FRCOG named digital equity trailblazer

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By CHRIS LARABEE

Staff Writer

Published: 01-20-2025 9:41 AM

GREENFIELD — For its work in closing the digital divide in Franklin County and the North Quabbin, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance has named the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) a 2024 Digital Inclusion Trailblazer.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance, an Ohio-based nonprofit advocating for digital equity around the U.S., cited FRCOG’s ongoing work in creating municipal digital equity plans with numerous communities in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region since 2023, as well as efforts stemming back to regional broadband access in the 1990s. Digital equity, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is the belief that everyone needs access to reliable and affordable high-speed internet to create an equitable economy.

Ted Harvey, FRCOG’s senior economic development planner, said the recognition is a validation of the ongoing partnership between the agency and the communities of Franklin County.

“We’re a very rural area, we kind of get forgotten about sometimes and it’s nice to get that recognition,” Harvey said. “A lot of the work has been done throughout the towns and all of our municipal partners. … It’s on behalf of all of them.”

The digital equity plans for Franklin County communities looked at how towns and the city of Greenfield could help residents get reliable internet access by gathering feedback from people, businesses and other stakeholders, and then laying out projects that could achieve digital equity goals.

Greenfield’s 2024 Digital Equity Plan, for example, laid out three main goals of supporting residents’ access to their choice of internet connectivity, ensuring digital literacy so people can use their technology and the development of a framework to continue to promote digital equity for city residents.

Each goal also has action plans or implementation steps. As an example, action steps for Greenfield’s connectivity goal included searching for grants to expand Greenfield Community Energy and Technology’s (GCET) infrastructure or funding the Greenfield Public Library’s free hotspot device program.

In an announcement, National Digital Inclusion Alliance Executive Director Angela Siefer said the nonprofit’s awards celebrate the success of local governments taking the initiative to bring all residents into the internet age.

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“In the past decade, we’ve seen local governments step into the important role of building digital inclusion ecosystems, where organizations that provide services can connect and thrive,” Siefer said. “NDIA’s Digital Inclusion Trailblazers celebrates these critical efforts to bring digital opportunities to all residents.”

Harvey said plans like FRCOG’s digital equity documents, as well as the numerous other plans the agency puts out, can possibly serve as a model for other rural communities around the region. He noted it’s a two-way street, too, as FRCOG also looks at its own peers’ studies and plans.

“Certainly in Massachusetts and New England, we’re a pretty good model of how this could work,” Harvey said, adding that the challenges rural communities face are sometimes more difficult than those faced by urban communities. “There’s a lot of need, and rightly so, in our urban communities and our Gateway Cities and Boston, but the need is just as great and, sometimes, greater [in Franklin County.]”

The primary challenge FRCOG has heard from its towns, Harvey said, is affordability. While slow or unreliable internet is frustrating and doesn’t allow someone to effectively work or pursue an education, if someone can’t afford internet at all, then those problems are moot.

“The No. 1 thing it comes back to is affordability,” he said.

FRCOG’s digital equity plans are available on its website at bit.ly/4a6Wo71.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.