How to Support and Facilitate Strategic Planning in Local Governments
Overview and Guide
How to Use the Outline
The purpose of this Outline is to provide an easy and efficient tool for Local Governments to develop a Strategic Action Plan for Digital Equity without a big expense or long time delay. A working version of a Plan can be developed by existing staff within a few hours by gathering baseline data on: (a) Deployment: Unserved and Underserved households (a measure of the availability of high-speed Internet infrastructure, referred to generically as “broadband” including both wireline and wireless networks); and (b) Adoption: Unconnected and Underconnected households (a measure of the number of residents who have no home Internet service, referred to as Unconnected, and those who have only a smartphone, referred to as Underconnected). These data are foundational for setting Deployment and Adoption Goals for a
Strategic Action Plan.
The Outline sets forth a logical sequence of 12 Sections as an approach and guide to developing a Strategic Action Plan. Once the above baseline data regarding Deployment and Adoption is gathered for the Local Government jurisdiction, an interim working version of a Plan can be prepared by simply using the Outline content for the remaining Sections. Then, a more detailed version can evolve over time based on experience.
A Local Government can jumpstart the process of preparing a Strategic Action Plan by first implementing the Framework and using the Best Practices Check List to gain familiarity with the issues and experience in tackling the Digital Divide. It also is helpful to use the Resource Guide: A Broadband Deployment and Adoption Guide for Local and Regional Leaders (published by the Connected Capital Area Broadband Consortium and the California Emerging Technology Fund
and posted on the California Department of Technology. The overall thrust should be to get into action as soon as possible instead of pursuing a long planning process.
Local Governments should establish an outreach and engagement process to obtain community input and technical expertise, which will require a modest investment of time to organize, summarize, and synthesize. However, a Local Government can engage the community and stakeholders to jumpstart action using the Framework and Check List and at the same time gather input for the Strategic Action Plan.
Strategic Action Plan for Digital Equity Working Outline – see the 1-page framework for action. There needs to be a thoughtful focus on assessing the Deployment and Adoption needs in order to optimize success, if too much time and resources are consumed in planning without getting to “doing” the digitally-disadvantaged still are left behind.
Ecosystem for a Statewide Collaboration describes a Digital Equity Ecosystem CETF first developed in 2019 and updated with all the experience and data derived from Direct Notification and the Call Center operations during ACP. The data sets on pages 8-10 can be applied to any Local Government (one of the tables also is in the Strategic Action Plan Outline).
Digital Literacy Overview is part of the Digital Equity Ecosystem, contains the Self-Assessment Tool which is vital to ensure common metrics statewide.
Digital Navigator Toolkit describes Digital Navigator Training (20 hours).