Community Corner

Educational Partnership Helps Close the Digital Divide with Low-Income Families in Royal Oak

50 Royal Oak School District students and families receive free computer netbook and high-speed Internet service as part of Internet Essentials Educational Partnership

Comcast, a global media and technology company, today announced in partnership with Royal Oak Schools and the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education that it has implemented the first phase of a two-year commitment to helping close the digital divide with low-income families.

The Internet Essentials Educational Partnership between the three parties, valued at approximately $40,000, marks the first Michigan-based partnership with a school district, a nonprofit foundation and Comcast.

The first phase of implementation was marked with the official delivery of computer netbooks and high-speed Internet self-installation kits to 50 eligible families in the Royal Oak Schools. While picking up the computer equipment at the district’s Board of Education Office, families were greeted by Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison, Royal Oak School Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin and volunteer Foundation Board Member Rita Walker, who was one of several volunteer board members of the Education Foundation assisting at the event. 

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“We are excited to partner with Comcast through the Internet Essentials program, because no individual, no foundation, no corporation working alone can close the digital divide,” said Shawn Lewis-Lakin, Superintendent of Royal Oak School District. “When schools, foundations and corporations come together with common purpose and commitment, together we make a positive difference for children.”

“Internet Essentials is not just about people getting access to the Internet at home; it’s also about what having the Internet at home can do to help families get ahead” said Tim Collins, Regional Senior Vice President for Comcast. “With it, a father can apply for a job, a mother can research health care services, a teenager can study for the SATs or a youngster can learn to read or do math.” 

Find out what's happening in Royal Oakwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Through Internet Essentials from Comcast, Royal Oak Schools and the Royal Oak Foundation for Public Education are funding two years of Internet Essentials Internet service ($9.95 monthly fee) as well as a netbook computer (valued at $149.99 plus tax) for Internet in the homes of up to 100 eligible families whose children attend their schools. In addition to Internet service (download speeds of up to 3 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 768 Kbps), each family receives at no additional charge a modem, Constant Guard™ Protection Suite ($360 value) and top-rated Norton™ Security Suite and IDENTITY GUARD.

Additional outreach to enroll up to fifty more families in the program is being planned by the school district. In order to qualify for participation in the Internet Essentials program, families must have children enrolled in the Royal Oak Schools who participate in the National School Lunch Program, either for the free- or reduced-lunch program.

Source: Royal Oak Public Schools press release


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