Digital Connect Makes Digital Navigation Approachable

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Monday, February 3, 2025

Digital Beat

Digital Connect Makes Digital Navigation Approachable

The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead Following up on the release of The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead, we are providing examples of core, complementary, and coalition models for digital equity work. This series of organizational profiles delves deeply into how these programs work, the problems they are best suited to solve, the populations they are best suited to reach, and the support they need to succeed. Learn more about the Human Infrastructure of Broadband Project.


Digital Connect (DCI) is an initiative of a Tribal-owned internet service provider (ISP) that offers a full complement of digital inclusion services to Tribal members and residents of the Gila River Indian Reservation, including individualized digital navigation, digital skills training, device distribution, and, more recently, digital equity research.

  • DCI has had considerable success adapting to organizational learning, especially by pivoting to incorporate individualized digital navigation and reorganizing the program to prioritize regular presence throughout the Gila River Indian Community.
  • Thanks in part to the ongoing commitment from its parent company, DCI benefits from having the time and space to experiment and learn, develop a strong vision for the organization, and become competitive for grants.
  • Many of DCI’s staff, including its digital navigator, are members of the community, yet trust still had to be built over time through the development of accessible, reliable, and consistent programming.

Reflecting on some of the strategies that have ensured the success of DCI, Community Liaison Carmen Baldwin-Ortega thinks about one community resident in particular. “I was waiting, like, when are they gonna fizzle out?” he told her. “But you’re continuing to show up, and it makes me want to participate in a class.” When he faced a setback with a forgotten password in his second-class session, Baldwin-Ortega worried for a moment he might be lost again. “It’s so hard to even do this,” he said. “How am I even gonna enjoy what I’m supposed to be doing?” However, just a little patient support from staff put him back in the right frame of mind, and he grew confident enough to show off his work to others. And he was inspired to keep learning. The community’s librarian later told Baldwin-Ortega, “He showed me his certificate yesterday [after completing the class], and he was so happy;” he even asked if he could use the library’s extra staff computer to continue practicing.

This individual’s experience highlights some essential elements of DCI’s digital inclusion success: patience, consistency, and “creating an outlook of accomplishment and empowerment,” said Baldwin-Ortega.

Digital Connect is an initiative of Gila River Telecommunications, Inc. (GRTI), the Tribal-owned internet service provider of the Gila River Indian Community. Nestled within a larger organization focused more broadly on connectivity, DCI itself concentrates almost entirely on digital inclusion activities, offering digital navigation, digital skills training, and device distribution. And though the ISP and DCI are managed independently of the Tribal government, DCI sees its work as a part of the Tribe’s mission to promote community well-being, self-sufficiency, and cultural respect. DCI’s programs primarily serve Tribal members as well as other residents on the reservation.

Digital Connect was launched in 2018 as an initiative of the GRTI Board of Directors to ensure that community members were prepared to fully realize the benefits of the new fiber broadband the company was installing. There was no full-time DCI staff for several years; employees at GRTI taught periodic classes or took on some digital inclusion work alongside their normal duties. This early history highlights the unique quality of DCI as an outgrowth of the Tribally owned ISP’s broader commitment to community well-being through connectivity.

After incubating for a few years, DCI has grown rapidly since 2021. The four current staff members were hired between 2021 and 2023. Starting in 2021, DCI began offering digital skills classes through a grant that GRTI received through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. DCI staff soon realized that many residents needed more individualized and foundational digital support, which led DCI to apply for a grant from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). Winning the grant in 2022 permitted DCI to hire a full-time digital navigator, which Executive Director Mikhail Sundust identifies as an important turning point for DCI.

In just two years, the digital navigator program has become “the foundation of what we do,” Sundust says. Somewhere between 11,000 and 14,000 people live in the 600-square-mile Gila River Indian Community, which is divided administratively into seven districts. This geographic distribution has posed a unique challenge for DCI’s digital navigator, Tyler Smith. In order to reach people throughout the community, Smith rotates through each district’s community center every week during a regularly scheduled time block (though he takes appointments as well). He works individually with the clients who drop in, primarily elders, in a wide range of activities, from device setup to email use to enrolling in services online. More recently, DCI has also launched a device distribution program, which it has integrated into its holistic digital navigation framework. After conducting several required skills assessments, Smith trains people who receive devices on setting up and utilizing their new device and offers additional digital skills instruction where appropriate.

