Digital Divide

Two years ago, civic leaders in south Los Angeles started an integrated social service program for improving literacy and job-career readiness in an impoverished neighborhood of about 10,000 people.

Today, program sponsors are looking to close a key gap in coverage – a lack of broadband and internet access that not only inhibits adults getting and retaining good jobs but also presents big educational challenges to the area’s youth.

“There’s a technology access gap that continues to persist today in urban communities across America,” said Blair Taylor, president of the L.A. Urban League, which launched the Neighborhoods@Work program in 2006. “We are convinced that a large part of the income disparity and educational issues can be bridged, if we are able to get timely information to people in low-income communities,” he said.