Detroit, Michigan, the largest city in the state of Michigan, is well-known for being home to Motown Music as well as the hub for American automobile production. However, as the world has been forced to go online, Detroit has gained notoriety for its vast digital divide. 

Joshua Edmonds, Detroit’s Digital Inclusion Director, joined NCC’s Brittany-Rae Gregory for a fireside chat on the relationships forged between public and private entities in the city. The session was part of Next Century Cites’ 2021 virtual conference aimed at finding ways to connect every community in the U.S. to affordable, robust broadband. 

The discussion opened with a video clip highlighting the partnership between nonprofit Connect 313 and Rocket Mortgage. Edmonds detailed how the relationship between the corporation and the Detroit-based nonprofit illustrates how organizations can come together to address the most pressing issues facing residents in the communities that they serve. This model can be replicated in other municipalities.

Edmonds offered sage advice for other local officials seeking to forge relationships with public and private entities in order to bring attention to community broadband connectivity needs, marking 2019 as a pivotal year when private sector partners began to pay close attention to Detroit’s digital divide. He encouraged leaders to be bold with their asks, and to familiarize themselves with the organizational structures and internal goals of their desired partnerships. 

Explaining Connect 313’s work, Edmonds highlighted the importance of centering residents’ experiences and voices in the decision-making processes for broadband access and adoption programs. Local officials in Detroit can attest that building trust with the organizations and then building trust between the organizations and the community was critical. 

Edmonds closed the conversation by saying, “We need to be collaboratively minded, and we need to standardize what we’re doing. That is going to be the greatest policy level for us to sustain this work moving forward,” re-emphasizing the importance of a collaborative mindset when addressing the digital divide as there is no one prescriptive way to increase access and adoption among residents nationwide. 

The full conversation can be viewed here.