Federal actions across the U.S., particularly fear-inducing ICE activity, has caused some community members to shelter in place. NDIA Affiliates have found community members cut off from jobs, education, health care and other crucial services.
How do programs that care about digital inclusion respond to this new environment? They are dusting off models developed during COVID, shifting to hybrid or fully remote program services to ensure their communities don’t fall further behind the digital divide.
This blog post summarizes conversations that have occurred across the NDIA community over the last few months at Net Inclusion, community calls, and through the NDIA listserv. It’s been heavily informed by presentations and conversations with Can Code Communities, digitalLIFT, Health Forward Foundation, and the Hopkins Digital Access Initiative. We hope this serves as a starting point for programs working to deliver digital inclusion services to impacted communities.
Set up for success
Moving to online or hybrid services can’t happen instantaneously. To make it successful, there’s some key areas to explore:
- Online attendance means switching up your outreach: Lean on partners for client referrals. Organizations that provide the most critical resources, such as food and rental assistance, may already know who needs your support and have methods for delivering physical items.
- Prep funders and community partners for program changes: changing delivery models affects attendance, evaluation, and reporting. Get ahead of the game by talking to stakeholders to explain why and how you’re switching things up. If you’re a funder, consider how you can open up more opportunities to serve people without clear citizenship status, and shift to providing cash up front instead of reimbursement to help organizations that are facing greatly increased demand for services.
- Revisit your class content: Be prepared for questions specific to this moment, such as suggestions to better secure your phone against tracking and search, or resources for legal, rent, or food assistance.
- Going online changes the barriers to entry: Particularly for people learning basic computer skills, jumping on to a video meeting is a skill they need to learn before a class or appointment. Offer a thorough one-on-one initial intake to make sure community members have everything they need – device, internet, and core skills to get into the meeting or training platform.
- Carve out time to help clients set up devices: Expect long, one-on-one phone calls to work through the initial setup of new devices. Can Code Communities has consistently provided remote support to their clients since 2020, and they say a voice call for initial setup can take up to an hour. The computer shipped to their house comes with a printed sheet of paper with basic instructions and who to call for help.
- Prioritize language access: if participants are English language learners, it is critical to have instruction available in or alongside their native language. If multilingual instruction is not possible, helping people learn about translation apps in the first few lessons can be very helpful.
Adjust pacing and expectations
Online instruction will mandate a different tempo and tools, and a constantly changing threat landscape for clients makes scheduling and planning even more difficult.
- Frontload with the meeting platform: Teaching how to best use the online meeting platform interface first is absolutely critical for your first session or two. Build in ways for participants to demonstrate what they’ve learned through using different features of the platform.
- Smaller, more flexible attendance options: Mass enforcement actions means plans change rapidly, and planning ahead becomes even harder. What services can you offer on demand or as a drop-in program?
- Expand access in as many ways as possible: Community members will look for ways to engage that align with their current risk and availability. Explore offering hybrid, virtual, and phone access.
- Use virtual tools to differentiate instruction: catching up latecomers and meeting the needs of people with different skill levels can seem even more intimidating online. Use breakout rooms to their full potential: break people out who need extra help and one-on-one tutoring.
- Consider how language access affects pacing: Can Code Communities offers classes in English for English speakers, Spanish for Spanish speakers, one-offs with “language support” (someone with enough of the language that they can support learners who may get lost in the English), and classes in English for participants who speak a language they cannot support. These different options will affect the pacing of the class – dual-language classes generally take longer, and people taking classes in a non-native language need slower presentations to ensure comprehension.
- Let the individual define their goals and what success looks like: If you normally provide a six-week class series with attendance required each session, consider how you can adapt your requirements to support someone who isn’t able to commit to the full class series. As an example, Can Code Communities offers a certificate at the end of its 36-hour training – but people still get a modified certification even if they can’t complete the entire course. They can still get recognition and resume-building skills even if life gets in the way.
“Holding safe spaces for learning takes a lot of thought in this current environment, and the very best action that can be taken currently is that of real-time engagement in active response planning. This will ensure readiness and help folks maintain calm, steady momentum versus being swallowed whole by the chaos around us.”
Skye Downing, digitalLIFT
Trust is essential
Trust is the only way to rebuild the relationships and community cut off by fear.
- Leverage existing relationships: bring instructors who have preexisting relationships with the community to the forefront to ensure community members feel safe attending.
- Trust grows when the community feels seen: instructors who represent the community (through language or identity) and have strong cultural competence make it more likely that the community will show up and return.
- Meeting people where they are at is even more important: are there tools or platforms you could use to build community trust? Get familiar with WhatsApp, because it is very familiar and comfortable among many immigrant communities.
- “Trust grows where safety is visible:” Staff from digitalLIFT shared this advice on a recent community call, focusing on the importance of proactively communicating to the community what steps you are taking to ensure participant safety, online and off. One example: they begin sessions with a privacy statement, explaining what data they collect and what they do with it.
Center privacy
Maintaining a safe learning environment means understanding the new risk profile of your community members and ensuring your program isn’t increasing their risk.
- Minimize data collection: community members have become painfully aware of the way their data can be weaponized against them. Think through what data you currently collect and narrow it down to the bare minimum you need to operate your program and report to funders. Ensure what data you collect is kept confidential and secure, and institute data hygiene measures to delete any personally identifying information (PII) on a regular basis.
- Be aware of how you can give away information about community members IRL: ICE has been documented trailing service providers to try and locate potential targets for detention. If you’re delivering things directly to people, pay attention to your surroundings, make sure you’re not being followed. Be aware of who is around you while holding virtual or phone conversations with clients.
- Offer low-visibility participation options: While it isn’t the most reassuring for instructors to talk to an online meeting of black squares, consider ways you can help community members lower their public visibility and still participate. You could drop registration requirements or allow participants to leave their camera off, for instance.
- Allow and recommend participants use pseudonyms if it makes them more comfortable: when a community member has to call a mobile provider’s tech support for their hotspot, what information do they have to provide and when can they be just John Doe? Can they use a nickname or alias when registering for a class?
Stay engaged, stay inspired
We’ve been inspired to hear how local practitioners are stepping up to help meet community needs; helping their neighbors stay connected to education, healthcare, and opportunity in the face of fear and uncertainty. We’d love to hear from you if your program is making similar changes: please email us at [email protected].