Long Beach Digital Inclusion Roadmap

Pueblo Planning partnered with the City of Long Beach to create a Digital Inclusion Roadmap with community members and local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to address the digital divide in Long Beach. The stakeholders engaged in a robust strategic planning process to develop a vision, goals, objectives, and strategies to ensure everyone in Long Beach has equitable access and use of the Internet, technology devices, and digital literacy training. Centering their work through an equity lens and utilizing a Collective Impact Approach, the Roadmap reflects a wide breadth of collaborative thought and community member needs.

Pueblo Planning engaged with four community partners and over 170 community members in community-friendly settings in order to deeply understand the challenges, barriers, needs and vision they have regarding addressing the digital divide. The digital divide disproportionately impacts low-wealth communities of color and this strategic plan sought to directly reflect the voices of those most impacted by this planning issue. The planning process utilized inclusive engagement strategies to center the communities’ needs and their own vision for social change. There were a myriad of community-shared strategies the Roadmap proposes in order to advance digital inclusion and create more equitable access in Long Beach. Some of these strategies included: low-cost or free high-quality and reliable Internet, low-cost or free computers, free public Wi-Fi accessible in varying public places such as transit spots and parks, technology tutors at community-based organizations, and literacy classes.