The above motion is consistent with the Board’s Value of “Ensuring economic opportunities for all people and businesses in Broward.”
On April 4, 2017, Agenda Item No. 46, the Board of County Commissioners (Board) approved a pilot program with T-Mobile for the donation of tablets with internet services at a reduced rate of $10 per month specific to the Broward Municipal Services District (BMSD). At that time, there was some interest for the County to expand the program to other economically distressed areas of Broward County. As a result, County staff engaged T-Mobile regarding expanding the program, and T-Mobile was able to identify an additional 160 tablets for donation that could be utilized countywide (see Exhibit 1).
Tablets will be managed and distributed by Broward County Library Division, and County staff will work with the municipalities in the identified economic ally distressed areas proposed for distribution.
The goal of the program is to increase access to information and technology, integrating into existing library, educational and employment assistance programs countywide. This proposed two-year collaboration between T-Mobile, the Libraries Division, Broward Public Schools, Career Source Broward and other agencies, as appropriate. The tablets will be on loan to qualified Broward County residents, equipped with access to library services and programs, Broward Public Schools’ student resources, and other community programs and services to support education and job readiness skills for teens and adults.
The Program will target students (K-12th grade) that are eligible for the National School Lunch Program (free or reduced) in economically distressed areas (see Exhibit 2); residents that are currently unemployed and looking for work with a household income of less than $36,273. Program participants will be required to attend an orientation and agree to several accountability factors.
The partners will develop performance measures such as academic progress, job searches, etc. to track the progress of the participants to ascertain its success and prepare reports to the Board.
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