Bridging the Digital Divide: Less Talk, More Action

You can make a difference in the lives of low-income residents in Northeast Kansas City Kansas by making a donation to a Connecting for Good fundraising campaign to build a free wireless network. Connecting for Good is building the high-speed Internet wireless network in the 390-unit Juniper Gardens housing complex, which serves mainly low-income residents, most of whom are single mothers and immigrant families living on $10,000 or less.




There are few organizations in KC that have made such a bold splash as Connecting for Good has in its short time as an area non-profit. This organization has taken a brash startup approach to addressing the "digital divide," a popular term to describe a lack of access or resources in one of three areas: high-speed Internet access, a computer, and computer training.

What they have accomplished in the last six months -- providing free wireless connections to all residents of KCK low-income housing complexes Rosedale Ridge and Juniper Gardens -- shows the depth of their efforts to empower area residents with free high-speed Internet access.

During two recent visits to Juniper Gardens I met Maria Kline, president of the housing complex, who expressed deep appreciation to Connecting for Good's efforts. She understands the importance of providing high-speed Internet access because, as she said, it "gives the opportunity what other children have that might not be in a low-income" category.

Give $25, $50 or $100 today to level the digital playing field for area neighbors. http://www.neighbor.ly/jgwifi

Homeless support representatives ponder "How do you save money?" in low-income Kansas health programs

I attended the regular meeting of the Kansas City-based Homelessness Task Force organization at the downtown public library in Kansas City, Missouri today. I arrived at the meeting a few minutes early and joined the 20 or so people waiting to enter the library when it opened at 9:00 am. Most people waiting -- older men and 20-somethings -- would fit a description of a homeless individual using the library to come in from the cold, damp morning. As I learned later none of these individuals attended the meeting of the organization responsible for overseeing solutions to their problem. In fact, a few task force representatives left the waiting crowd to enter the library through another entrance.

The crowd included weather-beaten men without teeth, a young man listening to music on his phone with a tooth brush hanging out of his pocket, two 30-something men conversing about backpacks and KC life -- "this was one of the baddest banks" in its time, announced one of them, referring to the function of the library before its conversion, two men having a lively conversation in Spanish, among others who moved swiftly into the library when it opened promptly on time.

The meeting attendees included a range of homelessness support organizations, local and state government officials, anti-poverty advocates, housing organizations, to name a few. Before the meeting I spoke with Carly from the HALO Learning Center, a group that partners with "homeless shelters and residential homes to provide art therapy" and Amy Thomas with the Wyandotte Homeless Services Coalition, who mentioned that the organization has identified an increase in homelessness for kids aging out of foster care between the ages of 18 and 24.

The meeting started with an abbreviated presentation by Scott Brunner from the Kansas Health Institute on the topic of Medicaid expansion, which was timely and of utmost concern to people advocating for homeless individuals. The presentation only focused on "How do you save money?" through changes in Kansas Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) due to time limits, but was intended to describe the impact and costs to expanding Medicaid in Kansas as indicated on the slides distributed.

Other questions Mr. Brunner posed during his presentation included "Where do you get savings?" by implementing KanCare changes taking place in early 2013. The changes include moving all Medicaid-eligible people into KanCare, the privately managed care system in Kansas.

He stated his concern was "how do you go from 7.5% year-over-year cost increases to 4%?" with the KanCare changes. Several meeting participants peppered Mr. Brunner with clarifying questions about the cost savings with one man providing a personal story of elderly family care about expensive procedures and costs.

The discussion focused on costs, preventative medicine as a way to reduce costs, medical care cards and timeliness with payment to providers before the meeting moved to the next agenda item. I would have thought someone in the meeting would have asked questions about improving the quality of care, expanding coverage, and expanding Medicaid to low-income individuals and families in Kansas.

I am certain the meeting participants would strongly advocate for Medicaid expansion in both Kansas and Missouri as one of the best ways to improve the lives of homeless individuals in the area, as evidence by the conversations with Carly with HALO and Amy with Wyandotte Homeless Services Coalition

Revolve KC Bike Shop: Advocate for Biking as Transportation

This video shows how an old bike I received from a neighbor was donated to Revolve KC Bike Shop at an April 13, 2013 bicycle recycle event in Kansas City. Elizabeth Bejan with Revolve describes how bikes are refurbished and in turn donated to individuals in the Kansas City area.

KCK Juniper Gardens Residents Benefit From Free Wifi Service

Linda Quinn, Northeast KCK Healthy Kids representative with Kansas State University Research and Extension, speaks about the problems of access to healthy and nutritious food in northeast Kansas City, Kansas. She spoke about how a free wireless service provided by non-profit Connecting for Good will help residents of Juniper Gardens order food through an online web application by a Hy-Vee grocery store.

Getting Community Media to Work: Should the Government Fund Public Media?

