We at Innovate Mississippi were thrilled to be mentioned in a Clarion-Ledger guest column by Dr. Rhea Williams-Bishop, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s director of programming for New Orleans and Mississippi.
Titled “Closing the digital divide in Jackson crucial for students, businesses,” Williams-Bishop writes about how historical disparities, particularly for African Americans, are affecting health outcomes in the face of COVID-19. She then looks at some promising Kellogg-supported initiatives that are working to close the digital divide, which she says is an essential part of lessening disparities in “education, health and employment in this post-COVID-19 world.”
She mentions the City of Jackson’s new 100G broadband system that circles downtown, bringing municipal-owned high-speed Internet to citizens. Recognizing that low-income kids have been forced to stay at home and learn during COVID-19 school closures, the City and Jackson Public Schools are working together to offer free WiFi to all households in the district by this fall.
Williams-Bishop says that increased access to high-speed Internet also helps “working adults access virtual job-training programs,” and it creates opportunities for them to “accelerate the economy” by building their own businesses like the startups we support at Innovate Mississippi.
The Kellogg Foundation studied this in 2018 and published a report showing that there’s a business case in Mississippi for racial equity. And in her specific example of offering free highspeed broadband to bridge the digital divide, everything from educational resources to work opportunities and even access to telemedicine services are part of the solution.
We thank Rhea Williams-Bishop for including us in her column and we thank the Kellogg Foundation for its support of our programming. Read her full column here and learn more about our services for entrepreneurs here.
