Comcast announced that it has awarded the Boys & Girls Club of Decatur (BGCD) a $40,000 “Lift Zone Opportunity Fund” grant. The grant will support digital skills training at the organization’s Lift Zone, which Comcast opened onsite in March 2021. Lift Zones are WiFi-connected safe spaces where students can get online to do schoolwork and adults can get online to learn new digital skills and access an array of services.
“BGCD’s mission is to ‘enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens,’” said BGCD CEO and Executive Director Shamika Madison. “What better way to help our members be productive than give them access to the Internet and technology and teach them how to use it to help them succeed in today’s digital world? I can’t thank Comcast enough for the grant and for understanding and helping us fulfill our mission.”
The BGCD Lift Zone is one of more than 1,000 Lift Zones throughout the country, nearly 80 in this region alone. The Lift Zones complement Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, a low-cost Internet adoption program for low-income families, which has helped more than 10 million people in America – 1.3 million in Illinois – connect to the Internet at home since it was launched in 2011.
“Through Internet Essentials, Comcast has helped hundreds of thousands of Illinois households cross the digital divide,” said John Crowley, Comcast’s Greater Chicago Region Senior Vice President. “I’m proud that Comcast recognized the impact of the digital divide early on, stepped up and now continues to offer solutions that further our commitment to organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of Decatur and the youth the organization serves through the creation of Lift Zones.”
Crowley also noted that the federal government recently launched a digital equity initiative called the “Affordable Connectivity Program” (ACP), which provides eligible low-income households a credit up to $30 a month toward the cost of Internet and mobile service, including all of Comcast’s Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Mobile plans, as well as Internet Essentials. For more information, visit www.xfinity.com/acp.
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