Changemakers LA Podcast: Digital Literacy is A Just Recovery
Senior Program Officer Shona Sen hosts this Changemakers LA podcast episode, covering the support Angelenos need in accessing digital literacy and upskilling opportunities through LISC's Financial Opportunity Centers® (FOCs). LISC's FOCs are community partners that provide employment and career counseling, one-on-one financial coaching, low-cost financial products, and income support counseling free of cost to their neighborhoods and communities.
Joining LISC LA for this conversation are:
- Susy Contreras, Community Development Program Director of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF)
- Dawn Comer, Director of Technology Inclusion for the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office of Budget and Innovation
- Sandra Bonneville, Financial Empowerment Program Manager for Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP)
Susy Contreras discussed Mexican American Opportunity Foundation’s (MAOF) work to support families in their base access to digital inclusion and financial literacy resources. Susy discusses the challenges faced and the unique approaches her organization take to meet their participants where they are at.
Dawn Comer provides insight into the different ways the City of Los Angeles partners with Community Based organizations to identify gaps in access to technology and reach the most impacted. Dawn also discusses the scalability of infrastructure and the approaches currently being used.
Sandra Bonneville describes the needs expressed by their community around navigating programs and resources during COVID-19 when all public services went digital. They provided support with understanding the online platforms to ensure folks were not being denied access due to a lack of digital literacy.
About our panel:
Susy Contreras serves as the Community Development Program Director of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) in Los Angeles, CA, one of the country's largest Latino-oriented family services organizations. In this role, she focuses on implementing comprehensive grant-based economic empowerment programs and services that impact low-income families in the East and Southeast region of Los Angeles County. Her key responsibilities include overseeing MAOF's immigration, financial capability, health education, and outreach programs. In addition, Susy enjoys traveling, reading, and listening to podcasts in her free time.
Dawn Comer enjoys working at the intersection of technology, data, and civic engagement. She is the Director of Technology Inclusion for the City of Los Angeles, serving in the Mayor's Office of Budget and Innovation. In addition, she works with public-private partners to address issues of digital equity and literacy, broadband adoption, the banking divide, and the information divide. She began working at the City of L.A. as a FUSE Corps Executive Fellow, focused on Smart Cities, after spending 20+ years as a management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting and IBM. As a management consultant, she led transformational projects for consumer products, technology, and media and entertainment companies. She continues to use technology and data for change in the public sector, with an eye on equity.
Sandra Bonneville has been with the Central City Neighborhood Partners, a LISC Financial Opportunity Center®, for the past five years and serves as the Financial Empowerment Program Manager. Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP) has been a cornerstone in the community, providing access to free services through a collaborative model and enhancing the quality of life for underserved households throughout the City and County of Los Angeles, focusing on the Westlake/Pico-Union communities. In addition, CCNP focuses on ensuring equal access to essential need services, including financial security through professional and career development, financial education, free tax preparation, and income support.
This episode of Changemakers LA was made possible by Mastercard Impact Fund, with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
Want to dive into the full transcript? Check it out below!
Shona Sen 00:04
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Changemakers LA Podcast, presented by LISC Los Angeles. The Changemakers LA Podcast is a tribute to the people and the policies that make LA neighborhoods good places to live, work, and play. I'm Shona Sen, Senior Program Officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in the Los Angeles office. In today's episode. We will talk to our guests about how they are supporting Angelino's and accessing digital literacy and upskilling opportunities through LISC’s financial opportunity centers. LISC’s, Financial Opportunity Centers (FOC), or FOC’s, as we call them, are community partners that provide employment and career counseling, one on one financial coaching, low cost financial products, and income support counseling, free of cost to their neighborhoods and communities.
Shona Sen 00:53
Joining us today, we have three wonderful guests; two guests from our FOCs and one subject matter expert. We have Susy Contreras, she serves as the Community Development Program Director of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation in Los Angeles, California, one of the country's largest Latino Oriented family services organizations. In this role she focuses on implementing comprehensive, grant based economic empowerment programs and services that impact low income families in the East and southeast region of Los Angeles County. Her key responsibilities include overseeing MAOF. Or Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, immigration, financial capability, health, education, and outreach programs. Susy enjoys traveling, reading and listening to podcasts and her free time. Thank you for being here with us today, Susy.
