How Philadelphia incentivizes residents to sharpen their digital skills
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The city’s Digital Navigators Program can help residents more effectively leverage city resources and improve their employment prospects, one official says.
As local governments strive to keep pace with an increasingly digital world, many agencies are pushing mobile first services like digital driver’s licenses and phone-friendly benefits applications. While smartphones have become a staple to the 21st century, one city’s digital skills program puts laptops and computers at the forefront.
In today’s digital economy, people can do a lot on their phones, said Juliet Fink-Yates, broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion manager at Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology. But when it comes to more complex digital tasks, such as navigating forms to apply for public benefits or file taxes, “those are not things many of us would do on our phone if we have a laptop.”
That’s why Philadelphia launched a citywide digital navigators program in June 2020 to offer residents technical support and digital literacy and skills training, among other services, to help them meet their digital needs.
“The idea that folks need a large screen device is one that has been built into the program from the beginning,” Fink-Yates said.
Enter The ExCITe Center at Drexel University, one of the three original organizations that Philadelphia partnered with to create its digital navigator network. Fink-Yates underscored the university’s unique approach to developing residents’ digital skills and digital equity.
Program participants at The ExCITe Center are required to complete a six-module training course to build their digital and technical knowledge. Upon completion, they are eligible to receive a free computer through the program.
Depending on someone’s needs, participants can learn various skills, like using applications such as Google Docs, managing their usernames and passwords, leveraging online health care services or even operating a computer mouse, Fink-Yates said.
“What we found is that, for many folks, having a couple modules of training under their belt makes it far more likely that they will both use the device effectively [and] will use it safely,” Fink-Yates said.
With the skills to navigate city websites, for instance, residents can find heating or cooling centers or register for child care programs on their own to take advantage of services that city officials strive to offer them, she said. Participants can also leverage their course completion certificates to supplement their resumes or career development.
Fink-Yates also underscored the potential long-term impacts of the city’s digital navigator program on residents’ well-being and their ability to participate in society. Research shows, for instance, that people with digital skills were more likely to have higher salaries and more job security.
Similarly, she pointed to the relationship between internet and device access to school performance and health outcomes. Data from the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program found that, in 2018, students with more access to the internet at home had higher proficiency scores than students who lacked internet access at home.
A recent study from the University of Michigan also found that broadband connection can play a role in community health, as U.S. counties with high internet access had a COVID-19 mortality rate about 50% lower than counties with low internet access in 2020.
The ExCITe Center has distributed more than 700 computers to families, local organizations and small businesses and more than 150 community members have received a free laptop after completing the digital skills course, according to the Drexel University site.
At the program’s inception, each organization received a budget of $25,000 with another $5,000 in funds for devices to be distributed, which has more than tripled since then, Fink-Yates said. In 2023, the city’s digital navigator network also expanded to include the Esperanza College of Eastern University.
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