“This is not your fault. It is not your fault that you made a decision to live a rural county that your family is from; and that you all live here, this is not on you. This is on a set of failures, a failure that we don’t have enough competition coming in to make sure you have fast enough internet that exists here. This is not your fault.” These are the words of Arlane Gordon-Bray, I-zone Community Engagement and Industry Partner for the Edgecombe Public Schools and the person in charge of just one out of the 19 BAND-NC Digital Inclusion awards given out this summer as part of a program developed by NC State’s Institute for Emerging Issues and its partner sponsors. Join Chris Mitchell from the Institute for Local Reliance for our Episode 11 which illuminates how IEI and its partners are implementing the goal of all 100 counties in North Carolina developing digital inclusion plans, $5,000 awards at a time. Speakers include Maggie Woods, Policy Program Manager at the Institute of Emerging Issues (IEI), from NC State, Amy Hoffman, Digital Inclusion and Policy Manager at the Broadband Internet Office within the NC Department of Information Technology, and Arlane Gordon-Bray.
