Paolo Balboa

In 2024, the Digital Equity Act moves past the planning phase and into the grant-making phase to deliver programs and policies to communities on the ground. In 2021, the federal government made the biggest ever investment in digital equity with $2.75 billion in the Digital Equity Act.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) named 47 communities as 2023 Digital Inclusion Trailblazers, recognizing the efforts of local governments to close the digital divide. These communities span 23 states, and demonstrate the important role municipal, county, and regional governments have in digital inclusion. NDIA launched a valuable resource with an open collection of 591 resources and documents from all of the 2023 Trailblazer awardees.

In the Fall of 2020, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance partnered with the Salt Lake City Public Library and Urban Libraries Council to bridge the Digital Divide in Salt Lake City through the launch of a Digital Navigators pilot project. To prepare for direct service in Dec 2020, program leadership at the City Library and NDIA worked collaboratively to develop several tools for Digital Navigators to use as they recorded and addressed the needs of community members in Salt Lake City.