Comcast Partners with Spokane Group, Tincan, to Bring Broadband to Those Who Need It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStKuoAG7js

Click on the video to watch excerpts of a the media briefing at Tincan’s Internet for All event in Spokane. The discussion of the importance of broadband access and Comcast’s Internet Essentials program included Tara Neumann, director of Tincan; Ben Stuckart, president of the Spokane City Council; Dr. Shelley Redinger, superintendent of Spokane Public Schools; and Ken Watts, general manager of Comcast in Spokane.

There’s an amazing organization called Tincan in Spokane that is a cutting-edge open tech resource. Tincan provides computer access and training to those who want and need it. They do things for free that lots of other groups in other cities will charge for.

Tincan recently organized a two-day event to help give people access to the internet who might never have had such access before. They made the event both important and fun. They also hosted several workshops on useful topics such as how to look and apply for jobs online.

To support broadband access, Tincan, with help of a grant, purchased 100 Opportunity Cards for the Comcast Internet Essentials program. Tincan then offered to the community that the first 100 households that receive Internet Essentials will receive an Opportunity Card to cover their Internet costs for a year. On television, that translates to the word “free,” and you hear that word a lot on these newscasts. We were honored by KXLY coming by to tell people about the event, and they drove a lot of calls and visits to Tincan. Click on the pictures below to sense some of the excitement.

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At the media briefing, we learned from Spokane Schools Superintendent Dr. Shelley Redinger that as many as half of Spokane’s school parents are not online.  That means children cannot do homework at home, and parents can’t apply for jobs from home, etc. Internet Essentials makes Internet affordable for parents whose children receive free- or reduced-price lunch at school and who meet other qualifications. (Click here to learn more about Internet Essentials)

“We’re very excited for this partnership with Comcast. (Internet Essentials) is a viable option for many parents,” Tincan Director Tara Neumann said at the media briefing.

While Comcast provides Internet Essentials and contributed some prizes, the two-day event was very much Tincan’s party. Organizing any special event takes a lot of hard work and time.  Tincan’s team invested a lot of energy into presenting parents with a good experience. If you are in the Spokane area and care about digital literacy and digital access, Tincan is a group to know and work with.