divide.”
