Biden-Harris Administration Awards $12M Digital Equity Competitive Grant to Support Digital Skills and Inclusion Projects in Bay Area
For Immediate Release:
[1.17.25]
Press Contact: Patrick Messac Deputy Director, #OaklandUndivided
518-542-8105 • pmessac@oaklandundivided.org
Biden-Harris Administration Awards $12M Digital Equity Competitive Grant to Support Digital Skills and Inclusion Projects in Bay Area
The grant will increase digital literacy training, provide device distribution and technical support, and establish workforce development programs to over 90,000 residents in the Oakland, San Francisco and Contra Costa
Oakland, CA – Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has recommended awarding the $12M Bay Area Digital Equity Coalition Competitive Grant. The project establishes the Bay Area Digital Equity Coalition (BADEC), a collaboration of 28 agencies from Oakland, San Francisco, and Contra Costa. This includes community anchor institutions, and nonprofits, seeking to maximize the impact of their decades of work in digital equity and provide a platform for regional coordination and investment in outcomes for Covered Populations.
The $1.25B Digital Equity Competitive Grant, part of the $2.75B Digital Equity Act passed in 2021, aims to advance digital equity funding initiatives that ensure communities have the access and skills to fully participate in the digital world, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Spearheaded by the Bay Area Council, the BADEC project is one of only 65 projects awarded from over 700 applications requesting over $6.5B nationally.
The project awards over $4M for Oakland-based organizations. Remarking on the recent announcement, Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins shared, “This NTIA award empowers many of our City’s most trusted anchor institutions and community based organizations to advance the City’s collective commitment to digital equity as an essential service. We thank the Biden-Harris administration for this transformational investment.”
The Digital Equity Competitive Grant represents the culmination of three years of coordination from the City and advocacy from Oakland’s cross-sector digital equity coalition #Oakland Undivided, a project of the Oakland Public Education Fund, to advance digital inclusion in West Oakland, Fruitvale, and East Oakland. Launched in 2020, #OaklandUndivided consists of a coalition of trusted anchor institutions, over 20 community-based organizations, as well as civic and community leaders throughout Oakland with funding partners Amazon, Gilead, and PG&E.
This grant project received support from several local elected leaders, including former Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, and Oakland Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, as well as from the Kapor Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation.