Digital skills training classes predate the formal digital navigation program and continue to be a linchpin of DCI’s work. DCI hosts an impressive breadth of small-group programming taught primarily by Sundust and the team’s program manager. DCI’s monthly Urban Elders classes, held in Phoenix, were among its first regular offerings. They are held in partnership with the nonprofit Warriors Code. DCI is also the first Native American organization to be certified to use AARP’s Senior Planet curriculum. Other classes include short-term youth-oriented classes about typing and online safety, as well as more advanced courses. Some of DCI’s digital skills programming is based on free, pre-designed content like the Senior Planet curriculum (which Sundust credits as saving time and resources), while most others have been developed by the DCI team.

This variety of offerings means that DCI’s digital navigation services are integrated into a holistic digital equity ecosystem, which has allowed for a productive feedback loop to develop. Class instructors will refer participants to Smith for digital navigation services, and many of Smith’s clients then go on to enroll in classes for more advanced learning. Moreover, while each of DCI’s four employees has a distinct role, Baldwin-Ortega emphasizes, “We are all definitely digital navigators.” She and Sundust each tell stories of every member of the team working directly, one-on-one, with clients. In part, this reflects the reality of working on a small and busy team, where people’s work is often complementary and overlapping, but it also reflects an organization-wide prioritization of individualized digital navigation.

At times, DCI leverages partnerships with other organizations. Some are particularly long-lasting, like the years-old partnership with Warriors Code to bring engaging, low-stakes digital engagement sessions to Tribal members living in Phoenix. When leveraging external partnerships, DCI tries to remain keyed into the needs and desires expressed by the community. The team points to an upcoming limited series of “Techie Camps” in partnership with AZ StRUT as an example of programming that brings outside resources and proven programming to address community interests and DCI’s vision. In these camps, teenagers deconstruct, reassemble, and then take home a computer.

The Tribal government is a key supporter of the organization’s work, which underscores DCI’s role as a community-driven program operating in concert with Tribal government values and priorities. Reflecting on that cooperation, Gila River Indian Community Assistant Community Manager Michael Preston highlights not just the Tribal government’s material and in-kind facilities support for DCI but also how Tribal government messaging around the program helps “legitimize the work and provide that trust there to community members.”

Financially, DCI’s work is supported by its parent company GRTI as well as by grant funding. When DCI was created, GRTI’s board made an open-ended commitment to support digital inclusion work. This commitment remains ongoing, even as DCI has used grants to build out its portfolio.

What We Can Learn

Make Digital Navigation Approachable

The design of DCI’s digital navigator program and the character of the digital navigator himself have together created a culture of approachability, which DCI sees as essential to its success. Smith is described, first and foremost, as a personable, caring, and organized person, which has helped him become a trusted voice among both clients and staff. More broadly, DCI’s work is driven by a commitment to “meet you where you’re at” with personalized solutions, according to Baldwin-Ortega, an approach that empowers rather than overwhelms people seeking help from the digital navigator. While this tailored approach might pose challenges for scaling or replicating successful programming, it has proved extremely effective for DCI and can also reduce the barriers to entry for organizations looking to start this work.

Learn From What Works—and What Doesn’t

Digital navigator work is by design responsive, but the broader story of DCI’s portfolio of digital inclusion activities is also one of adaptation. In early classes, DCI staff identified a strong interest among attendees in personalized, one-on-one foundational help. The staff pivoted away from set curricula to “Bring Your Own Device” sessions at first and then were able to combine a larger variety of classes with direct digital navigation through grant support. Later, when simply making Smith’s availability public didn’t drive as much uptake of services as the team expected, DCI adopted his idea to begin rotating through the district community centers on a set schedule. This adjustment made him a familiar presence throughout the community in places where members already gathered and helped mitigate transportation and travel barriers. DCI’s case illustrates the value that can come from a willingness to adapt to on-the-ground realities—be they changing interests among community members, geographic challenges, or new staff capacity.

