Raul Vazquez serves as the Digital Equity and Inclusion Coordinator for the City of Long Beach, California, where he plays a pivotal role in advancing digital inclusion services and programs. His mission is to advance digital inclusion services and programs, ensuring that all residents have access to the digital tools necessary for participation in today’s economy and civic life. In this interview, Raul shares insights into Long Beach’s strategic initiatives to bridge the digital divide and highlights valuable lessons from the Digital Inclusion Leadership Certificate program.
Please tell us about your work and your role, particularly as it pertains to digital equity.
I am the Digital Equity and Inclusion Coordinator for the City of Long Beach, CA. My role consists of advancing digital inclusion services and programs, with the goal of bridging the digital divide so that our residents can participate in the digital world and digital economy and be civically engaged.
After working in the nonprofit sector for about six years and completing my master’s degree in public administration from California State University of Fullerton, I started my role in August 2023. I quickly learned about the various efforts the City of Long Beach is taking to bridge the digital divide, such as previously deploying $2.7 million in federal funding to implement digital inclusion programs and services. The city has prioritized the key focus areas of capacity, connectivity, and technology by developing the City’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap and partnering with our digital inclusion stakeholders.
My current role as the Digital Inclusion Coordinator involves working closely with our digital inclusion team to develop a digital inclusion implementation plan, prepare and apply for digital inclusion grants, and manage our digital inclusion programs and services.
What motivated you to enroll in the program? What challenges were you trying to solve?
Before I started my career in local government, I was a program manager for six years at a local nonprofit organization providing mentoring services to at-promise youth in the Long Beach Unified School District in the City of Long Beach. When the pandemic started, I quickly learned how the digital divide impacted students, parents, and families who did not have access to reliable computing devices, internet services, or digital skills.
In August 2023, I started my career with the City of Long Beach, and Lea Eriksen, Director of the Technology and Innovation Department, shared an opportunity to participate in the Digital Inclusion Leadership Certificate program as a professional development opportunity so that I could learn more about the current state of digital equity and inclusion. Through the program, I learned from cross-sector professionals, which helped me better understand my current role.
In what ways has the course equipped you with the skills you need to address the challenges of digital inclusion in your community or organization? What capabilities and skills have you learned or sharpened through the course?
Being new to digital inclusion, the course has helped me define key terms, understand the current state of digital inclusion, and prepare for upcoming federal funding opportunities. For example, learning about the history of digital redlining has helped me understand how the digital divide impacts communities in more ways than one, such as education, economic inclusion, health, and civic engagement. The program also emphasized the need to collaborate with cross-sector partners and implement hybrid solutions to address the digital divide in our communities. Through the course work, I have taken what I learned and applied it to our current digital inclusion efforts in the city.
Can you share a specific example or two of how the course content has been directly applicable to your work in digital equity or related areas?
Through the certificate program, I learned about the importance of asset mapping, which focuses on community strengths and fills gaps in available data like the American Community Survey. Additionally, I learned about the five key components of asset mapping. I have been able to apply what I learned by updating the city’s digital inclusion asset inventory and digital inclusion resource guides.
The city created a digital inclusion resource guide for Spanish, English, Khmer, and Tagalog, providing residents with information on free public Wi-Fi locations, digital skills training, low-cost computing devices, and low-cost internet service resources. I had the opportunity to work with three local trusted community-based organizations to update digital inclusion resource guides. When our digital inclusion team attends community events, we bring printed booklets for residents to take home. Additionally, when residents reach out to our digital inclusion resource hotline, our team is ready to connect them with the digital inclusion resources they need and often sends them the resource guide. Since 2020, our Digital Inclusion Resource Hotline has received over 2,600 inquiries.
Furthermore, this certificate program exposed me to different digital inclusion plans. As part of a learning exercise, I reviewed two-state or local digital inclusion plans and discussed their similarities and differences. Through this learning opportunity, I could apply what I learned by working with our team and cross-sector digital inclusion stakeholder committee partners and use feedback from residents who participated in past digital inclusion programs to develop the City of Long Beach Digital Inclusion Implementation Plan. The Digital Inclusion Implementation Plan outlines a detailed implementation strategy and key activities for bridging the digital divide and ensuring equitable access to technology and the internet for all Long Beach residents per the City’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap. This Digital Inclusion Implementation plan was created in collaboration with the city’s multi-disciplinary cross-sector partners, including policymakers, community leaders, educators, community-based organizations (CBOs), and internet service providers. This plan will be used as a strategic guide to develop and implement digital inclusion programs and activities. We will release a final version of the plan at our upcoming Digital Inclusion Stakeholder Committee Meeting.
What aspects of the course content did you find most valuable, and why?
I found that the class structure was ideal for my learning pace. Participants learn a great deal about digital inclusion as the topics can be broad. I enjoyed watching the videos and, reading the additional resources and then applying what I learned through an assignment. Each assignment had a clear purpose and tested my knowledge about the course material and my role as a digital inclusion coordinator in the City of Long Beach. This process helped me apply what I learned to my work. As someone new to digital inclusion, the assignments also helped me learn about my city’s past digital inclusion efforts and plan our next steps. Lastly, group discussions were invaluable as I learned from other digital inclusion practitioners who had just started their careers in digital inclusion or have been practicing for years.
How has the course influenced your approach to creating plans and managing infrastructure for digital equity, especially in light of federal and state initiatives?
The course influenced my approach by emphasizing the importance of partnerships in our digital inclusion efforts. For example, we have recently reconvened our digital inclusion stakeholder committee to collaborate on drafting our Digital Inclusion Implementation Plan, which outlines our key strategies and activities for the next few years. Through various meetings and opportunities for feedback, the city plans to release our implementation plan in early September. It has been crucial for us to seek out our stakeholder’s input and feedback to identify the digital inclusion barriers our residents face, create innovative solutions together, and strengthen our relationships with our partners.
We are also collaborating with the Los Angeles County Intergovernmental Broadband Coordinating Committee (IBCC), led by the first-ever Digital Equity Director, Rebecca Kauma. We are preparing for and applying for federal funding opportunities through the Digital Equity Act Competitive Programs. Our partnership with the IBCC will help the City and County create a highly competitive grant application so that we can launch various digital inclusion programs and services.
Click here for more information about the Digital Inclusion Leadership Certificate and its self-paced counterpart, Digital Inclusion Training.
