Nate Stone

The enduring challenge of sustainability is now more crucial than ever for digital inclusion programs. A new series of three briefs from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) highlights best practices in the foundations of sustainable programs: intentional community impact, diligent data collection and analysis, and mission-aligned storytelling.

Federal actions across the U.S., particularly fear-inducing ICE activity, have caused some community members to shelter in place. National Digital Inclusion Alliance Affiliates have found community members cut off from jobs, education, health care, and other crucial services. How do programs that care about digital inclusion respond to this new environment? They are dusting off models developed during COVID, shifting to hybrid or fully remote program services to ensure their communities don’t fall further behind the digital divide. Key strategies include:

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance contracted with MassHire Metro North Workforce Board, the organization that leads the Digital JEDI Consortium in Massachusetts on training and support for their digital navigator program. In thinking through the topic of our last professional development training together, one topic kept coming up again and again: artificial intelligence.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance launched the 2025 Digital Navigator Program Toolkit. It provides guidance for setting up and managing successful digital navigator programs. The authors of the toolkit are experts from the NDIA team who have experience training, supporting, and learning from hundreds of digital navigators and programs providing digital navigator services across the country. The toolkit takes readers from conception to execution to sustaining a digital navigator program, with concrete tools and advice from practitioners across the country. 

Digital skills frameworks and skill lists can be compared to the instruction you or others provide to better understand what levels and ranges of learning are being offered and achieved…and for users to recognize and celebrate their success!

There’s been great progress in recognizing how essential digital skills are! But which skills are those, and who needs them when? In this series we'll look at the framing of digital skills training, starting with the basics, and to provide tools for you to use. This is the first of two posts on digital skills. Part 1 presents a model for digital skill learning purposes, the link between individual and broader field needs, and introduces digital skill assessments, lists, and frameworks.