PRACTITIONER SUPPORT
NDIA supports digital inclusion practitioners across the country.
If you’re doing digital inclusion work, or just want to learn more, this is the best place to start. If you’re a US-based nonprofit or government agency, join as an Affiliate organization, join the listserv – an active, free community of helpful digital inclusion practitioners, and sign up for NDIA’s monthly newsletter. As an affiliate, you will also be invited to join NDIA on the third Friday of every month at 1 p.m. ET for Community Calls where we will share national resources and on-the-ground strategies for providing digital inclusion services.
Digital navigators are individuals who address the whole digital inclusion process — home connectivity, devices, and digital skills — through repeated interactions if that’s what a community member needs. The digital navigator model has proved to be flexible and replicable across a variety of settings. The digital navigator model page holds resources including template materials and webinars.
In 2022, NDIA partnered with 11 rural organizations and 7 Tribal organizations to launch the National Digital Navigator Corps through a multi-year grant from Google.org. NDIA provides support in launching multi-year digital navigator programs in each organization’s community – including in training, outreach, and data collection – while collecting lessons learned about the digital navigator model in these settings. Get the latest information about the National Digital Navigator Corps.
Digital Inclusion practitioners have been working to end the digital divide for decades, creating their own community, definitions, resources, and gaining knowledge of what works and doesn’t. Digital Inclusion is a multifaceted issue that takes time to understand. To assist in this process, NDIA is hosting a Digital Inclusion 101 webinars and providing resources for you.
Asset mapping is an approach to planning and community development centered on identifying and building on a community’s existing resources. NDIA offers free, customizable tools, including a Digital Inclusion Asset Inventory Template and Digital Inclusion Asset Survey Template.
To meet the needs of households with low-incomes, many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer discount broadband plans. This page is for anyone interested in learning about low-cost internet offers. NDIA updates the Honor Roll regularly, so check back often.
This manual, developed by NDIA with support from Dell Technologies, serves as the definitive guide for digital inclusion program design, research, and best practices. It supports both new and experienced digital inclusion practitioners while building awareness of excellence within NDIA’s affiliate community. The manual also provides an introduction to digital inclusion programming for funders, community partners, and adjacent fields, including broadband officials and staff at NTIA and FCC. It serves as a central, citable source for digital inclusion program practices.
This guidebook, developed by National Digital Inclusion Alliance with Public Knowledge and support from Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen, has two purposes: a practical guide for digital inclusion practitioners in need of affordable home broadband service, and describes affordable broadband plans for disadvantaged American households offered by commercial internet providers.
This guidebook, refreshed with new content in 2022 by National Digital Inclusion Alliance, reflects on lessons learned from 23 community-based digital inclusion coalitions in an effort to aid local communities navigating the development and implementation process of forming a digital inclusion coalition.
This guidebook, developed by National Digital Inclusion Alliance with sponsorship from Chicago Connected, provides detailed guidance on the creation of a community digital inclusion program for individuals looking to increase access and use of technology in disadvantaged communities through digital literacy training, affordable home broadband, affordable devices, and tech support. This guidebook was updated in September 2020 to reflect best practices around Digital Inclusion programming in the age of COVID-19.