Hi, I'm Jeff Rea your host for Economic Outlook.

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Please make plans each week to join us as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

Digital access and skills are essential to thrive in a modern world, but that access can sometimes be hard to come by.

The city of South Bend has been recognized nationally for its efforts to connect all members of the community.

We're taking a closer look at those efforts and talking more about how their model could be one for other communities to follow.

Coming up on economic outlook, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance named the City of South Bend as a 2023 digital inclusion trailblazer, recognizing the city's efforts to close the digital divide and ensure its residents are equipped to thrive in the modern economy.

Today, we're learning more about those efforts and how they will help both the community and its citizens reach their full potential and drive economic growth and prosperity in our area.

Joining me for that conversation are Denise Riedl, the chief innovation officer at the city of South Bend, and Regina Emberton, the CEO at Choicelight.

Welcome, ladies.

Glad to have you here.

Thanks for the chance to chat a little bit about this topic.

Congratulations on some of your success in this space.

We look forward to diving into it a little bit deeper today.

Maybe to go first.

Regina, come your way.

So if people aren't familiar with Choicelight and what you do there, tell us a little bit about Choicelight.

sure.

Well Choicelight is a organization that was actually founded back in the mid 2000s.

So this community really has been a trailblazer for a long time when it comes to digital infrastructure and technology.

Basically, community leaders at that time recognized that businesses in the area did not have access to fast, reliable and affordable Internet broadband connectivity.

And we were starting to lose businesses out of the region for that reason.

So they were looking at Chicago because they could get the bandwidth they needed at an affordable price.

They came together and decided that the best solution was to create a vendor neutral dark fiber network, and they started construction on that in about 2006.

So over the years, that network, largely an underground network of fiber optic cable level, has been expanded throughout Saint Joseph County down to Marshall County.

And now we're also managing Elkhart County's fiber network.

So companies on the commercial side, whether they're educational, governmental, health care or business, can benefit from accessing the Internet directly with that infrastructure.

They were really forward thinking and using this as an infrastructure play.

We don't provide any lip service.

That's something that we partner with our Internet service providers or companies to do.

Great.

Thank you.

And Denise lets come your way a little bit.

Talk to us about your role with the city.

Sure.

So my role is I'm chief innovation officer for the city of South Bend and head of the city's Department of Innovation and Technology.

So we're like this data technology and design, Swiss Army knife for the city.

So we have centralized I.T.

data and performance digital services, as well as technology work generally for the city.

So we think about I.T.

workforce issues, we think about smart city work, how we're going to modernize as a city with sensors and with new amenities in the public way.

But we also think about equity and especially digital equity.

And so much of that is whether people have access to the broadband they need to thrive in this economy, thrive in the workforce.

All of that is tied up with do people have computers?

Do people have Internet access to people, have the skills that they need to actually leverage the infrastructure that we have?

So we we think about that a lot.

And we just won an award, as you pointed out.

I want to go back to something Regina said, though, because having an asset like Choicelight is quite remarkable.

In our region, I haven't always lived in South Bend.

I came from Chicago and and used to live in the East Coast and do kind of wireline broadband projects in other cities.

So many cities on their wish list is to have an open access, dark fiber network.

It's really an incredible asset that our region has.

South Bend Open wifi.

We have a network in South Bend that covers many public spaces, parks, major intersections and pedestrian areas, and all of that is powered by Choicelight fiber.

And it's just an amazing partner, amazing infrastructure to have in our region that powers a lot of digital equity work.

And we've been able to obviously build on that progress and win awards like the and the NDA one.

Great, Regina Let me come your way and maybe just a high level state of access.

Right.

So as you mentioned, the organization was founded years ago to help with that.

And what I hear is communities all across the country talking about access and it's a priority at the statehouse in a lot of different places.

But but but it also feels sometimes like we have but we're a big city urban area.

Isn't that like the rural middle of nowhere that they can't get access to?

Just talk to us about what access looks like in the community.

