Pennsylvania public spaces are getting $45M to boost internet access and close the digital divide

Public spaces across Pennsylvania are about to get an internet upgrade. 

The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA) announced $45 million in funding for the Multi-Purpose Community Facilities Program, which provides money to community organizations and local governments to upgrade public facilities. The program will provide grants to 49 projects in 26 counties across the commonwealth. 

“Investing in public facilities improvements is an essential step in ensuring Pennsylvanians have access to reliable, high-speed internet across the commonwealth,” said Brandon Carson, executive director of the PBDA.

The grants will go toward building and improving public spaces such as schools, libraries, community centers and healthcare facilities for free, high-speed internet.

Seven projects in Philadelphia were approved for funding, including two projects from the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT), which received $2 million in grants. The funds will turn two rec centers, one in North Philly and one in Southwest Philly, into digital access hubs. 

The Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Lincoln University, Drexel University Uptown Theater and Urban League of Philadelphia also received funding for various community centers. 

Across the state in Pittsburgh, the Latino Community Center, HH Main LLC and Primary Care Health Services were selected for their community center and medical center projects. 

Besides the big cities, the fund also granted other Pennsylvania orgs like Allentown School District in Lehigh County and Sewickley Township Public Library in Westmoreland County grants between $500,000 and $1 million. 

One university will use the funds to expand its community reach

Drexel University will use its $1.5 million grant to improve the former West Philadelphia Community Center building, which it purchased in 2018. The building is part of Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, which offers resources to the surrounding West Philly community.

The grant will help expand the community computer lab and add technical support resources, a device repair space and private booths for telehealth appointments, according to Youngmoo Kim, vice provost for university and community partnerships at Drexel. 

“The most frequent request at our community computer lab is technical support and repair,” Kim said. “Our upgraded facility will provide a space for detailed support questions and to repair and restore devices, staffed by Drexel students.” 

Public spaces like this are valuable because they provide access to computers and training to community members, especially as the digital divide persists. If people don’t have access to technology, they don’t have access to the economic opportunities that come with it, Kim said. 

Billions pour into PA to support tech access, digital equity

The recent PBDA funding came from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Projects Fund which supports projects to expand economic opportunity and digital access across the country. The commonwealth received $279 million from the fund in 2022. 

Public community spaces are recognized as a resource to provide free accessible internet to communities. Government agencies have also tapped private internet service providers to partner for community internet endeavors.  

In Philadelphia, Verizon is working with the city government in a $5 million city-funded deal to bring free internet to 183 rec centers and public libraries across the city.

“Having a rec center locally in the neighborhood that has internet access, that’s just another linking the chain of things that we try all the time to explore in terms of digital equity and the digital divide,” Steve Robertson, deputy CIO for the OIT, told Technical.ly this summer. 

Similarly, Comcast provides free internet access to nonprofits, community centers, gyms and recreation centers through its LIFT Zones program. As of 2023, there were 145 LIFT Zones, which provide free internet access and other digital skills resources through neighborhood institutions.   

PBDA announced the commonwealth won $20 million to distribute devices such as hot spots, laptops, tablets and desktop computers in March. This funding also came from the Capital Projects Fund. The following month, PBDA approved $204 million in Broadband Infrastructure grants to bring internet to unserved and underserved areas of the commonwealth. 

Pennsylvania will also receive $1.16 billion from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to expand broadband in underserved or unserved areas of the commonwealth. 

Last year, PBDA launched a map to show which areas of the commonwealth are unserved or underserved. PBDA’s five-year plan for this funding was approved last summer. 

For community institutions like Drexel, this funding allows it to better support the immediate community. 

“We need to create more (and more accessible) pathways for people to develop the technical skills that lead to employment with family-sustaining wages,” Kim said. “Spaces like this provide a foundation for those efforts, but for us, it’s just a starting point.”