Free Geek, Devices, and Digital Equity
Friday, January 24, 2025
Digital Beat
Free Geek, Devices, and Digital Equity
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.
“I think one of the proudest successes that I’ve had was this person that came in for a laptop, and she was just going through it, you know—going through rehab, was in a wheelchair. I got her the computer and did a class for her, taught her how to use Google Docs. And she was just so happy. She said she was just going to go home and connect the laptop. And then she changed her mind. She wanted to stay out, go to a coffee shop, and write a poem.
I think that was probably one of my biggest successes, where I got a person connected to the computer and they were able to express their art, just being able to go somewhere wheelchair-accessible and connect to the internet and write outside. That takes the cake for me.”
— Free Geek Digital Navigator Specialist Jeremy Gomez
Free Geek, a nonprofit organization located in Portland, Oregon, offers digital navigation as a core service, in alignment with its mission to “sustainably reuse technology, enable digital access, and provide education to create a community that empowers people to realize their potential.” Importantly, Free Geek is a computer refurbisher, facilitating access to free and affordable devices—a critical component of digital inclusion. Refurbishing computers enables the organization’s digital navigator work in two critical ways. First, Free Geek digital navigators can easily connect the people they serve with devices. Second, a stream of refurbished devices that Free Geek sells to the public offers a source of revenue that is significant to sustaining the organization and offering digital navigation services.
Digital navigation at Free Geek formally began during the pandemic; however, the organization had been engaged in many of these navigation activities for nearly a decade. Free Geek had long granted computer hardware to individuals and organizations. Doing this work attuned the organization to the role it might play in the digital equity ecosystem in Portland, as well as to the needs of the people receiving a computer, many perhaps for the first time.
From its early digital inclusion programming, which included classes such as Welcome to Computers and Build Your Own Computer, the leadership of Free Geek recognized a need and an opportunity for service to evolve to have the kind of impact that the organization hoped to have. To eliminate an administrative burden, Free Geek wanted to provide services without requiring income verification. And leaders became aware that the organization wasn’t necessarily reaching the communities with the greatest need in the Portland area. Through a process of asset mapping and needs assessment, Free Geek leaders chose to partner with another nonprofit, Guerreras Latinas, to provide services at a new location in East Portland, putting the organization in close physical proximity to the people it hoped to serve.
Free Geek’s digital navigation services have changed over time in relation to location and the conditions of the pandemic, as well as the rhythms of supply and demand for refurbished computers. When gathering in groups was not possible during the pandemic, Free Geek digital navigators saw clients in person one-on-one for drop-in sessions and appointments. When the supply of refurbished computers dwindled, the team placed more attention on developing a digital skills curriculum. At the new location in East Portland, digital navigators have resumed group instruction and now, in addition to instruction about typing and online safety, offer a series of three foundational classes to clients: Computer Basics, Internet Basics, and Introduction to Google Suite. Free Geek’s team of three digital navigators work with individuals via in-person drop-in sessions and appointments, teach classes, provide information about affordable broadband service, and otherwise support clients in obtaining and maintaining personal computers. Digital navigators work with anyone who might walk in the door, including youth. In general, because the neighborhood is largely low-income, everyone whom Free Geek’s digital navigators serve in their East Portland location can be considered low-income.
Moving digital navigation services to East Portland also influenced Free Geek’s approach to hiring. Ashley Martinez, a former digital navigator and current digital equity manager, emphasizes that Free Geek did not want to be seen as coming into the community as an outsider organization to “fix” problems in a new neighborhood. In hiring digital navigators, Free Geek prioritized finding staff who have lived experience and can easily communicate with members of the surrounding community in Spanish in order to support conditions for building trust.
