By Joshua Robison / The Jambar
Oak Hill Collaborative, a Youngstown-based nonprofit, celebrated its ninth annual Digital Inclusion Week, led by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. From Oct. 6-11, the week included 26 events across Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties.
Digital Inclusion Week is a national week of spreading awareness and recognition to the efforts made within the community to help bridge the gap in America’s digital divide.
This year’s theme for National Digital Inclusion Week, “Community-Driven Digital Futures,” mirrors OHC’s goal of educating the public and ensuring digital access to those in need of it in the Mahoning Valley.
22 of the NDIW events were free and open to the public at OHC’s main branch. It offered multiple classes centered around navigating smartphones, using Medicare’s online portal and learning website design, among others.
Four private events were hosted at other locations in partnership with the Youngstown, Trumbull and Ashtabula Metropolitan Housing Authorities.
OHC also collaborated with other organizations such as Goodwill International Industries Inc., Organización Cívica y Cultural Hispana Americana, Thrive 10:10, Oak Street Health and Connect Your Community, where it hosts other internet and computer workshops in the Mahoning Valley for NDIW.
Patrick Kerrigan, executive director at OHC, said access to computers and the internet is critical.
“It’s obviously a critical thing. People cannot survive without having some internet access,” Kerrigan said. “They have to be able to get on to shop, to buy, to sign up for benefits, to apply for jobs and to telehealth, to be educated [and] to have their kids educated.”
Kerrigan said OHC’s top priority is closing the gap in the digital divide. He said that people on the negative side of the divide miss out on critical resources, causing them to get behind.
“We have to keep the people that are falling further and further behind, and give them more opportunities and bring them at least closer to the standard,” Kerrigan said.
Class attendees at OHC vary in age. Generally, Kerrigan said most of the attendees are middle aged or senior citizens, and typically these age groups do not possess many computers or the knowledge to use them.
“Our typical person that comes to these classes is middle aged or seniors, and they don’t have any devices,” Kerrigan said. “ They didn’t have any education in schools relating to computers, and they’ve ignored it all their lives.”
Kerrigan said the classes are structured to help people learn to use the internet and their devices at an appropriate pace.
For more information, those interested can visit OHC’s website at oakhillcollaborative.org.