Shona Sen 01:48
Next, we have Dawn Comer who enjoys working at the intersection of technology data and civic engagement. She is the Director of Technology and Inclusion for the City of Los Angeles, serving in the Mayor's office of Budget and Innovation. She works with public private partners to address issues of digital equity and literacy, broadband adoption, the banking divide and the Information divide. She began working at the city of LA as a fuse core executive fellow. Focused on smart cities after spending twenty plus years as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting and IBM. As a management consultant, she led transformational projects for consumer products, technology, and media and entertainment companies. In the public sector, she continues to use technology and data for change with an eye on equity.
Shona Sen 02:38
Lastly, we have Sandra Bonneville with Central City Neighborhood Partners, a LISC Financial Opportunity Center (FOC), for the past five years. Sandra serves as the Financial Empowerment Program Manager. Central City Neighborhood Partners (CCNP) or CCNP, as we like to call that both the FOC, has been a cornerstone in the community, providing access to free services through a collaborative model and enhancing the quality of life for under-served households throughout the city and county of LA; focused on the Westlake, Pico Union neighborhoods and communities. In addition, CCNP focuses on ensuring equal access to the central need services which includes building financial security through professional and career development, financial education, free tax preparation and income support.
Thank you for being here, Sandra. Thank you, all of you, for being here with us today. We're excited to learn from you, and talk a little bit about digital literacy, and upskilling in LA.
Shona Sen 03:36
So transitioning over to questions. LISC Los Angeles has partnered with Microsoft Philanthropies and the Master Card Impact Fund to launch the digital pathways to Careers Initiative. This initiative builds on the LISC FOC model to support career pathways through digital and financial literacy, support, employment, counseling, income sports, counseling and digital upskilling opportunities. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the urgency for improved technology access and digital fluency to the forefront. All of the tools and knowledge acquired now will have lasting benefit, as digital skills have become crucial for workers and for the nonprofits who provide skills, training to them. Microsoft Philanthropies and Mastercard Impact Funds, investment in digital literacy and upskilling opportunities will help our FOC community partners adapt to the future of work and support clients and accessing jobs that employ technology in the workplace and beyond. Jurisdictions across the country, like the city of LA, are addressing digital inclusion through infrastructure improvements, a broadband adoption, providing programs and services, and lowering barriers to upward mobility.
Shona Sen 04:48
So Let's talk about how our guests today are partnering to address digital and financial literacy needs in the most impacted communities in LA. So, Susy, if It's okay, we'll start with you.
Shona Sen 05:02
MAOF serves the needs of Latino community of California while preserving Mexican American cultures, pride, values, and heritage. What are some challenges facing your clients' access to digital literacy? And how is MAOF uniquely positioned to address those needs?
Susy Contreras 05:19
Thank you, Shona, first and foremost, thank you so much for the opportunity to be in this podcast today and share more about our experience. To answer your questions, it seems when it comes to using smartphones and tablets. Our clients are very comfortable, but they're not very comfortable or familiar when it comes to using a computer. So thank you to LISC and to a sponsorship from Microsoft Grants and Microsoft, we were able to address this challenge by offering digital literacy classes where we teach our community members the basic components of a computer, such as what is the difference between the hardware and software of a computer, where is the power button. And as the classes keep progressing, we are also teaching them about Microsoft programs, such as Powerpoint and Excel, and through our intake we are also screening our clients for digital literacy. So if we see that there's a gap, or there's a need, we encourage them to enroll in our classes. We also schedule one on one sessions to teach them how to open up an email, or how to create an email or how to download a video platform that's needed in order for them to enroll or take part in our session.
Shona Sen 06:52
Great thanks So much, Susy. Dawn, what would you say are some digital inclusion gaps that COVID-19 exposed? And how have local leaders responded?
