The Immigrants Are Essential Fund addresses high levels of burnout and financial challenges faced by the people that power the immigrant rights movement in Southern California.

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation (CCF) and the Weingart Foundation announce the launch of the Immigrants Are Essential Fund addressing the unique challenges faced by nonprofits in the immigrant rights sector in Southern California today. The fund was created in response to the findings of “From Burnout to Wellbeing Building a Sustainable Immigration Movement”, a report by CCF, Weingart, and The Raben Group, that found high levels of burnout, lack of mental health supports, and financial challenges amongst staff in the immigrant rights sector.

“Nonprofits in the immigration sector advance a powerful vision of justice and inclusion,” said Antonia Hernández, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “We know that to realize this vision, the sector and the people that power it, need to be healthy, strong, and adequately resourced. The Immigrants Are Essential Fund takes the necessary first steps to reimagine support for our community partners that is focused more on supporting the people who provide these critical programs and services.”

“Our immigrant rights partners have supported communities through tremendous challenges exacerbated by the pandemic and against the backdrop of anti-immigrant rhetoric and exclusionary policies,” said Miguel A. Santana, President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation. “We need to ensure that the health and wellbeing of the people within those organizations is prioritized. This is why we are proud to invest in the Immigrants Are Essential Fund and call on the philanthropic community to join us.”

While other reports have examined burnout within the nonprofit sector at large, the report revealed that organizations in the immigration sector are especially vulnerable as it is a sector that is chronically underfunded. Staff surveyed in the report largely feel they lack economic security with 53% of survey respondents stating that they do not have enough economic security to ensure lost work due to serious illness. Another 43% do not have adequate savings in the event of a financial emergency.

To address the alarming data in the report, the Immigrants Are Essential Fund promotes sustainability and wellness within the sector. Resources will be allocated to support wellness programs and activities such as self-care, therapy, workshops, and coaching for the people who power the sector in Los Angeles and surrounding counties.

An advisory committee comprised of movement justice leaders will provide strategic guidance on the fund’s grantmaking priorities. CCFand the Weingart Foundation each provided $250,000 in initial funding for a total of $500,000 and have a goal of raising $1 million during the initial phase of the fund. Funders interested in contributing to the fund can reach Rosie Arroyo, Senior Program Officer, Immigration for CCF at rarroyo [@] calfund [.] org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Paula Valle Castañon at pvalle [@] calfund [.] org or 213.452.6233

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The California Community Foundation (CCF) has served as a public, charitable organization for Los Angeles County since 1915. Its mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. CCF stewards $2.3 billion in assets and manages 1,870 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit www.calfund.org.

Weingart Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial, social, and economic justice for all. Our vision is a dynamic and effective social change sector that is creating equitable systems and structures needed to achieve justice. Founded in 1951, the Foundation has to date granted over $1 billion to organizations, strengthening their efforts in human services, housing, health, education, and community power building. In addition, the Foundation builds networks and collaboratives with philanthropic, public sector, and community leaders to advance equity and justice together. For more information, please visit www.weingartfnd.org.

Report finds that internet is more expensive and slower in high poverty neighborhoods; while wealthier neighborhoods are being offered better pricing for high-speed internet.

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation (CCF) Digital Equity Initiative and Digital Equity LA have released a report today that sounds the alarm on disparities in pricing for internet service in LA County. The report documents the prices offered to residents of diverse neighborhoods across the County. Findings include that Charter Spectrum, the monopoly internet service provider (ISP) in LA County, offers better pricing for high-speed internet in wealthier neighborhoods. While high poverty communities are being charged higher prices for the same or inferior service.

“The findings of this report are concerning and raise significant red flags about the implications of those pricing disparities on the effectiveness of current public investments to close the digital divide,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “Post-pandemic, equitable access to a high-speed and reliable internet connection at a price that is sustainably affordable remains a vital necessity for full participation in society.”

CCF and Digital Equity LA are calling on leaders in Los Angeles County, cities across the County, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and the California legislature to investigate these pricing disparities and their implications for public investments in closing the digital divide.

“This report uplifts very sobering information we know all too well from our partners and network that students and families of color and those living in poverty across Los Angeles are facing disproportionate barriers to accessing quality and affordable internet,” Ana Teresa Dahan, managing director GPSN. “We call on our government leaders to hold internet service providers accountable for these grave inequities.”