Know Your Community, but Don’t Take Its Trust for Granted

Smith’s rotating schedule made him a regular and predictable presence in each district. “People know what to expect,” Sundust notes, a consistency that helps build trust. Smith is a member of the Gila River Indian Community; Sundust notes that this has been a “really valuable asset.” Yet trust in Smith’s services, and trust in DCI more broadly, still had to be earned over time. One part of that has been simply showing up, over and over again. Another aspect of trust-building is cultivating community champions. In Gila River, some of those community champions are Tribal leaders, like the community’s governor and Tribal Council, but champions need not be formal leaders. One champion, a community resident, recently spread the word about digital navigation with such success that 13 people showed up for one session. This case illustrates the need to build trust for new programs and services, even among one’s own community, and highlights some strategies for doing that.

A Long Runway Can Be a Critical Resource for New Programs

Even as DCI took several years to begin scaling up, the Tribal ISP and community-maintained support. The program benefited from its connection to GRTI, which supported and secured grant funding for many of DCI’s current initiatives. That runway helped DCI experiment rather than focus on meeting externally imposed deadlines or performance indicators.

Sundust remembers that when he was initially hired, he had the latitude to spend several months planning to ensure that DCI had an actionable, cohesive strategic vision. Establishing that strategic vision has allowed DCI to evaluate new opportunities against its core expertise and priorities—in other words, to remain adaptable without losing sight of its mission.

This case offers a valuable lesson for funders and organizers looking to set up new programs about the need to balance service quality with urgency. The DCI team was able to develop sustainable, quality programming that is rooted in the community’s interests in part because it did not rush out initiatives simply to meet short-term metrics.

Looking Ahead

Expanding capacity will be key to the sustainability of DCI and other programs like it. The DCI team would like to continue building on its success with digital navigation and digital skills training in part by adding staff, including someone with instructional or technical expertise. DCI leaders are also increasingly aware of the need to offer classes or events in each of the districts, because the seven districts are themselves seven communities. Achieving this expansion in staff capacity will require sustainable funding that allows for flexibility and experimentation. DCI is actively looking for ways to diversify its funding sources. This case highlights the merits of a robust funding ecosystem that allows for more planning and longer periods of performance, supports both pilot programs and the expansion of proven activities, and prioritizes community-rooted solutions.

Programs like DCI would also benefit from greater awareness among funding agencies of the unique character of Tribal communities. The low population density and significant geographic area of some Tribal communities impacts how digital inclusion services must be delivered—and the resources that are needed to do that. Because of transportation constraints, residents often cannot go to a “central” location, so digital navigator services, if they are to be done well, must be distributed—driving up staffing and travel costs.

The continued development of networking opportunities and resource repositories, especially when those have a focus on Tribal practitioners, will also contribute to the sustainability and scalability of digital equity programs like DCI. The team at DCI is always looking to leverage the knowledge of other practitioners or share its successful strategies. The Indigenous Digital Inclusion Working Group, supported by NDIA and AMERIND Critical Infrastructure, and NDIA’s Seven Star Communities program have already begun to build such a community of practice. Efforts to promote and expand these initiatives could have a significant impact.

Digital equity programs with strong ties to local or Tribal governments might find that they are well positioned to leverage those relationships for growth and sustainability. Sundust envisions more significant integration with Tribal government and service agencies, like education and health care, to build a robust digital equity ecosystem.

“All of them have digital resources,” Sundust says, “which means all of them have clients who need digital support.”

Better integration would expand the reach of digital equity programming and perhaps even strengthen connections among those agencies. DCI and other Tribal digital equity programs might also find that there is an opportunity to offer services to Tribal government departments directly or to continue to be stewards of Tribal funding.

Similarly, these organizations are uniquely able to help guide Tribal planning and policy. For example, in the fall of 2024, DCI began an extensive digital equity study, including asset mapping and community feedback collection, that will inform the Gila River Indian Community’s policies on digital equity. DCI’s relationship with the Tribally owned ISP makes it well positioned to lead this sort of comprehensive planning. This project exemplifies the particular importance and impact of organizations that are embedded in municipal or Tribal operations but which nevertheless remain rooted in the needs and interests of community members.


Written by: Jess Auer

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