Dawn Comer 07:07
Hi. Thank you so much. I like to say that COVID brought to light many of the gaps in access to technology and information that already existed before the pandemic started. But now it was just a brighter light that was shown on the impact of the divide and the level of the inequities. We all know that our children need access to the Internet for their education. But I think also it was brought to light, how we are able to connect in a time where we couldn't go out, or maybe we could reach the normal places where we would go to gain access to free wi-fi. So, for example, libraries or coffee shops were then closed at the height of the pandemic, and we couldn't access the Internet in those ways. So the challenge of finding affordable connectivity.
Dawn Comer 08:05
I think also the challenge of finding connectivity at speeds that would allow more than one person in a household. Or let's imagine, three or more students in a household trying to access one hotspot device. Those types of challenges were addressed as well as now. We're doing healthcare online. Now, maybe someone who had not applied for a job online before is doing so online, and they're doing it at home and again, unable to go to a library to get assistance in person for the literacy component. So I just think it brought to bear the importance of literacy. We can provide devices, but we have to also provide the education around how to use the devices and how to do so in a safe manner. And from the city perspective we definitely worked in partnership with community based organizations to distribute hotspots. We also worked in partnership with community and organizations to understand the need in new ways.
Shona Sen 09:20
Thanks so much Dawn. Sandra, navigating systems and accessing digital upskilling opportunities in an ever changing digital world can be overwhelming, As Susy and Dawn both pointed out earlier in their responses as well. What would you say Covid-19 exposed for you guys in terms of accessing services, especially those offered digitally? How has CCNP offered digital literacy and upskilling opportunities, and What have your clients shared about the offerings that you have provided?
Sandra Bonneville 09:56
Well, thanks for that question, and thank you for having me here today and definitely as Susy and Dawn mentioned previously; the digital divide really became even more evident. We already knew it was there, but it just came out all at once. Definitely seeing the communities that we serve, struggling just to be able to make ends meet, being able to bring in some type of income during Covid was even more evident that there was a lack of that assistance there. A lot of our families, previously may have applied for unemployment, but on paper, or being able to see a representative from EDD. Our families were not even able to apply for food stamps or Calfresh because the DPSS offices were closed.
Sandra Bonneville 10:44
So, being able just to access even those online applications which have been there for years, was something that our communities were not able to; that's where CCNP really started taking a step forward with our community, and being able to assist them with applying for benefits; but at the same time it wasn't, let's just do this for you. But let's teach you how to use it. So it would go back to, maybe even just the basics. Do you have an email on your phone where you can receive notices? Are you able to access your EDD online? So It's not only just doing the application, for the fact that they're now gonna receive benefits, but also they're able to know what's the next step I need to do to recertify every two weeks, let's say, for unemployment benefits. So it's taking that first step during the pandemic. So we were fortunate enough to remain open to the community, and be able to start teaching them that. Now, as we're getting out of the pandemic beginning this year, CCNP in partnership with LISC and Microsoft, we began our digital literacy trainings here where we're able to teach the basic of computer literacy; being able to open a LinkedIn account, so customers can go back to applying for jobs having more linkage to opportunities elsewhere.
Sandra Bonneville 12:11
So we do a nine week course where we teach them the basics of Microsoft Linkedin. Some of our customers have never even turned on a computer, so It's even as basic as helping them learn that. A lot of our customers were afraid, if I make a mistake on a computer, what's the next step; everything’s gone. Getting them out of that fear of being able to use it. And as to be mentioned, a lot of our customers are used to using cell phones for certain things. But a computer is a whole nother world. So just getting them that comfortable, that hope. Sometimes it's just bringing back that hope that I can do this. I've had somebody teach me, now I have a place where I can practice. As Dawn mentioned, libraries were closed during Covid. Here at CCNP, we try to keep our computer labs, so customers are learning it, but then they're also able to practice it. Because that's another thing that we saw is the lack of access to computers. We could be teaching all the digital literacy we want, but if a customer doesn't have access to a computer, where will they continue practicing? So that's definitely something that we're working on within our digital literacy as part of the FOC. Also focusing on finances. And how do you, if you have to purchase a computer, how do you get there financially? How do you save for it so that I'm able to continue my digital literacy journey?