With the assistance of other digital equity and community engagement staff, Free Geek’s digital navigators increasingly offer services to the public through partnerships with other area organizations. The co-located nonprofit, Guerreras Latinas, is a significant partner in the work. The types and degree of formality of partnerships associated with digital navigation at Free Geek are varied. Guerreras Latinas is a major stakeholder in Free Geek’s Digital Equity Action Plan. And the practicalities of sharing space mean that this partnership is more formal. Other relationships that may be simpler in nature and depth of involvement—such as Free Geek digital navigators teaching a class session at another organization’s facility, or Free Geek granting computers to a community organization in another part of the city—may operate through less formal arrangements. Additionally, Free Geek received a one-time grant from the City of Portland to convene and facilitate an area coalition of organizations working in digital equity, now called the Coalition of Digital Equity (CODE). Through CODE, Free Geek staff organize and mobilize others for area digital equity efforts, share resources, and offer support to area organizations. Leading CODE means that Free Geek is centrally positioned in a network of current and potential partners.
Free Geek’s role as a computer refurbisher is crucial for funding and sustaining the work of digital navigators. The organization sells some refurbished technology via an eBay store, and the revenue derived from goods and services funds much of the organization’s work. Other sources of financial support for digital navigators have included American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, funds from Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and a grant from Comcast. Juan Muro Jr., Free Geek’s executive director, frames sustainability by saying, “When BEAD [Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment] funds are over, when Digital Equity Act funds are over, when ARPA funds are over ... we will be here,” enabled by the revenue stream that will persist beyond federal grant funding.
What We Can Learn
Location Matters
Free Geek’s change in location—moving its digital navigation services into a community that matches the demographic the organization aims to serve—is a critical consideration for organizations that want to offer digital navigation. Leaders decided to make services convenient for people in the most need, rather than instituting a process for demonstrating eligibility (income below a specified percentage of the federal poverty level) at a location that wasn’t necessarily drawing them in. While not all organizations may be able to avoid eligibility considerations, this case demonstrates a creative solution to limit the burden placed on people in need of services.
Devices Are Scarce and Essential
Free Geek staff are challenged by a requirement to only provide devices to people who live in Oregon. Free Geek employees frequently field requests from organizations and individuals located outside the state about device availability, and they are largely unable to help beyond making connections and forwarding requests to other device providers. This challenge underscores the relative scarcity of device providers in the digital equity ecosystem nationally. These requests also suggest a need for more sources of devices nationally, along with more support for coordination among device providers.
Although access to devices may be provided through public-access computer labs and loaner programs, ownership of a personal device offers the most reliable and sustained form of access. The pandemic severely limited the availability of public-access computer labs. Making use of public-access computer labs may also require the user to make time to visit during operating hours and arrange transportation, among other potential barriers. Loaner programs allow for more flexibility in terms of when and where a user can use the loaned device; however, a finite loan period may discourage the user from developing familiarity and comfort using the device. Device ownership offers real advantages for digital inclusion.
Tech Support Goes Hand in Hand with Devices
Free Geek’s role as a device provider has presented a challenge around providing tech support. People who have received devices know and trust Free Geek as a place to learn how to use those devices. These clients also seek assistance with repairs, which digital navigators and other staff may or may not be able to provide, depending on the complexity of the issue and availability of expertise. Other aspects of the organization’s work, such as its refurbishment operation and its role in Oregon’s Right to Repair efforts, would make tech support a logical fit with existing services, but the organization does not yet offer it systematically. Other device providers may find similar needs among clients, who might reasonably look to the place where they initially obtained a device for tech support when they encounter issues with hardware or software.
Digital Inclusion Nonprofits Support the Community and Nourish the Ecosystem
Nonprofit organizations that provide digital navigation as a core service are essential in the digital equity ecosystem. Free Geek offers individuals and area organizations devices—a critical component of digital inclusion—as well as digital skills support to enable device use. The organization is also committed to offering resources such as digital skills curricula and the code needed to test refurbished computers. Organizations like Free Geek are well positioned to directly serve the community with digital navigators and to support other organizations to do digital inclusion work. Free Geek’s leadership of CODE exemplifies its commitment to the ecosystem’s success.