Sure.

I would say we do have a lot of rural areas in our region overall that that are not having access to Internet right now, but it's also in neighborhoods as well.

And when we talk about access, it's not just having a cell phone or wireless, but what type of infrastructure do you have?

Like, is it fiber infrastructure, which is traditionally more fast and reliable than per se a copper line would be.

So if your neighborhood and there's some definitions by the NTIA.

So if you're underserved, you know you have basically less than 100 download and 25 upload, but you could also be completely unserved in some areas where you might have a small amount of capacity, but not enough to actually be able to be effective in using the tools.

So if you don't have an Internet connected device or you don't have the ability or the infrastructure to connect that into the Internet, you're not going to be able to participate in education, remote work, learning, telehealth, all of the things that you basically need to be able to be an active member of society today.

Denise let me come your way as we're talking this access, because I think of pandemic time in particular as being one of those that sort of drew the spotlight in in terms of access and who had it not talked to us about how that has informed even the work that happens today in the community in terms of getting access to people who didn't have it.

Absolutely.

And just to kind of level set as well and put numbers to it, we know about 20% of our households in South Bend do not have a broadband connection in their home.

We know about 10 to 15% of households rely exclusively on their mobile phones, which, you know, if you've tried to apply for a job on a mobile phone or apply to college, it's it's quite difficult.

And we know that about 10% of our households don't have computers.

And that number actually doubles for households 65 and over.

So when we think about digital equity, you know, those are all concerns.

You know, we think about our elderly population, we think about households with distance learning and COVID that the faultlines really showed, you know, students, we realized it wasn't enough, 1 to 1 laptops weren't enough, and the school system was working so hard to make sure everyone had devices, but they didn't necessarily at the time, they couldn't control at home broadband.

And so we really discovered and had to problem solve around that issue and make sure that there were enough community and at home connections to make sure no matter where anyone was in the pandemic, whether it was a community center, whether you're quarantining at someone's house or whether you were, you know, transient between different households during the pandemic, you had access.

And so the pandemic really showed some of the weaknesses in our community.

And we were able to learn a lot of lessons as a result.

And Denise, what would you say?

Obviously, the work you're doing, I think, is sort of phenomenal in terms of reducing those.

But but but how do we stack up with other communities generally?

Are we we better or worse or do we still have a lot of catching up to do?

Are we starting to get ahead of everybody?

Where do we stack up with other communities?

So in terms of just connectivity numbers, all the numbers I mentioned 80% broadband adoption, 10% without a computer, those numbers are all slightly worse than the county and slightly worse in Indiana and worse than the national average.

And so just so everyone understands, the state of Indiana looks a little bit worse than the national average.

And the city of South Bend looks a little bit worse than the Indiana average.

And so in terms of benchmarking broadly, we have a lot of work to do in terms of effort and well, I think we've gone a long way.

We have a lot of programs that we've developed here to the point where the NDA did give us that visionary award, which recognized the South Bend is being creative in addition to having good infrastructure and people on the ground to tackle this problem.

For the first time.

And in 2022, the mayor created a new position in the city called the technology Equity Manager.

Patrick Maguire is a very talented young man and he drives a lot of this work for the city.

The mayor also deployed an executive order at the end of 2022 to do several very important things.

One was to ask my department to look at city code and make sure we were streamlining permitting processes, that we were being fiber ready for the ISPs that Regina works with.

All of those bureaucratic permitting processes are actually so essential to make sure we're business friendly, we're fiber ready, that we can work with anyone that wants to work with us.

The mayor also asked us to develop a broader digital equity plan, which has driven a lot of our work since the pandemic.

So we were surveying residents, we were looking at federal data, and we were able to identify with the data where we should be going first, what kind of programs we should be deploying.

And then lastly, that executive order called on the community driven by my office and several key partners to create a new coalition.

So now every month we have a regional South End connectivity coalition that meets with several members.