Sandra Bonneville 13:38
And as to what our customers are saying, they're loving the workshop. It's sometimes stressful for some of them, but they keep pushing and coming back week after week to be able to learn even more; working as an assembler for years now, he hadn't finished his high school diploma and didn't have any computer skills other than scanning certain items at work. So as he started coming in here he started talking about how now he'll be able to get a promotion, so he'll be able to be more financially secure being able to get that promotion, or even being able to look at employment elsewhere.
Sandra Bonneville 14:17
One of the ones that really touched me was one of our customers; she's a sixty one year old cancer survivor. The chemo left her hands hurting, she was actually afraid of starting the digital literacy workshops, not because it was going to be a hard class for her, but she was afraid of being able to keep up due to her health issues. But now, she attended the workshop, she completed it, and a little bit before she completed her workshops, her children actually bought her a computer. She didn't have a computer. And she was so happy when she came in and said, you guys brought back that hope I had in opening my business, because now my family is even seeing the emotion that I'm feeling about learning about digital literacy that they purchased me a computer. Now I'm not only going to be able to practice more, she's going to be able to open her small businesses. Which to me is amazing, going through all of that hard work, and actually coming in every week for her classes, and now she'll be able to open up her own small business.
Shona Sen 15:23
Thanks, Sandra, that's such a beautiful story. I love hearing the testimonials and the actual feedback from clients. I think that speaks such volumes to the impactful work that both Susy and you are doing on the ground level directly with individuals and communities across the city. So quickly we'll just switch over to Dawn. I have a quick question for you. So your work really focuses on a systems level approach to addressing this enormous problem we have here in the city and county, and I think, nationwide. You are focused, and you have done a lot of work around developing infrastructure at scale over the past couple of years. Can you speak a little bit to your experience, developing that infrastructure at scale, and how community partnership support has helped to achieve your outcomes?
Dawn Comer 16:15
Thank you so much so, definitely, on the infrastructure piece, we want to make sure that we are working with partners across both the telecommunications industry as well as across the cities network to make sure that we can have that accessibility and increase the availability of low-cost Internet. That's something that's a continued effort right now to our Bureau of Street Lighting they are definitely using. We have some funding that was allocated for digital inclusion efforts. And so Bureaus street lighting is leading the effort for community connectivity pilots. We have seen the census tract maps that show where connectivity exists and where it doesn't, and I believe we all on this call definitely know the communities that are impacted. So they're working to develop community connectivity pilots and not just thinking about from a home broadband perspective. But if we also look to the future of how we need to be connected for many of the services that we are using across the city. How do we keep our city safe in an emergency?
Dawn Comer 17:28
So from an infrastructure perspective, the discussion goes a bit broader because we want to think about city operations. But we also want to think about what's needed for residents and to your point about partnering with community based organizations. It's very important because the community based organizations are a trusted voice, and I'm so happy to be here today with Sandra from CCNP. We haven't met before, but I've been working with CCNP on one of our programs, Angelino Connectivity Trust, which is a partnership with the Mayor's fund for Los Angeles, the Mayor's office, and in collaboration with Team Mobile Project Ten million to provide eighteen thousand Wi-fi hotspots to K. through twelve students. So we launched that in 2020, just as Sandra shared today a lot of the testimonials. We love it when CCNP shares with us all the photos of students who've received the Wi-fi hotspots through the ACT program. It just lets us know that what we're doing is real and it touches families across the city of LA. So being a trusted voice, because sometimes the government may not be a trusted voice or someone's had a bad experience. So we want to make sure that we understand what's happening within communities and actually community partners, may have that voice, that ear sooner than we may have it. It's really important to make sure that we understand what's really happening in that we're just not designing programs within the halls of the city offices.
