Equitable Broadband Access in Chicago
A data-based project to understand broadband access in Chicago.
Grace Li has been living in McKinley Park, a neighborhood on the Southwest side of Chicago, for over 7 years. After she lost her job in the pandemic last year, she realized a big expense she had to incur was broadband so her children could continue Chicago Public Schools education online. A local program saved her children from falling out of school. Even with classes onsite this year, broadband is essential for many class assignments.
Li, a Chinese American, works as a shopper at a department store in the McKinley Park neighborhood. She paid a hefty $80/month for broadband at her home. However, broadband became expensive for her following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as she lost her job and had to wait for several months before finding another job. She took the job as a shopper recently.
“I used to work at a local museum before the pandemic struck. Once the museum closed, I was out of job, along with my husband, who is an Uber driver. But it was extremely important for us to have broadband access at home, so that our children don’t drop out of school,” said Li
Li was approached by the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), an organization working to empower the Chinese American community in the Greater Chicago area in 2020, to be part of the Chicago Connected program. The program, which includes 34 other community-based organizations along with the CBCAC, aims to offer fast and high-speed internet to needy students and their families.
“The CBCAC contacted me and asked if I needed help. I told them I can’t afford the internet anymore. They helped me prepare an application and now I have free Wi-Fi offered by Comcast,” said Li.
“We primarily work with parents who speak Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese. In addition to connecting them to internet services to support their CPS students, we also hold digital literacy workshops to help the parents learn basic skills like email, Google search, fraud prevention, etc.,” said Grace Chan McKibben, the executive director of the CBCAC.
“Oftentimes, non-English speaking families will ask us to assist with other school-related issues such as Pandemic-EBT, a food assistance program, attendance, borrowed laptops, and finding after school or summer programs. It also happens that our clientele is language-based and not geographically based. For the most part, this is not the case with other Chicago Connected partners. While we do English & Chinese outreach, most of the folks who really need help find us via WeChat,” said Vivian Zhang, the outreach coordinator for the CBCAC.
For Grace, broadband access is essential. “If my children can’t access online school, how will they become educated? If the CBCAC didn’t help me, then we would have had a very hard time ensuring a better life for our children,” she said.