Choicelight is one of our anchor members, as well as Notre Dame, the Wireless Institute, La Casa enfocus, the school system, the library.

And that was really done because there's no one entity that can solve the digital divide alone.

Public or private, we all have to work together.

Our ISPs have to work with us.

The library works with us.

We all have a part to play in that complex web of skills and access and training.

So providing that consistent coordination has been really key to coordinate our region and move us forward.

Yeah, I think it's really proactive that we have a coalition like that, and a key point is that it's aligned with the state and federal funding that's available.

So not only does the Coalition work here locally with residents and businesses to help support them and whether it's infrastructure or digital skills or sort of the basically having the tools to be able to to use the broadband connectivity, But they are proactive in advising the state on what those needs are.

So one thing that important to note is that this is a very national issue, so much so that the federal government has allocated 43 billion a $42 billion of bid funding that's being distributed throughout the country so that every resident and business can be connected to the Internet.

That's a lofty goal and it filters right down to Indiana and to our region and to South Bend.

So the state of Indiana has about a little under $900 million that's been allocated and will be deployed over the next several years to making that a reality, that the infrastructure is put in place to be able to serve all of those homes and businesses.

And every step of the way, the coalition has been able to provide input, basically give comments to all the proposals along the way.

And so it's it's really great that our communities are represented at that level.

All right, ladies, we're going to take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going out into the field.

George Lepeniotis, my co-host, is how George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm in downtown South Bend in the old Studebaker Building 84.

And I'm joined by Gillian Shaw.

Gillian, vice president of enFocus.

Thanks for being with us today.

Thank you for having me.

Tell me a little bit about enFocus and what it is that your mission or goal is.

What do you do here to focus?

Yeah, our purpose is to attract and retain talent in the South Bend, Elkhart region.

And the way that we do that is by putting young professionals and career transitions on to meaningful projects that really lift up the area and motivate them to stay.

So that's a that's a mouthful to unpack, but let's do it because it's really a twofold goal almost.

You are attracting young talent to the area to help with workforce development, labor shortages, etc.

But you are also solving problems.

Yes, that's a unique way to go about things.

Tell me what first off, how do you go about recruiting and attracting people to come work on these projects?

Yeah, we have a very robust recruiting system.

We have a team that goes out to the local colleges and universities, tells them about what we do and really we try to tell the story of our individual projects.

Our projects have so much impact that that's what gets people to want to be here and we'll turn to those projects as That's kind of your world, right?

Your vice president of projects here.

How do you go about selecting projects today?

We're talking a little bit about your citywide classroom initiative, which helps kids in South Bend.

Is it is it South Bend?

Is there a border to it?

Is it mainly in South Bend?

We got started in South Bend, but we also serve Mishawaka.

So you are serving both cities and helping those who maybe have a gap in their Internet coverage, especially kids.

Yes.

Get that type of Internet coverage because it's become so vital in their schooling, right?

Yes, absolutely.

So the city wide classroom project is really one of our projects that we have going on at enFocus And we have about 120 going on at any given time.

Wow.

So when we talk about this citywide classroom project, how many young folks have you recruited or have worked on that project for you?

Yeah, So we got started the city Wide Classroom project in 2020.

Through the years, we've had different fellows and team members be part of that team.

About 15 people have worked on it in total and our current team is about five.

And what is the status of the project today if we had to kind of say, what's a that's a progress report, how's it going?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's been going really great.

We have served, I would say, about 5000 households in South Bend and Mishawaka by providing them with an Internet connection.

That Internet connection is a lifeline for the household.

It helps the student to be able to complete their classwork at home, but also it's open to anybody in the household so parents can use it.

Other people in the household can use it, whether that's for job applications, college applications, anything that you would want to use the Internet for, it's it's there for the house.

So, Gillian, as you provide this service to these kids and families in need, is there a fee to them?

There's no fee to the family, no.

So it truly is a city wide classroom.

Yes.

And how about flipping the the mission?

Right.