Free Geek’s experience highlights how digital-inclusion-focused organizations make decisions about offering a specific set of services to the community, including, but not limited to, providing devices, digital skills training, information about affordable broadband service, and tech support. Free Geek digital navigators are often engaged in many of these activities. However, staff have noted their own limits, as well as the opportunity these limits create to engage in partnerships. For example, Gomez reports leveraging complementary expertise and resources from other organizations, like a 3D printing lab in a community development corporation and the media arts instruction program at a local high school. Selecting which services a digital navigator will offer and how a digital navigator will respond to requests that fall outside of that scope are key considerations for other organizations.
Looking Ahead
Multiple strategies, some unique to the role of a refurbisher, contribute to the sustainability of Free Geek’s work and to that of other nonprofit organizations that offer digital navigation as a core service.
Specific to Free Geek and other refurbishers, a predictable supply of computers and resources to obtain computer parts contribute heavily to sustainability, enabling the sale of technology and provision of devices for clients. Working with the state’s Oregon E-Cycles program in the future will intensify Free Geek’s current work with e-waste recovery, while an anticipated grant will allow the organization to provide at least 6,000 devices to the community. Juan Muro Jr. draws attention to the fact that funding for computers and parts hasn’t always seemed like an investment in digital equity to potential funders, but an understanding seems to be emerging. Strategies that assist refurbishers in obtaining computers and parts would contribute positively to overall efforts at digital inclusion, since devices are critical to such efforts. Policy interventions, such as Right to Repair legislation and arrangements that make government surplus technology available to refurbishers, would be helpful for promoting affordable device ownership.
Fostering a strong, coordinated national network of device providers is an additional strategy for sustainability. The Alliance for Technology Refurbishing and Reuse, a group of more than 100 nonprofit technology refurbishers, offers a model for gathering refurbishers nationwide. Making information available about where individuals and organizations can obtain affordable devices and eligibility for doing so would be beneficial for digital navigation efforts across models, in nearly any setting. Requests that come to Free Geek that fall outside of its service territory are a testament first to the organization’s reputation for providing devices but also to a field-wide need for affordable devices and reliable information about where they may be obtained.
This case also highlights the digital equity field’s relatively new interest in tech support. Maintaining access to a working device is a known challenge—hardware and software may break, malfunction, or become obsolete—and one-time device provision does not guarantee continued reliable access. Examining potential models for providing free and low-cost technology repair to the public and exploring their effectiveness and sustainability is a worthwhile direction for future work.
Nonprofit organizations that provide digital navigation as a core service can play an important role as conveners and supporters of digital navigation work across many types of organizations in an ecosystem. Support for coalition and coordination work, as well as for the creation of shared public resources, can enable these positive network effects, rather than placing such organizations into competition for funding and other resources with others in the ecosystem. Free Geek’s long-term commitment to doing digital inclusion work, not tied to the timeline of current federal funding or policy windows, exemplifies why sustaining organizations with core digital navigator services can have widespread benefits for the field.
Written by: Dr. Caroline Stratton, Associate Director, Research, at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance
More in this Series:
- At the Denver Public Library, People Skills are the Most Important Quality When Choosing Digital Navigators
- The Mercedes Library Exemplifies a Vital Effort to Promote Digital Independence
- How Everyone On Navigates Change to Deliver Digital Equity
- Free Geek, Devices, and Digital Equity
- Mass General Brigham Understands that Digital Equity Supports Health Equity
- Northwest Center Engages Community, Advances Digital Skills
- The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Leans Into Collaboration
- North Carolina Community College System Brings the Classroom to the Learners
- Digital Connect Makes Digital Navigation Approachable
- Black Churches 4 Digital Equity: Community Anchors and Committed Advocates
- Seattle's Equity-Based Approach
- The Kūpuna Collective: A Public Health Coalition Advancing Digital Equity
- What We Know About the Human Infrastructure of Broadband
- The Human Infrastructure of Broadband: Looking Back, Looking Around, and Looking Ahead
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.
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