KC Digital Drive awards $20K in digital literacy micro-grants; aims to boost digital inclusion
August 26, 2022 | Startland News Staff
KC Digital Drive announced today its first cohort of micro-grant recipients for “KC Goes Tech,” a new program that helps community organizations teach digital skills, such as how to use email and stay safe online, and it connects participants to funding for home internet and a computer they can take home after completing 15 hours of training.
Leslie Scott
The KC Goes Tech beta pilot will provide each of the 10 training partner organizations a $1,000 stipend or honorarium to a staff or community member who will join a trainer cohort and deliver digital training to the organization’s clients. Another $1,000 can be used in whatever way the recipients would like.
“We saw an urgent need to help direct service agencies right now by providing new training tools plus a small dose of financial support so they can better help their clients build digital skills and more fully participate in our digital society,” said Leslie Scott, digital inclusion program manager at KC Digital Drive.
Micro-grant awardees for the beta cohort are:
- Black Family Technology Awareness Association
- Central Avenue Betterment Association
- Healing House
- Jewish Family Services
- ArtsTech
- reStart
- Hispanic Economic Development Corporation
- The Toolbox Small Business Resource Center
- Sala de Arte
- DAVE’s Place Community Impact Center
Launched in July 2022, KC Goes Tech was inspired by the proven and cost-effective “Tech Goes Home’’ program founded in Boston in 1999 and expanded into Chattanooga by one of KC Digital Drive’s peer organizations in 2015, each of which has trained thousands of participants.
Micro-grants are designed to support grantees’ ability and capacity to deliver digital literacy services, to connect diverse service populations, to build upon the ecosystem support model of Tech Goes Home and adapt it for Kansas City with key core partners, to provide technical assistance to a larger network of training partners, and to identify additional partners to connect program participants with more advanced training opportunities to help them fulfill their digital aspirations.
Click here to reach out to Scott to learn more about KC Goes Tech, a train-the-trainer effort for direct service organizations.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
2022 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
It’s the ultimate stash: How an exclusive cannabis collaboration is bringing smokeware out of hiding
Working with acclaimed fashion designer Whitney Manney is a bucket list collaboration, shared Wandering Bud founder Riley Brain. The handmade ceramic smokeware maker has teamed up with the KC-based fashion label WHITNEYMANNEY to create a limited edition collection of cannabis accessories and stash bags. “I’ve always just really admired Whitney’s work and aesthetic,” Brain said.…
Just funded: Four new Digital Sandbox KC companies scaling products beyond survival mode
Freshly announced funding from Digital Sandbox KC is expected to help four Kansas City startups scale their innovations to market with additional access to investors, resources and a growing network of fellow entrepreneurs. Among the first-quarter Sandbox recipients, Basehor-based Mpruv Sports plans to use the new backing as it releases a series of peer-to-peer, on-demand,…
UMKC pitch contest returning with $90K in prizes; spots remain for emerging startups
The 2023 edition of the Regnier Venture Creation Challenge (RVCC), an annual pitch competition hosted by UMKC, is expected to award $90,000 in equity-free funding to student entrepreneurs and Kansas City businesses. Ben Williams, managing director at the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, shared his excitement for this year’s event — set for April…
He’s building a more welcoming (and eco-friendly) KC, but this entrepreneur’s vision comes with a catch: It isn’t a one-man job
Reda Ibrahim’s home is open to everyone, he shared, especially for those who feel like they don’t belong anywhere. “I have a big magnet toward everyone who doesn’t fit in. I faced a lot of racism; I have faced the struggle to be accepted. [When I came to the United States] seven, eight years ago,…