Kentucky

Kentucky

Grantee Total Award Type
Boat People SOS, Inc. $392,000 Public Computer Centers
City of Williamstown, Kentucky $535,308 Infrastructure
Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Technology $5,302,717 Broadband Data & Development
Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. $14,988,657 Sustainable Adoption
Kentucky Arts, Education & Humanities Cabinet $1,349,826 Public Computer Centers
Louisville-Jefferson County Metro $743,741 Public Computer Centers
One Community $18,701,771 Sustainable Adoption
One Economy Corporation $28,519,482 Sustainable Adoption
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development $62,540,162 Infrastructure
Boat People SOS, Inc.
Public Computer Centers
$392,000
Project serves: Kentucky

Boat People SOS’s Neighborhood Empowerment and Support through Teamwork project proposes to provide broadband access, training, education, and support for the underserved 7,000-household Vietnamese immigrant and refugee community in South Louisville and the surrounding areas in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

The project will increase local Vietnamese Americans’ access to critical services, improve low literacy levels, and expand job options via training in computer abilities and other relevant job skills. The program also intends to provide a safe place for youth to obtain educational opportunities under the guidance of tutors, and better equip parents to contribute to the education of their children.

City of Williamstown, Kentucky
Infrastructure
$535,308
Project serves: Kentucky

The City of Williamstown plans to deploy a high-speed fiber-to-the-home broadband network to unserved and underserved communities south of its existing network in Corinth, and north of its existing network to areas of Grant and Owen counties in northern Kentucky. The project intends to offer broadband speeds up to 10 Mbps and directly connect the three municipal organizations within the service area – Corinth City Hall, the Corinth Water District, and the Corinth Volunteer Fire Department – free of charge. In addition, the project expects to offer broadband Internet access for local consumers, including approximately 680 households and 20 businesses, and spur economic growth and job creation in the region.

Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Technology
Broadband Data & Development
$5,302,717
Project serves: Kentucky

Project Components

Technical Assistance:

The Commonwealth did not request support for state broadband capacity building, and will be using its own funds, in combination with planning funds from SBDD round 1, to build a state broadband office. This office, will oversee the planned Technical Assistance Project, which has three primary goals: (1) Re-building community partnerships through the restoration of local planning teams; (2) Developing broadband adoption, usage, and/or impact studies; and (3) Providing technical support and funding to communities with the lowest broadband availability and adoption rates to support them as they reenergize their planning teams and implement their strategic broadband plans.

Data Collection, Integration, and Validation:

This project was originally funded for broadband planning activities and two years of data collection. In September of 2010, this project was amended to extend data collection activities for an additional three years and to identify and implement best practices.

Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc.
Sustainable Adoption
$14,988,657
Project serves: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Broadband’s ability to expand educational and employment opportunities is especially meaningful for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing, a community that faces unique challenges in education and that suffers from a rate of unemployment much higher than the national average. Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. (CSD) intends to expand broadband adoption among people who are deaf and hard of hearing and provide them with online tools to more fully participate in the digital economy. The project proposes to employ a combination of discounted broadband service and specialized computers, technology training from an online state-of-the art support center customized to the community’s needs, public access to videophones at anchor institutions from coast to coast, and a nationwide outreach initiative. Thousands will gain online access to all the Internet has to offer, including sign language interpreters, captioned video services, and other content and functionalities designed especially to advance their educational, employment, and healthcare interests.

Kentucky Arts, Education & Humanities Cabinet
Public Computer Centers
$1,349,826
Project serves: Kentucky

Many Kentucky libraries currently lack the requisite equipment, instructional capacity, and funding to meet increasing user needs, while existing One-Stop Career Centers in the state are often overcrowded with long wait times for service. The Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives plans a major upgrade of computer facilities as part of the Workforce Opportunity Expansion project that would target areas of Kentucky with especially high poverty, disability, and unemployment levels. In these communities, public libraries are for many the only source of online access to employment information, Medicare and other government services, unemployment benefits, and training opportunities.

The project plans to partner with the Kentucky Department of Education to offer GED completion courses, English as a Second Language training, family literacy, workforce education, and corrections/prison education in the enhanced computer centers. The project intends to adjust each library’s curriculum to meet local needs and match the resources of the town or county it serves.

Louisville-Jefferson County Metro
Public Computer Centers
$743,741
Project serves: Kentucky

The Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, in partnership with the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation, proposes a countywide project to upgrade 18 public computer centers with approximately 130 workstations. The project intends to serve economically and socially vulnerable populations in the area, including the unemployed and underemployed, youth, and those generally facing the challenges associated with lack of affordable broadband access and training.

One Community
Sustainable Adoption
$18,701,771
Project serves: Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio

The Connect Your Community (CYC) project intends to use an innovative and collaborative strategy to expand broadband adoption by almost 20,000 households in targeted communities in five states. Expanding on successful existing Cleveland-area programs, OneCommunity plans to work with non-profit and community organizations to implement neighbor-to-neighbor broadband adoption and awareness campaigns reaching 334,000 low-income individuals and to provide training and services to 33,000 people in Akron, Cleveland, and Zanesville, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi; Lexington, Kentucky; and Bradenton, Florida. Grant funds will enable project partners, including Urban League centers, libraries, schools, economic development agencies, and human service and housing organizations, to host computer classes and utilize online resources to fulfill their missions. The project plans to employ survey techniques to measure broadband adoption among program participants and track the program’s success over time.

One Economy Corporation
Sustainable Adoption
$28,519,482
Project serves: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin

The 21st Century Information and Support Ecosystem project proposes to implement a comprehensive program of computer training, wireless Internet access, broadband awareness marketing, and online content and applications to residents of 159 affordable and public housing developments and low-income communities in 50 cities and towns across 31 states and the District of Columbia. The project plans to implement four principal programs: training 2,500 youth to become “Digital Connectors” who will then provide digital literacy training to others in their communities; deploying localized broadband networks in public housing developments; developing online content and applications aimed at low-income, low-literacy audiences.

University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development
Infrastructure
$62,540,162
Project serves: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

As part of a longstanding project to connect essential community anchor institutions across the country, and facilitate closer collaboration and long-term benefits for education, research, healthcare, public safety, and government services, the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID) proposes a comprehensive 50-state network benefitting approximately 121,000 community anchors. The project proposes a large-scale, public-private partnership to interconnect more than 30 existing research and education networks, creating a dedicated 100-200 Gbps nationwide fiber backbone with 3.2 terabits per second (TBps) total capacity that would enable advanced networking features such as IPv6 and video multicasting. The project plans to connect community anchors across all disciplines into virtual communities with shared goals and objectives, including colleges, universities, libraries, major veterans and other health care facilities, and public safety entities, with additional benefits to tribes, vulnerable populations, and government entities.