Hispanic Federation receives $45,000 Spectrum Digital Education grant to fund the Spectrum Mobile Learning Lab

About 50 members of the migrant and seasonal farmworkers community recently packed into the meeting room at Giovanni’s Bakery on South Breazeale Avenue in Mount Olive, not to learn about baking, but rather to learn about a program to help them utilize a new mobile digital learning hub.

The new program is being made possible through a $45,000 Spectrum Digital Education grant to fund the Spectrum Mobile Learning Lab.

The grant, announced Friday, July 21, at the bakery, has been awarded to the nonprofit Hispanic Federation.

The mobile lab, the Hispanic Federation’s first mobile lab in the country, will be operated by the Federation partner agency Salud Sin Fronteras.

The grant is part of Spectrum’s six-year, $8 million commitment to promote digital education and broadband technology in communities across the country.

Funding for the mobile learning hub will allow the Hispanic Federation and Salud Sin Fronteras to enhance their outreach by providing services such as digital education workshops, computer literacy training, access to telehealth and other programs essential to the farmworker community in eastern North Carolina.

Additionally, for seasonal and migrant farmworkers in North Carolina, the mobile learning hub will help bridge the digital divide by providing Wi-Fi and computers — ensuring farmworkers the opportunity to stay connected with their children’s education and in the community for future employment opportunities.

Kat Kerr, vice president for North and South Carolina, Charter Communications which operates the Spectrum brand of internet, mobile, TV and voice services, talked about the grant and presented a large symbolic check.

She said one of the pleasures and privileges of her job was to attend such events.

Spectrum Digital Education grants like the one presented go to nonprofit organizations to help provide people with the skills to navigate the changing world — the online world to find jobs, buy groceries, she said.

Everything is done online, Kerr added. However, not everyone has the resources or ability at home to do so, she said.

“We have a long relationship with the Hispanic Federation,” Kerr added.

The Hispanic Federation is one of 47 nonprofit organizations that Spectrum is supporting through its 2022 Spectrum Digital Education grant program.

In all, the company will invest $1.1 million this year to support digital literacy in undeserved rural and urban communities within Spectrum’s 41-state service area, including North Carolina.

Spectrum launched the program in 2017, recognizing that education and digital literacy are as important as affordability relative to a household’s lack of broadband services.

Excluding this year’s awards, Charter has funded 99 nonprofit organizations and more than 95,000 people in 22 states and Washington, D.C., through Spectrum Digital Education grants

“Duplin County is a place that is close to my heart, and I am so excited that the Hispanic Federation is now providing services (here),” said Lariza Garzon, the Federation’s North Carolina state director. “I am happy we get to share that with you today. For you who do not know, the Hispanic Federation is the nation’s premiere Latino nonprofit.

“We are so proud to have you here at Giovanni’s Bakery. This is a Latino-owned business that many of you frequent. It is a place that is close to the heart of the community and it was so kind to let us use this space.”

The Hispanic Federation, a national organization, opened its North Carolina office in 2019.

“We came to North Carolina because we know that the Latino population here is increasing,” Garzon said.

“We know there are a lot of different services that we support, and we knew that we wanted to increase our programs and policy initiatives here in the state around health, economic development, civic engagement, the environment, education and of course, digital inclusion.”

The organization has expanded a great deal since 2019 and has just opened an office on Center Street in Mount Olive, she added. The office was used for the first time on June 20, she said.

However, it is still being set up and that is why the announcement was held at the bakery.

The hope is to be able to serve Latino families and farmworkers, and it will work as well to demonstrate community effort and support, she said.

The mobile lab will be the Hispanic Federation’s first such lab in the country, Garzon said.

“And the idea is that with partners like Salud Sin Fronteras we will be able to make digital education available for folks like you that maybe don’t have the flexibility to go to classes during the day or go far away to take a class,” Garzon said.

“We hope we can bring the service to your camps, to your communities, and into places like this bakery where people already come all of the time. We could literally set up a classroom here and make sure that you learn the digital skills that you need to stay connected to your families; to help your kids in school; just to do all of the things that are now necessary.”

Garzon said she thinks it is importation for the Hispanic Federation to have a footprint in eastern North Carolina, an area that is often overlooked including in the digital divide conversation.

“We are happy to be here and we are committed to this community,” she added.

Diana Caba, Hispanic Federation vice president of community and economic development, thanked those attending, and especially Charter Communications for its generous support of the Federation’s digital workforce initiative.

