The struggle to get every Pennsylvanian connected to the internet touches every corner of the state — including the commonwealth’s wealthiest county.
Enter Joan Holliday and Jim Mercante, a pair of volunteers who have made it their post-retirement mission to advocate for internet access and adoption in southern Chester County.
“We are grassroots and are grateful for this effort, but are limited as volunteers.”
Joan Holliday, Chester County broadband volunteer
“We believe that the internet is one of the foundational elements for economic democracy in the 21st century and beyond,” Mercante told Technical.ly. “What drives me is the fact that I’ve had the good fortune through a lot of hard work to be pretty successful, and this is a way of giving back to the community.”
So far, they’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for digital access work and spread awareness of the issue in their community, but they haven’t been able to secure formal support from the local government.
They were hoping to expand their efforts with funds from the federal Digital Equity Act before it was canceled this summer.
Now, they’re left to rely on their relationships with foundations, nonprofits and other partners.
“It is difficult to get the attention of the county, because it appears we don’t have a problem,” Holliday said. “People that have money have been able to get fiber. This population is invisible.”
Well-connected, but it’s still not enough
Despite not having a background in digital equity work, Holliday and Mercante have been working together for the last four years to find funders and community partners.
Mercante previously owned a tech company and Holliday was a public health nurse for over 30 years, both with a long history of volunteering in their community. When the pandemic hit, they saw local families struggle to get online and decided they could do something to help.
“I felt this was a place where I could use what I had learned about the populations in the community and leverage that,” Holliday said. “This is a tool that, unless they have, they’re being left behind.”
Compared to other parts of the state, Chester County is relatively well-connected. The bigger challenge in their community is adoption of the internet, Mercante said. They focus on the low-income, non-English speaking and senior communities, who struggle with digital literacy, internet affordability and device access.
In Chester County, 94% of households have an internet connection but 98.91% have it available. Of those households, only 85% have a broadband connection such as fiber, cable or DSL, according to ISP Reports.
A few years ago, Mercante and Holliday helped secure a $200,000 grant from the PA Department of Labor to get an internet connectivity assessment done and learn what parts of the county still didn’t have internet access.
Pulling in nonprofits and the private sector
Mercante and Holliday didn’t stop at just identifying the gaps, though. They built a relationship with Comcast to fund internet expansion in parts of the county that needed it, Holliday said.
The pair started working with a nonprofit called RSVP Volunteers, which connects older adults to volunteer opportunities, and raised $40,000 to run a digital skills training program. Local nonprofit employees took the course to learn how to teach digital skills — things like getting online, using email and opening apps.
However, nonprofit employees are generally too busy to do a lot of digital equity work. Mercante and Holliday raised over $160,000 to support two bilingual digital navigators for the last two years. These workers travel to different orgs and provide individualized digital skills assistance, Holliday said.
Mercante and Holliday also built up a partnership with the local library system to bring digital navigators into English-as-a-second-language and workforce development programs.
A need for more government help
Even though Holliday and Mercante have made strides as volunteers, these efforts should ultimately be managed and funded by the local, state and federal governments, Holliday said.
The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority manages this work at the state level, but that entity is set to expire in 2031. The goal would be to establish a permanent office in Pennsylvania, Mercante said.
They also want to see a countywide office established, similar to the digital equity team at Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology, which would manage broadband infrastructure and the digital navigator network.
In the meantime, they are working on bringing in more volunteers and advocates to expand their capacity for fundraising and partnerships, Holliday said. They formed the Chester County Digital Alliance as a platform to collaborate with others interested in digital equity in Chester County.
“We are grassroots and are grateful for this effort, but are limited as volunteers,” Holliday said. “Without leadership from the professional government levels, we have less hope about moving to the next level.”
