MetroHealth’s Digital Connectivity Initiative will expand to serve six additional Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority complexes through its Connected Care Cleveland initiative .
The services will be similar to that of the Digital Connectivity Initiative by providing residents with a year-long subsidized internet service, access to laptops and computers and digital literacy training to help them understand how to use their devices.
“Internet is essential to our day to day,” said Marilee Santiago, director of transformative knowledge and education with MetroHealth’s Institute for H.O.P.E. “We must have it in order to access our health care, access jobs, access education, connect with friends and family. This is part of who we are.”
The Digital Connectivity Initiative is a partnership between MetroHealth, Cleveland-based nonprofit DigitalC, CMHA, and Dollar Bank. They came together in 2019 after U.S. census data ranked Cleveland as the worst-connected city in the country.
“We were experiencing at the time where over 46 percent of the Cleveland residents had no access to broadband, home internet access as well as mobile data plans,” she said. “And among the populations, you know, that were being affected by this, we did realize through just doing some mapping that a lot of our MetroHealth patient populations was, part of, experiencing that that gap, or the digital divide.”
With $600,000 in funding from Dollar Bank, the team began working to address the problem in the Greater Clark-Fulton neighborhood with the goal of connecting 1,000 households by the end of 2024. The partnership met that goal in two years, and celebrated Tuesday.
“Not only are we going to not only did we meet that goal,” Santiago said, “we're potentially duplicating it with additional funding support through the Federal Communications Commission.”
The FCC provided the Connected Care Cleveland initiative an additional $900,000 in funding. Santiago said they will also be investing remaining funds from the Dollar Bank grant into the expansion.
With the expansion, Santiago said they expect to provide service to an additional 2,000 households over the next three years.
The Connected Care Cleveland initiative will service the following six CMHA complexes for the next three years:
- Doris V. Jones, 4609 Rocky River Drive
- Miles Pointe, 11806 Miles Ave.
- Phoenix Village, 6001 Woodland Ave.
- King Kennedy South, 6001 Woodland Ave.
- Lakeview Terrace, 1332 W. 28th Street
- Ambleside, 2190 Ambleside Drive
Residents at these locations will receive internet service from DigitalC and do not need to submit an application.
After residents finish their subsidized internet access, Santiago said they can help them find other resources, such as the federal Affordable Connectivity Program.
The program has helped reduce social isolation, Santiago said, by allowing residents of all ages to connect with healthcare providers, family and friends.
