Comcast today hosted a special event at Beacon House to launch Washington, D.C.’s first Internet Essentials Learning Zone and announce the 2019 launch of a senior citizen pilot program of Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive high-speed Internet adoption program.
Comcast’s Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Diversity Officer, David L. Cohen was joined by Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie, Ward 5; Jocelyn and Monique Lamoureux, U.S. Olympic Gold Medalists; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Six-time U.S. Olympic Medal Winner; and Kevin Hinton, Executive Director of Beacon House to announce the Internet Essentials Learning Zone. The Learning Zone is a network of partners working together to create a continuum of connectivity that begins online in classrooms, then extends to community centers, computer labs, and after-school programs and finally ends at home. Partnering with the District of Columbia, Comcast is providing free WiFi to 19 community organizations and centers, the ability to connect to the Internet at home through Internet Essentials, and access to digital literacy programs and training to help close the digital divide in the city. The participating community organizations and centers, include:
- Academy of Hope Adult Public Charter School
- Academy of Hope Adult Public Charter School – Southeast Campus
- Beacon House
- Boys & Girls Club – Richard England Clubhouse #14
- The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV)
- DC Dream Center
- Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative – Malcolm X Opportunity Center
- Faunteroy Community Enrichment Center
- Friendship Place
- The Fishing School
- Horton’s Kids
- Housing on Merit – Fort Chaplin Park Apartments
- Latin American Youth Center
- Life Pieces to Masterpieces
- Mary’s Center
- N Street Village
- Recreation Wish List/ Southeast Tennis & Learning Center
- YMCA Calomiris Center
- YMCA Capital View
As part of the event, Comcast awarded 32 computers to 32 high school juniors and seniors attending the event from Beacon House’s after-school program, as well as presented Beacon House with a $25,000 digital literacy grant.
Since 2011, Internet Essentials has connected more than 1.5 million families, or about 6 million low-income Americans, to the power of the Internet at home, including more than 35,000 families, or about 140,000 low-income residents, in the Greater Washington, D.C. Area. The company connected more than two million people in the last year alone, which is the largest annual increase in the program’s history. The company also announced it will significantly expand eligibility – for the eleventh time in seven years – to low-income veterans, nearly one million of whom live within the Comcast footprint. According to the United States Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey, fewer than 70 percent of low-income veterans have Internet access, and less than 60 percent own a computer.
