CYC opens Ashtabula Community Technology Action Center

Connect Your Community is launching a new “Community Technology Action Center” to promote digital literacy and affordable technology access in Ashtabula.

The new center in downtown Ashtabula offers free facilities and support to help regional digital inclusion service providers extend their services to local residents. Its first partner is the Oak Hill Collaborative, based in Youngstown, which will begin offering free twice-a-week “Digital Advantage” classes on February 12.

In addition to basic computer skills training, Oak Hill’s program makes free refurbished laptops available to qualifying participants. CYC is now looking for ways the center can facilitate access to affordable refurbished devices for more local households.

Ashtabula is a small (17-18,000), historically industrial port city in a mostly rural county. The city’s 31% poverty rate is about the same as Cleveland’s. The most recent American Community Survey found 30% of Ashtabula households lacked wireline broadband, and 34% lacked a laptop or desktop computer. More than 6,000 households in the city’s ZIP code, 44004 — which includes adjacent suburbs — were enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program when it ended last Spring. There’s clearly a need for digital inclusion resources — basic skills training, affordable devices and connectivity — but little local infrastructure to make them available.

CYC sees our new Community Technology Action Center as a possible model for creating that infrastructure at a very modest cost, relying on collaboration, existing regional resources, and a no-frills but welcoming “home base” in the community.

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