Women’s History Month Highlight

Women in Digital Equity

Interview with Sabrina Short

Founder of NOLAvate Black

What inspired you to become involved in the effort to bridge the digital divide?

My personal story is that I am a community organizer and my work as a community organizer started after Hurricane Katrina, to bring people back to their homes in their communities and support their right to rebuild in the communities that they're from.

The aftermath of the storm highlighted those needs and throughout my organizing my personal experience was how do I lift up the voice of the people? How do I give speak truth to power? How do I create a space for people to share those challenges with living in the South and living in New Orleans, and a big part of that advocacy work was working with people who lived in public housing and not being able to get into their homes and the threat of those developments being torn down. So it's this ongoing sort of recovery. Yes, the storm was about rebuilding, but the underlying common issue was that people just did not have the resources of their own to be able to rebuild and come home. And, and so over time, I saw the growth of the technology industry and not just globally but also in this region and saw it as a tremendous opportunity.

I saw it as a tremendous opportunity for black and brown people to get into a career pathway that can build wealth where you can earn a livable wage, where you can be in a space, where not only are you have the opportunity to be employed but also build, create, and innovate through technology and become a business owner and entrepreneur in that space.

And so I launched NOLAvate Black, which is an effort to bring people together in the ecosystem, and began having a conversation about what sustainability looks like in the technology sector in our community. At that time, a company moved here to New Orleans, bringing about 2,200 jobs. They did not have a conversation about employing the people who lived in the city where they were trying to move to. We're like, okay, you can't talk about 2,200 jobs without talking about how you were going to equip, train, and support people in the community to get access to those jobs. 

Six years later, I'm still here talking about not just jobs, but now we're talking about how we get investment for those founders who were innovating and building new technologies. Now we're talking about how we make sure broadband is accessible to underserved communities. How do we make sure everybody has access to the internet? How do we make sure the internet is affordable, right? Because you can't get training in tech. You can't get access to remote jobs. You can't get access to telehealth. 

So many things are dependent on the internet in this day and age and it's an ongoing evolution of our personal work, of not just talking about how do we get people jobs in tech? How do we make sure that technology is integrated in every citizen's life and that they have access to it, they know how to use it, and they know the power of the technology that can improve their lives, their families, and their communities.

When did you become a BC4DE Fellow and how did that shape into this world?

So part of that digital equity work really was founded in building Black tech ecosystems, building a network of Black professionals that were leveraging their resources, this brain trust that is in our community and really figuring out how we can work together to solve some of these problems at that time. 

How do we address AI in tech? Dr. Wilson (Vice President of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council) and I had several conversations about how we can all work together across all of these Black tech ecosystems to have these difficult conversations about equity, and access, and supporting one another and investing in our work as ecosystem builders and making sure that they were acknowledged for that work. 

What are some of the most pressing challenges and barriers that the black community, specifically women, children, youth, and seniors face when it comes to accessing and utilizing the Internet and digital technology?

I'm looking from the lens of the workforce. For me, it is helping people see the possibilities. I really want to acknowledge the importance of acknowledging Black people who are in the tech space, showing our communities what's possible. Representation matters. I think the big part of my work is making sure that young girls see that they can be technologists, young boys see that they can be entrepreneurs, senior citizens recognizing that technology can improve their lives and not to be afraid of it. 

We have a program called Explore Tech and it's culturally relevant content around job search. When we talk to job seekers and entry level career professionals, the number one thing that we tell our job seekers, or what we call our top talent, is that we’re here to help them with their confidence and to recognize that there's a place for them in it and they're needed in the tech space. We tell them we need your voice, your ideas, your perspective, your background, and the uniqueness of who you are. We also tell them we need you to bring your whole self and identity and culture to the table because that is what's going to push innovation forward. And so it really is about helping people see the possibilities, see themselves in the space and then having that representation that reaches back into the community and brings them along.

Do you think your work with Black Churches 4 Digital Equity (BC4DE) Coalition is helping build trust not only in federal programs like the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) a sense or similar opportunities? 

The foundation of trust is relationship building. And so, a big part of our work is to nurture community relationships so people can trust that what we're bringing to them is something that is going to improve their lives and not hurt them. 

I always talk about the example of my church member. When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, we all had to shift to virtual worship to keep everyone safe. We took the time out to walk people through the Zoom process which included asking them if they had the technology to get on Zoom. 

We have members who still have flip phones. Our average member is 65 years old. And so some of our members were able to buy new phones. Some members were able to buy computers so that they could sit in front of the computer and watch worship services.