Dawn Comer 19:12
Then another program that we worked on with CCNP as well is our Angelino Connect Program, which helped to provide relief funding through a fee free debit card through our partner, MoCaFi. That was addressing unbanked Angelino's, and I would say what we learned from that, even though it was focused on finance topics and financial literacy, and providing some support via relief funding. The way in which residents engage with Angelino Connect is via a mobile device. And for families who aren't used to doing banking online, or who may be unbanked and not have a bank account at all. It might be a little daunting to now use your mobile device to deal with your finances. So the digital literacy component impacts every aspect of what we're doing. Whether it's health care, whether it's finance, whether it's looking for a job. The impact of working with a trusted voice is so important, and we're happy to have those partnerships. And I think that also, when it comes to us building out other areas and sharing information about access to low-cost internet, it will be the work through outreach with community partners that will help share what the city is doing, and how we're trying to make strides as we build out connectivity.
Shona Sen 20:48
Thanks, Dawn. What you shared about digital literacy impacting every layer of our lives resonates so much. I think that's something that we've all seen that this is not just about being able to write in Microsoft Word or prepare a Powerpoint or be able to open an email. Everything that we're operating and working with is online now, and that goes banking education, our schools, accessing income supports, accessing information about disaster preparedness. It goes really really deep, and it's all online and sometimes there's an assumption that this is a very accessible way of obtaining information, and I think we've all seen that it's not necessarily the case; especially given the communities and neighborhoods that we work with who have been very intentionally disinvested in and have experienced digital redlining have experience to a lack of access in their own languages in the culturally competent way.
Shona Sen 21:56
I actually have one more question kind of for all of you. I'd love to hear from all of you, I'll just quickly uh set the context. Through the infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was passed earlier this year, the Federal Government is investing billions of dollars nationwide into addressing broadband and device access, digital literacy, digital upskilling for the future of work and all kinds of other investments in rural areas as well. We've learned that digital redlining is a big problem for neighborhoods across the country that have been disinvested in for decades. Digital redlining, in case you're not familiar with the term, I think all of you are. But I'll go ahead and share a quick definition, it happens when Internet service providers invest less money in low income and marginalized communities. Just like redlining, the real red lining term that we know of for the past several decades, it's very similar. It actually ends up impacting the same communities which we see like layer after layer after layer. When we see those maps, the same communities with less access to health care, with less access to education, access to schools, transit all of those things layer up, and it ends up being similar communities impacted by all of these issues at the same time, including digital red lining. So given the communities that you all partner with to provide digital literacy and upskilling services, too. What would you like to see the roll out of these investments include so that it is equitable, it's inclusive, and it reaches the people that it needs to reach it. So I'll start with, how about Sandra, from CCNP, and then we'll go to Susy and then Dawn.
Sandra Bonneville 23:47
Yes, definitely the access just to pricing. Let's say computers it's out of control. Specifically for our families, let's say, for our families, a median income in our district is about $17,000, a little over $17,00 for a family of four. When you're thinking about purchasing a computer, even a smaller laptop, it's still $200, $300. So definitely, affordability is one of the things, but I also think it's really that education piece. We can provide our families with the computers, but if they don't know how to use them, being able to have it is not going to be as beneficial to our community and our families. It's accessibility to the actual products, internet connection and computers. But also providing them that information, education, and how to use them. Digital literacy training is something that we would really like to see in general for a lot of our population. Also, it's not even just our communities, it's in general within the whole city, and the whole US.
Shona Sen 25:09
Thanks Sandra. We'll pass it to Susy.
Susy Contreras 25:13
Yes, thank you. Very similar to my colleague, we see that our families purchasing a computer is a big challenge. Our families average income is about $22,000, and it is challenging for them to set aside funds to be able to purchase these laptops. In conjunction with digital literacy education, they actually need the product to be able to practice. Because if you don't practice, you forget, that's what we're realizing. If our parents don't have access to these laptops and computers, then all this information that we're doing, all of this education we’re pouring is gonna go to waste if they don't actually have the tools to work and where to practice. Allowing for some of these funds to go into giving our clients access to technology, and also training for the community based organizations that are implementing the work. We have some basic components of digital literacy, but investing in the training for the individuals that are passing on the information to these communities is also essential.
