Detroit has a new partnership to address the city’s digital divide, a non-profit is pledging to donate one-thousand laptops to residents.
Human I.T. takes donated computers and devices and refurbishes them. Co-founder James Jack says the non-profit is hiring people to process discarded electronics, rather than purchasing new technology.
“They just need a little bit of work and instead of just pulling from the ground, we can actually just use what’s already here.”
Human I.T. is focusing on getting devices into the hands of young students. Amariah Wims-Fuller is 14-years old and has been taking classes online during the pandemic.
“I’m glad that now that we’re getting adjusted and used to being online and how to deal with these technical difficulties, everything is getting better than we first started out.”
City officials say before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 70-percent of Detroit’s children lived in homes without a wired broadband connection.