Municipal Digital Equity Planning Services

Municipal Digital Equity Planning Services

The Cape Cod Commission is a pre-qualified planning service provider through the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s (MBI) Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program for the 15 towns of Barnstable County. The Commission is currently assisting the Towns of Bourne, Sandwich and Orleans, Falmouth, and Barnstable through this program. The purpose of this program is to assist municipalities in assessing the digital divide in their community including barriers faced by community members with internet connections, devices, and skills appropriate for an individual’s civic, social, and employment needs. Applications for Planning Program grants closed on April 12, 2024.

The goal of the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program is to enable municipalities, or other local bodies of government, to understand their access and adoption challenges to digital equity in order to bridge the digital divide. Municipal Digital Equity Planning activities are designed to accomplish two goals:

• Guide municipal decision-making and investments to increase access, adoption, and usage of the internet for the populations most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Prepare municipalities to submit grant proposals to existing or forthcoming state or federal programs to support digital equity activities.

Municipalities may choose between two planning options: an intensive short-term workshop/charrette (approximately 8 hours) and/or a more focused planning process (3-6 months), both of which will engage stakeholders to gather information on local digital equity needs and issues.

The Commission will use the information gathered in collaboration with digital equity stakeholders to identify priorities, challenges, and solutions. The resulting report will be issued to the town and incorporated into the statewide digital planning efforts being coordinated by MBI.

Members of Commission staff are available to assist in the application process and explain each planning option. Communities are encouraged, when appropriate, to consider a multi-town subregional approach to digital equity planning, where appropriate.

More information and the online municipal application can be found at the MBI website. https://broadband.masstech.org/municipal

Implementation Grants

Municipalities and pre-qualified consultants are invited to apply for funding through the Municipal Digital Equity Implementation Program which aims to mobilize, start-up, and implement digital equity activities locally. This are one-time grants, up to $100,000 per eligible municipality, to execute a project (or projects) defined in their Digital Equity Plans, Digital Equity Planning Charettes, or pre-existing local digital equity plans or related documents that MBI deems of sufficient standard.