Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) has selected six projects in five counties to receive Digital Towns 2.0 funding to improve digital equity and inclusion in the Indiana Uplands.
| ROI Digital Towns 2.0 Grant Recipients | ||
| County | Organization | Project Description |
| Greene | Do What Is Good, Inc. | Do What Is Good, Inc. is a faith-based organization focused on rural community development in Indiana. Grant funds will allow churches to provide digital literacy workshops and assist residents in accessing reliable devices and Internet connectivity. |
| Lawrence | Lawrence County Economic Growth Council | Grant funds will be used to create a comprehensive website for community residents, job seekers, and employers that will function as a central hub to make connections for employment, education and training resources, and high quality early learning/childcare.. |
| Lawrence | StoneGate Arts & Education Center | Grant funds will support the StoneGate Digital Support Service program through digital skill-building classes, a coworking space for remote workers, and access to digital and media services equipment and training expansion. |
| Martin | Town of Shoals | Grant funds will be used to deploy six mesh networks to provide free, high-speed Wi-Fi access to high-traffic public spaces. |
| Orange | Orange County Economic Development Partnership | Grant funds will support digital literacy training courses for adult learners to enhance their employability and productivity in the workplace. |
| Washington | Washington County Community Foundation | Grant funds will be used to install and provide public Wi-Fi at Salem Community Park. |
ROI launched its Digital Towns grant program following the development of digital inclusion plans in 2023. As part of the planning effort, each of the 11 counties in the Indiana Uplands worked collaboratively to analyze data and develop recommendations for improving local broadband connectivity, access to computing devices, and digital literacy.
“Even before the pandemic, our predominately rural communities were seeking support to help residents and individuals thrive in our increasingly digitized society,” said ROI President and CEO Tina Peterson. “Each of our 11 counties eagerly worked independently and collectively to identify how best to decrease the digital divide locally with practical strategies for improved access and literacy.” Borrowed from a framework developed in Ireland, “Digital Towns” are defined as geographic and information spaces that adopt and integrate information and communication technologies in all aspects of town life.
Source: Addressing the Urban-Town-Rural Divide: The Digital Town Readiness Assessment Framework.
More information on Digital Towns: https://www.weare.ie/ie-digital-town-blueprint-introduction/
The main objective of ROI’s Digital Towns grant program is to advance a more digitally inclusive region by adopting and integrating digital information and communication in all aspects of our communities. In two rounds of funding, grant applicants were asked to align their project submissions with three of the Digital Town Readiness dimensions:
- (#2) Digital Citizen – refers to initiatives that help households connect to the internet, access devices, and grow competence in the usage of digital technologies to engage in internet services, e-commerce, educational opportunities, digital public services, and healthcare services.
- (#5) Digital Business – relates to maximizing opportunities in the digital economy by enabling partnerships with businesses and entrepreneurs.
- (#6) Digital Public Services – support collaborations between local units of government, nonprofits, and/or health care services to provide access to online information and/or services and telehealth access points.
Four grants were awarded in the first Digital Towns round, and six grants were awarded in this second round.
“We’ve been incredibly impressed with the quality of applications we’ve received for the Digital Towns program,” added Peterson. “We wish we could award funding to all of our community applicants, but we are proud to support six innovative projects in this round and are encouraged by the progress being made regionally to create a more digitally inclusive Indiana Uplands.”
To read more about ROI’s digital inclusion initiative and see community data and plans, visit https://regionalopportunityinc.org/digital-inclusion-2/
In addition to ROI’s programs, the state of Indiana has also launched and enhanced programs to advance digital equity and broadband access, including a statewide digital equity plan, Next Level Connections Broadband grants, and opportunities with the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). For more information on these programs, visit: https://www.in.gov/indianabroadband/
About Regional Opportunity Initiatives:
Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advance economic and community prosperity in the 11 counties of the Indiana Uplands (Brown, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen, and Washington counties). ROI is growing potential and possibility through a focus on advanced industry sectors, regionalism, transformative school and workforce redesign, and placemaking strategies.