An article this week in the Kansas City Star reminded readers that government funding for public broadcasting outlets is not a sure thing. The loss of public funding can impact locally-produced shows and programming quality. For community radio stations like KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City that receive no government funding for their daily operating budget this is a small consolation. The good news is that KKFI is sustaining its 70 local programs through donations from listeners, but it's not easy. 

Map of state funding cuts to public media (2008-2012).  Source: On the
Chopping Block: State Budget Battles and the Future of Public Media,
freepress.net, November 2011

Most Kansas City area public and community media outlets like KKFI, KCUR-FM 89.3 and KCPT-TV get the overwhelming majority of the funding from non-government sources, but still "small government" advocates like Kansas Governor Sam Brownback argue for killing all government funding of public media. They point out that federal support for public media creates "state TV," which allow these media outlets to influence viewing audience with slanted (read: liberal) opinion.

In one of the most dramatic moves to shut down state funding for public media Governor Chris Christie compared "New Jersey’s network of public broadcasters, NJN, with 'state run-media of the Soviet Union,'" and then announced efforts to sell all of New Jersey’s public media outlets, as reported by Freepress.net's Josh Stearn and Mike Soha in "On the Chopping Block: State Budget Battles and the Future of Public Media." (PDF - full report)

How far are these state legislators willing to go to limit investigative reporting, civic dialog and educational programming? Are they willing to kill "state run-media" outlets like that of municipal government outlets KCCG-TV2 (Kansas City, Missouri) and LSTV (Lee's Summit, Missouri)? Not likely since they are city TV stations.

High Plains Public Radio listening

service area in western Kansas and 

Oklahoma and Texas panhandles

Garden City, Kansas station KANZ 91.1 FM, one of 20 High Plains Public Radio (HPPR) stations, provides unique music -- "Western Swing and Other Things" -- and public affairs -- "Prairie Ramblings" -- focused on the culture of southwest Kansas. The station’s loss of government funding amounts to about 15% of its operating budget and jeopardizes that it’s ability to continue local programming. 

"On the Chopping Block" reported what funding cuts mean for vital local programming in Pennsylvania at radio station WITF, which "produces SmartTalk, the state’s only current affairs program. Although still on the air, SmartTalk has reduced its locally produced episodes from 30 to less than a dozen, and cut longtime host Craig Cohen."

The Kansas City Star article points out that Kansas legislators are looking to cut vital funding for High Plains Public Radio. The article revealed that Kansas state funding comprises 11-16% of funding for the 20 HPPR stations. This small radio station network is located in a largely rural area in southwest Kansas with pockets of a young, majority low-income Latino population. The National Public Radio affiliate broadcasts many syndicated shows, but also produces vital local public affairs and music shows.

HPPR operates these FM stations with a listening range serving western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. The KANZ program schedule lacks any Spanish-language or Latino programming, which might indicate they have decided to ignore the large Latino population. However, KZGC in Colby, Kansas, one of the other HPPR FM stations is listed as a Spanish-language format. 

While KKFI devotes 10 hours per week to Spanish-language programming by and for the large KC Latino community, the station does not receive a significant amount of listener-supported donations or business underwriting from that community. Does that mean KKFI should elect not to devote programming to that audience? No, but it means that station could improve this connection by developing stronger partnerships with area Latino civic organizations and businesses, or seek grants from private foundations or public sources to continue this crucial local programming.

Some community and public media is so unique and vital to a local area or culture that it warrants consideration for government funding. Seeing these programs disappear from media outlets could mean these voices will not be heard.

Let's Keep Comcast Happy

Susan Crawford, author of Captive Audience, outlines a situation where large telecommunications companies have divided up the digital landscape, making it extremely expensive, especially for low-income families. She discusses the digital divide expanding because large rural areas are without Internet access and low-income families are unable to afford the access. She makes an argument for a public-private initiative with some regulation to develop high-speed, affordable Internet access similar to the rural electrification act during the Roosevelt administration of the 1930’s. 

Instead of ensuring that everyone in America can compete in a global economy, instead of narrowing the divide between rich and poor, instead of supporting competitive free markets for American inventions that use information--instead, that is, of ensuring that America will lead the world in the information age--U.S. politicians have chosen to keep Comcast and its fellow giants happy.

She discussed the challenge to close the digital divide in her Captive Audience book recently on the Moyers and Company show on PBS.

She also cites an example of the power of the large telecommunications where Google Fiber in Kansas City has been prevented from distributing the major sports channels because of pressure by Time-Warner. The broadcast is new, but the reference to Google Fiber's inability to secure major channels and content is a bit dated.

Operation Breakthrough in KC: providing child-care for low-income families

During the weekend of national service on January 20, 2013 some family and friends joined together to volunteer for work at Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City. The facility provides subsidized child-care services for 500 children in KC, many near the facility at 31st and Troost Avenue. Here are a couple videos from the tour that concluded the volunteer work.

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