I have a member that is 90 years old now. We believe she's older than that. But she will never tell us her age. She was committed to the process of making sure she could worship from home. This is a church that she grew up in. This is a church she has loved. She did whatever she had to do to make sure that she was on Zoom. And it was so beautiful to watch her growth. As far as her learning and development around technology, she didn’t own computer prior to the pandemic and became one of those people that bought one.

She would sit in front of the computer, fully dressed for worship with her pearls and hair done. She also had a hat on. She treated her virtual worship like she was at church. I have watched her evolve from that point to asking me, “Sabrina, can you show me how to get Zoom on my phone because I can't get in front of the computer today? But I definitely want to make sure that I'm listening,” After helping her download the Zoom application to her phone and then connecting her and getting her email address set up, she now checks her email and can attend church on Sundays virtually.

She even tells  me, “Oh, my email told me that you were in DC.” All I can say is “yes ma'am.” It's so wonderful just watching her evolution in adopting the technology, learning it, getting comfortable with it and then almost mastering it. It’s great to see her using the technology on her phones and checking emails! Having her trust is important and goes hand in hand with that relationship building. I think churches are perfectly positioned for that work.

What lessons have you learned during work both in your community, and at a broader level, to other communities?

The power is in the relationship. You must invest in the work by putting time and energy into those relationships. And I've learned that having one meeting is just not going to do it. Having one conversation is just not going to do it when you're talking about policy work and you're talking about changing systems. And you're talking about making sure that the infrastructure is in place to support all the work that you want to do for our communities. You must invest the time. And so I learned not necessarily a hard lesson, but I was kind of shaken up a bit where I realized I need to go back and have another conversation and follow that up with another conversation. That meant meetings. None of us like meetings, but they are necessary in this particular work of telling the stories and making sure people who are in positions of power and those who are making decisions really understand the needs of our communities. Through my community organizing and relationship building work, I also learned that when people have the information, they're gonna make the best decision for themselves. Without the information, you can't make informed decisions about your life. And so once people know there are programs out there to help them and how they can leverage them- to improve their life, people will make the best decisions for themselves.

Because you only know what you know.

It was amazing how through the ACP signup process, we learned people who are in our mission footprints did not know about the ACP program. It was also eye opening for me as a member of our church to see how many people needed the ACP Program that I didn't think needed it. We have the tendency to also make assumptions about who we think needs support and resources. The ACP process reminded me to let everybody know. Whoever needs it will apply and get it if they need it. 

What do you think is missing from the Digital Equity conversation right now at the local level, state level, and national level?

I think we've all done a really good job of telling the stories. I think what's missing is coming up with a long game. Everybody, at least in Louisiana, had time to participate in the open comments process that allowed them to share their thoughts about what the digital equity plan for the state should be. There's been a mad rush in Louisiana to be first in digital equity, We’ve had broadband conversations and implementation, but it focuses on the short-term. There's also been this mad rush on how we spend the money, but no real conversation on real sustainable change. 

Broadband is just one piece of the puzzle. And if we're not careful, it will be another initiative where we spend all this money to put things on the ground where people don't have access to it. Broadband which I look at as a tool, may become another thing that separates the haves from the have-nots. The people who get broadband may not actually be the people who need it the most. Sometimes our policymakers leverage underserved and under-resourced communities as a part of policy work. A lot of times, those efforts don't actually make it to the people that they're designing the policy for. And so, we really must have a conversation about long-term strategy around digital equity beyond just bringing broadband to the communities. Because if we're not talking about adoption, if we're not talking about education, if we're not talking about sustainability, in the next 10 or 20 years, what happens then? We're going to be doing the community really a disservice. 

A perfect example is everybody's talking about climate change. That's on the tip of everyone's tongue. Everyone's talking about our carbon footprint and what impact we're making on the environment through the decisions that we make as businesses. 

I'm in New Orleans. 20 years ago, we had a recycling program. There was all this effort to get money on the ground for recycle bins and recycling stations, and who are we going to employ to pick up the recycle bins, and where's it going to be processed. All of this money was invested into it and you would walk in the neighborhood and find people were using the blue bins for laundry. They were using the blue bins for making little gardens and, planting beans and flowers. They were doing all kinds of things with the bins except recycling cans and bottles. And it was because no one took the time to really educate the community around the purpose of the bins, of why recycling is so important and what that does for the community. You have all these bins, and you still saw cans and bottles on the curb, in the trash, in the streets because we never took the time out to really bring the community along and think about the implementation and the long-term work that has to be done.

What was the impact of you making the trip up to Capitol Hill and talking with your state legislature, your representative?