So you've helped solve this problem for over 5000 people in this in Mishawaka, South Bend area.

What about the young folks that you've brought in to work on it?

What is your success been in keeping them in the area?

Definitely.

So with Citywide Classroom being able to get started as an enFocus project, we see that this need is across our communities here.

And so city wide classroom is growing and maturing into more of a program and an operational business in and of itself.

So our plan for the Citywide Classroom is that it actually becomes its own nonprofit business and spins out of enfocus, has its own team and dedicated staff to it.

So we're really excited about that.

And then I am happy to say that while I can't put an exact percentage on it, I know of at least four or five individuals of the 15 that have decided to make this area their home after enFocus and after their time with Citywide Classroom, which is really the primary focus.

So what other projects do you have coming up on the horizon that you might be able to tell us about?

Yeah.

So citywide classroom is about Internet coverage, right?

And so we've experimented with giving homes, hotspot connections, broadband connections and so one of the areas that we're really excited about that city wide classroom can also provide is a private network through the South Bend schools, which is an unlimited connection.

Basically.

So we're excited to be able to see that level of innovation happen within the city wide classroom and offer another approach in this multifaceted system.

Well, that's awesome.

Thank you for having us today.

Thanks for showing us around.

It's great to see you guys hard at work solving the issues.

So.

Thanks again.

Thank you.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

I'm sure.

Going to talk more about the creative ways that people like Gillian and her team are solving problems on many, many fronts all at once.

George, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Great to see you as always.

Back in the studio, Dennis Riedl, the chief innovation officer from Choicelight from the city, South Bend, sorry, and Regina Emberton, the CEO at Choicelight Thank you guys both for continuing this conversation.

So Denise come your way?

So let's break this down to people, right?

A little bit.

So we were kind of a jobs in the economy kind of to show we want people to be successful in sort of life and thrive.

And we teased in the opening.

So the stuff you're doing is really helping them function in a society that's become very technologically dependent.

Talk a little bit about just that angle.

Absolutely.

No.

I mean, I think that it's hard to quantify, but there are there are true cost to the digital divide.

You know, one of them as a government CIO, one of them for me is truly just the inefficiencies of not having people online, right?

The way people file taxes, access government services, access, you know, social services, whether they can do that online and so essential and there are a lot of costs and inefficiencies that happen when people don't have access or don't have devices.

But also there's just a true cost when it comes to outcomes for our community and the educational outcomes that happen when people don't have access to the Internet, to upload documents, to work on homework, to access higher education or distance learning, and then telemedicine, especially post COVID, you know, screenings via video.

Mental health resources, access online.

When we cut off a portion of our population to those resources, that's staggering.

And there's a community cost to that.

One thing that's been a recent finding that we've witnessed where is a low cost Internet program in the United States called the Affordable Connectivity Program.

And the federal government and state and local governments, several agencies are trying to figure out how to keep that program on.

But recently, residents who are part of the low cost Internet program were surveyed.

You know what would happen if you didn't have a low cost option?

And, you know, many of them fear a loss of job.

Many of them fear that they would have sacrifices made when it comes to educational attainment or work that they were doing or fear of loss, of benefits, of access to medical information and services.

And so those are some of the categories that I think are most pressing to people on the ground.

Yeah.

And I think, Jeff, if you look at it from a commercial perspective, are the businesses in the area one of Choicelight's its main priorities is to leverage broadband in our broadband infrastructure here in the region to support community and economic development.

So we do have a lot of legacy manufacturing in the region, but as those companies are trying to adopt new technologies and really go through this digital transformation, they're unable to do that unless they have a very robust, high quality network that can support implementing those type of technological services.

And so, you know, it can be from manufacturing to the health care institutions, making sure people's privacy is protected and that the services are there and the equipment is able to help them.

So I think very importantly from a quality of life, from a residential perspective, but also in that economic development and supporting businesses who are here and trying to grow or were considering having relocate to the area.