Susy Contreras 26:33
That would definitely be very beneficial, and engaging community based organizations where community members go for these services; because they come to us. They don't go to other locations for these services. They see us as their hope for accessing any kind of service. Investing in community based organizations to be able to push these funds and to be able to give clients access and educate them is essential, because we are the trusted messengers in these communities.
Dawn Comer 27:14
I so agree with what Sandra and Susy have said, especially the part about supporting community based organizations with the outreach dollars. So that is something that will be possible. I believe I'll have to follow up, but there has been discussion about supporting CBO’s for outreach, because we understand that's important. One thing that I would like to continue to see is that outreach. Because there are funds like through the affordable connectivity plan ACP, which provides a subsidy for low cost internet. If you're signing up with some partners who have low-cost plans and you sign up for ACP your Internet becomes free.
Dawn Comer 28:04
So I think it's about increasing awareness of these programs and doing that with the trusted voices of the community based organizations, but understanding that is another layer of work or outreach from the CBO’s, who are already tasked in doing so much to serve our communities. That piece, making sure that we don't forget that some extra funding to support those roles is needed. Also just making sure that we are in line to receive a lot of the support for building out the infrastructure. The city of LA and other cities within LA County, we've been participating in LA Deal with the LA Economic Development Corporation, which is focused on collaborating across the Southern California region
Dawn Comer 28:59
with respect to infrastructure and building that out, making sure that we are in the pipeline for that. There was a lot of advocacy that happened late last year and earlier this year that allowed the 110 corridor around the city of LA to be part of the build out that's supposed to be happening with the state, for infrastructure. Making sure that our voices are heard, and that we continue to advocate for the city of LA, as well as the county, because a resident does not necessarily know the boundaries when they're crossing if the Internet is gonna work on this side of this street or the other side of the street. So we have to make sure that our voices are heard, and that we are part of the conversations of how the build out is done as well as communications about the available programs.
Dawn Comer 29:54
And one thing that I will add, while we may feel like we're waiting for those things to happen is, please don't forget the public libraries, because our LA Public Library does have a tech to go program where you can loan, you can check out like you would check out a book, a bundle computer and a hotspot together for a long term loan, and just like Sandra shared some of the testimonies, the library has shared with me testimonies of a patron who, because they were able to have that long term loan, they were able to gain some skills and apply for a job. It's stories like that where you know it's making a difference inch by inch, we keep moving. The collaboration that we have between the school district, the county, the city, and the state. It takes a full ecosystem of everyone working together to really make a difference and move things along as we look for this funding to come from the Federal and State level.
Shona Sen 30:59
What a great way to end! That is it, I also really appreciate all of you, your feedback around training and capacity building for both organizations and individuals, and also the resources that you shared at the end and throughout this podcast. I encourage you all, those of you who are listening, to check out MoCaFi, LA Deal, and technical research through public libraries. There are so many resources available, and sometimes, so many that we don't even know about them, and knowing about those is also a challenge that we have, but also an opportunity to better serve our communities and neighborhoods by just being able to access those resources and knowing about those resources.
Shona Sen 31:49
I thank you all. I thank each of you, I thank you Dawn, Susy, Sandra for joining me in this critical conversation. Your work is essential to ensuring that every Angelino has access to programs and services that can improve their financial and digital literacy, I look forward to seeing all of your work grow in scale, and also have an impact.
Shona Sen 32:12
This episode of Changemakers LA was made possible by the Mastercard Impact Fund with support from the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. If you would like to learn more about how we support place-based initiatives for housing and economic development at LISC LA, please visit us online at https://www.lisc.org/Los-Angeles and follow us on Twitter @LISC_ LA. You can find the rest of the series on Itunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Subscribe to hear more on the conversations about people and places that shape Los Angeles. This podcast is produced in collaboration with Ronnell Hampton, founder of Growing Greatness Now. Growing Greatness Now is a consulting firm committed to social and environmental justice.
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