It was a very mountaintop experience. When I came home, I couldn't make any of those connections. I'm not gonna put people's names on blast, but there were certain people here in the state of Louisiana that I tried to engage like we did during our trip to Capitol Hill in DC. We met with Representative Carter and did not make any headway. I'm still trying to make headway. 

So I have to say, even though collectively, the trip was a success because the overall goal was right. But when it came to really pressing to get further work done in my state, I was unsuccessful. That learning about relationship building I talked about earlier reminds me that I need to do a better job at having ongoing conversations and not expecting the trip to Capitol Hill to actually fix all the problems here in Louisiana.

Now I'm actually bringing in my relationships with Microsoft to help me in the state around these digital equity policy conversations.I am also really trying to break through to get to the people who I need to get to because for me, I really want to see these dollars come down to New Orleans. What I'm learning about the digital equity plan that's happening, is that there isn't a real conversation around training and education or jobs. And so now I'm trying to leverage some of my relationships that I have in the tech space to put pressure on our legislators on the state level.

It sounds like there is a way that we need to look at in terms of bridging the gap at the state and the local level. 

On the local level in our city, I have that on lock. I have excellent relationships with our Mayor's office, our economic development office– all of everybody's like, let's go. They support the work I'm doing with BC4DE and Microsoft. They're on board with not translating. You can look on our state level and see what the representation looks like. This is not something they really care about. Now that we have a new governor coming in, I'm really, really, really apprehensive about what's going to happen moving forward with the change of their policy agenda on the state level. So city wide we're all on one accord, but when we start talking about the states. Yeah, I would love some help there.

Can you talk a little bit about NOLAvate Black and the work you’ve done in your community?

With NOLAvate Black, like I said earlier, our work is really about getting more black and brown people in the tech space. We host interns throughout the year. We get them from different schools and programs from across the city. For example, one young lady was placed with us through the city's Workforce Development Office. The goal of the program is to help people get soft skills so that they can become more employable. While she was working with me, a big part of my work was teaching her about etiquette in the workplace, giving her some skills working with digital platforms, and helping her understand how you get and keep a job. 

A part of the conversations I had with her focused on the work I'm doing through the BC4DE fellowship.  I let her know I was going to Capitol Hill and working to sign people up for the ACP. That’s when she told me, ‘I need Internet.’ She told me she had signed up for it, but didn't know how to access it. Through the ACP program, I showed her how to pull those resources down and get plugged in. She was able to get Internet access at home and complete a self-guided on-demand training, and get certifications which she wasn't able to do before because she didn't have internet access. 

She was only doing those kinds of things because I gave her some assignments right at work. At the end of the program, she called to tell me, “Miss Sabrina I have an interview for a job. Canyou help me? I need to know what I need to say.” Helping her with that interview process made me think about what I said earlier: you think you know who needs the resources, but this process has shown me there are people around me that needed the resources that didn't have access to it or didn't know how to use it.

This is whose lives we're trying to change. This is a young girl who had to drop out of school. She had to go back to work and here she didn't have what she really really needed to be successful. Her whole profile is a reminder of the work that our organization really needs to work hard at doing a better job of providing support to the whole person.

She just had so many challenges. She wasn't dressed appropriately for work. So I coached her about professional attire. She didn't have transportation. She didn't even have daycare for her newborn. She had family members watching the baby for her. She was coming to work late and missing days because she didn't have daycare. I worked with some of our partners to get her daycare. 

So for me, this goes back to what I said earlier about making sure people have what they need. And not just saying, ‘Oh, we got broadband in your neighborhood and so the problem is solved.’ No, you have to make sure that people have what they need and are actually able to utilize the resources.Telling people you have access to the Internet and now your life is going to change, it's not the solution. You have to make sure they are supported right in that process. You have to ask them questions. Do you have a computer? Do you have a phone? Do you know a provider that's gonna provide the internet for you? Do you know how to sign up for them? Instead of just telling people they have the Internet now or dropping this young lady into my organization and saying, ‘Oh, you have a job now and you should be fine,’ we really need to make sure people are supported. We need to make sure we have those relationships, and we're providing the information so that people can make the best decisions for their lives.

It sounds like what you're saying is that digital equity is just the tip of the iceberg for holistic equity.

Yes, this one piece is important. Yeah, an important piece too because I think through broadband we can solve a lot of these other problems, as we talked about health and education. We can get the information to the people a lot faster and a lot more efficiently because we have technology. I think if we think of technology as a tool and a holistic approach to serving our communities, we can solve a lot of problems.