For more than six years, Charter Communications through its Spectrum Digital Education program has been one the longest supporters of Hispanic Federation efforts to provide digital educational opportunities to Latino communities, Caba said.

Thus far more than 2,000 individuals have been served through that collaboration and labs have been opened in a number of communities, she added.

That includes two labs in New York City and one each in Syracuse, Milwaukee, Fort Worth, Orlando, Charlotte and Durham.

The mobile lab will serve multiple counties in eastern North Carolina, Caba said.

“So it goes without saying that Spectrum and the Hispanic Federation have long understood that there’s a digital divide in this country,” she added. “Reliance on technology is more than just a trend. It is our future.”

The issue gained even more attention during the COVID pandemic as families and individuals needed devices and access to education, work opportunities, benefits and connections, she added.

The digital divide especially affects the Latino community, Caba said.

According to one study, more than one half of Latino workers nationwide have either no or limited digital skills, she said.

The study also estimates that in North Carolina, 91% of job listings require digital skills, she continued. It notes as well that Latinos in the state are disproportionately represented in agriculture and food services.

Both are industries that are experiencing tremendous innovations and the emergence of automation which require an array of digital skills, Caba said.

Through its Digital Workforce Initiative, the Hispanic Federation has developed a curriculum, provided grants and technical assistance to 44 Latino-led community-based organizations across the country providing workforce training with the goal of addressing the digital divide.

“Duplin County is near to my heart,” said Angelica Santibañez, founder and executive director, Salud Sin Fronteras. “I was born in San Diego, California, but I came to North Carolina, Duplin County specifically, when I was only two years old. So, this is home for me. My mother was a farmer, and she did that for 16 years.

”I graduated, went to college, pursued nursing, but I still felt a connection and wanted to come back to my roots and thus Salud Sin Fronteras has been born. Our goal is to make sure everybody feels like they are a valuable asset to our community so that they feel empowered to make changes to bring a positive impact into our community.”

The digital mobile lab’s purpose is to go out into the community, she explained.

“We understand that it is difficult for farmworkers sometimes be able to receive these services because of their difficult work schedules,” Santibañez said.

“So our team is dedicated, really committed to going out into the community, going to the camps after hours, on weekends, during holidays to make sure that farmworkers have access just like everybody else within our community.”

There are two different curriculum, she added. One is more specific to seasonal families, people who live here year-round.

That program provides 16-hour classes divided over eight weeks.

People are able to learn about creating a resume, learning about Google, how to make a monthly financial statement, she said.

Santibañez reiterated earlier comments that the pandemic had demonstrated how people, particularly Latinos, were very far behind in the digital world.

“So the purpose of this is to make sure that everyone has equal access to digital resources,” she said.

For the farmworkers community that travels there is a three-hour curriculum designed to teach about the resources, services available to everyone when they are in the area, she added.

“We want you to feel welcomes,” Santibañez said. “We want you to feel valued, and we want you to feel seen. We make this an open invitation to all of you who want to learn more, who want to be a partner in this, to be a change.

“We know that Duplin County is kind of behind when it comes to some things. Obviously we are in a very rural area so that includes the digital divide.”

Gretchen Ramirez, of the North Carolina Office of Digital Equity and Literacy, said the agency is a new and the first of its kind in the U.S.

It is trying to make a difference in the state’s digital divide while showing the rest of the country how it can be done, she said.

It receives money from the federal government to come up with strategic plans, to go into communities to find out what is needed and how to make a difference, Ramirez said.

“We are so excited for the mobile lab,” she added. “This is exactly something we would like to see across the state. We are excited that Charter offers these things. It is unbelievable. It is so new, I hope everybody here takes advantage of it.

“It is something that if we can get other communities to adopt the same notion and apply for things and really bring it all together. We are proud to support the program, and we’re also proud to partner and make sure that you have what you need to make a difference in the digital divide.”

State Rep. Jimmy Dixon of Mount Olive said he was tremendously impressed with the attempt to bring access to technology to the state’s rural communities.

“I hope the ones here are interested in additional education,” said Dixon, whose district includes all of Duplin County and about half of Wayne County.”

Education is the ticket to coming out of the field, he said.

“Education can be the ticket to come from being the picker of the cucumbers to being the owner of the farm,” Dixon added.

“So, I am very impressed with the attempt to bring additional technology to our rural communities and especially to farmworkers.”