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The shift to online, at-home learning the past several months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has left students in low-income communities and neighborhoods at a significant disadvantage. With less access to reliable broadband Internet connectivity and a resultingly lower rate of digital literacy, this has created a stark digital divide in areas such as the South Dade migrant community.
To bridge this growing divide, South Florida-based telecom Hotwire Communications worked through its charitable arm, the Empowering Communities Foundation, to provide broadband Internet access and resources crucial to connectivity such as laptops to nearly 400 homes in the South Dade migrant community, located in Homestead, Florida.
Through a partnership with the Truist Foundation and Dell, Hotwire’s Empowering Communities Foundation launched The Home Page Program, an initiative dedicated to providing underserved communities with the tools and bandwidth they need for students to excel academically and gain invaluable digital literacy skills they’ll need to thrive later in life. Hotwire Communications’ own engineering and construction teams worked quickly to design and deploy a dedicated 5G broadband network, one with enough bandwidth to support the connectivity needs of the entire community.
At an event held at the South Dade migrant community that began Thursday, October 1 and lasted until Saturday, Hotwire employees volunteered their time to passing out Connection Kits personalized for over 330 students, with each kit consisting of a backpack containing a laptop and various essential school supplies, such as notebooks, pencil cases, and headphones for the laptop.
Students were additionally provided with training in beginner computer skills, which help to improve their digital literacy, as well as given access to The Home Page Program website, an educational resource that aggregates school content and allows them to access online learning tools such as WORD Force, a free literacy program sponsored by Truist.
The South Dade migrant community will continue to receive ongoing support from Hotwire Communications, with a dedicated technical support team standing by 24x7x365 and ready to respond to any issues that may occur, ensuring that the community is always online and receiving the services its students, children and families need.
To learn more about the services that Hotwire Communications offers and find out whether it’s the right ISP choice for your community, call 786-577-3265 or send an email to info.fisionhomesouthflorida@hotwiremail.com.