You know, it's interesting because I hear horror stories from those manufacturers sometimes who think, wait, in 2024 you don't have this access or that access.

But I also think as we get closer to the end now term of this, this is changing like crazy, right?

And so things are so different today than they were yesterday or the day before.

It sounds like your connectivity coalition is like dialed in on sort of pressing needs.

Talk about how you keep up, even with sort of the evolving needs of the community and the technology that's moving really fast.

Yeah, we do.

We do our best.

We try and build feedback loops so that we understand how the digital gaps kind of keep evolving.

A few things we have our eye on.

Every two years, the city deploys a survey and we always ask a broadband affordability question.

In 2022, we asked, you know, how do you have access to an Internet package that you can afford?

30% of households said that they did not.

And so we're going to be monitoring that because you know how we work with the private sector, how we try and supplement at home accesses is important.

And so just constantly measuring the challenge is good.

And, you know, there are also emerging technologies that impact the digital divide.

The coalition now is talking about generative AI and how we make sure people are equipped with basic skills, not only from just a standpoint of how do I use it, how do I use it efficiently, but how do you use it safely?

And so staying on top of access, updated numbers and then emerging technologies is is very important.

Talk for a second in our last three or so minutes about somebody who's not plugged in right now, maybe doesn't have that affordable package at home, maybe isn't plugged into the device, maybe doesn't have the skills.

What advice to them about, you know, kind of where they go, how they get involved in some of that?

Absolutely.

So there are lots of community partners that work in the coalition La Casa the library.

So there are many places you can go.

All of the resources are linked to off of southbendin.gov/digitalequity So you can browse through all of that.

We also have paper resources too, because there is a digital divide.

And so, you know, in terms of first steps in next steps, there are low cost options that some ISP's provide.

There are some hardware resources that people can look into if you need a device in your home.

And there's lots of partners in our community that do training adult training, training for children, training for seniors.

And so right now we're trying to piece together and communicate those resources and we have them centralized now in our digital equity roadmap.

And I think if if residential homes do not have service, they can contest that.

So as the federal government and our state Indiana Broadband Office is deploying all of this funding, there will be a challenge process.

So they've essentially mapped every broadband serviceable location in the country, whether it's served, unserved or underserved.

And if that information is not accurate, the homeowner can reach out to local government or to an Internet service provider and ask them to challenge that.

So I would say just following along with the speed process and the Indiana Broadband Office and making sure that it's known if you're not served so that we can get Internet to everyone's home.

You mentioned the federal funds.

So the is the coalition the applicant or are you the ones actively seeking on behalf of the community who's the who's the person trying to make sure we get those resources here?

Well, for the bid fund in particular, the coalition is supporting Internet service providers right now.

It is those Internet service providers that are able to apply for the funding.

So Choicelight for example, might be a partner and provide the backhaul of the dark fiber infrastructure.

The city would work with them to show what areas need to be connected and partner with them in a letter of support in areas like that.

But if those Internet service providers are the ones that are actually going to be making the application for that program.

And when it comes to the digital equity funding, so bid stands for broadband equity access and deployment, really infrastructure focused when we think about connecting people, the digital equity grant funds from the state are going to be focused on training and resources and leveraging the connections.

And so when it comes to those new programs, I think that's where the Coalition is going to give the region an edge because we have been doing so much coordination, we've been doing a lot of surveying.

We understand where our weaknesses are.

We don't have steady like a laptop refurbishing partner here in the region.

We know kind of where we need to invest.

And you know what trainings we need the most.

And so I think, you know, when the time comes, well, we'll be ready.

Well, thank you both for sharing.

What a great story.

Congratulations on your award.

We appreciate the good work you're doing in here in the community.

That's it for our show today.

On behalf of the entire team here at PBS Michiana WNIT Thank you for watching or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again, or any of our past episodes.

You can find economic outlook at wnit.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

So encourage you to like us on Facebook or follow us on X. I'm Jeff Rea I'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.