Digital Equity LA and CCF Digital Equity Initiative documented advertised service options at a sample of 165 residential addresses across the County by shopping for service on ISP’s sales websites. The monopoly provider in much of LA County is Charter Communications, operating as Spectrum. According to Charter’s filings with the CPUC, it serves approximately 97% of households in the county. The next largest provider, Frontier, serves 21%. Therefore, most of the pricing data included in this report is for Charter Spectrum service.

Topline findings include:

• Most Angelenos are subject to a broken monopoly market for broadband: Charter Spectrum is the only internet service option for the majority of addresses examined for this study.
• Charter Spectrum’s advertised prices vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood.
• Charter Spectrum’s standard service tier is “Internet Ultra,” its branded service offering of up to 500 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed. Internet Ultra is the only tier of service offered at every address in this study, with slower “Internet” (300Mbps) offered to about three-quarters of households and “Internet” (100Mbps) advertised to less than a quarter of households.
• Charter Spectrum consistently offers better pricing, under better terms and conditions, to residents in low poverty neighborhoods than those in high poverty neighborhoods in LA County. Charter’s low-cost plans are not consistently advertised to households in high-poverty neighborhoods. Charter Spectrum’s promotional offers – guaranteeing a period before prices will increase – are for two years in wealthy communities, but for just one year in high-poverty communities.

“As a single parent to three boys who can only afford an inferior internet plan that is not fast or reliable, I am furious to find out about the lower rates that Spectrum is offering to wealthy neighborhoods,” said Yesenia Miranda Meza. “Like everyone else, I depend on internet access to do my everyday work and manage our lives. If I lived in a wealthy neighborhood, we would have a fast and reliable internet plan from Spectrum for less than half of what they offered me.”

She went on to share, “Internet has now become a necessity and multi-billion-dollar companies should not be allowed to continue to prey on us low-income, working-class people, who are simply trying to get by. This is an atrocity, and it should not be allowed.”

“So much of what enables people to thrive in society is now inextricably tethered to the internet – education, finding and applying for jobs, social connectivity, telehealth, and applying for programs such as Medi-Cal and CalFresh – all things we know are important drivers of health and wellbeing,” said Louise McCarthy, president & CEO, Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. “Universal access to fast and affordable internet is essential to health and wellness. We must hold ourselves accountable to the promises we made to ensure an equitable COVID recovery. This includes rectifying the inequities in access to the internet that were revealed so glaringly by the pandemic and ensuring all Angelenos can access high quality, high speed, affordable internet.”

To read the full report, Slower and More Expensive: Sounding the Alarm about Disparities in Advertised Pricing for Fast, Reliable Broadband click here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Paula Valle Castañon at pvalle [@] calfund [.] org or 213.452.6233

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The California Community Foundation (CCF) has served as a public, charitable organization for Los Angeles County since 1915. Its mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. CCF stewards $2.3 billion in assets and manages 1,900 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit www.calfund.org.

CCF launched the Digital Equity Initiative in 2021 as a multi-year project to advance system change solutions to ensure equitable access to fast, reliable, and affordable broadband for every resident of Los Angeles County. More at www.calfund.org/digital-equity-initiative/.

About Digital Equity LA
Digital Equity LA is a coalition of more than 40 community-based-organizations working in Los Angeles’ communities delivering vital education, housing, immigration, health care, immigration and civic engagement services, supporting vulnerable communities in Los Angeles, and working together to advance digital equity as a necessary precondition to meet their core missions. The CCF Digital Equity Initiative provides financial and programmatic resources in support of Digital Equity LA. More at www.digitalequityla.org.

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation (CCF) has named 12 Los Angeles County artists as recipients of the CCF Fellowship for Visual Artists (FVA), totaling $480,000 in unrestricted grants. The announcement comes after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Fellows will each receive an unrestricted grant of $40,000, which is an investment in the artist’s career rather than a singular project. They also receive access to career development support and networking opportunities.

“If ever there was a time when we needed the arts to help us collectively heal after all we have endured, this is the time,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “CCF is proud to support our Fellowship for Visual Artists fellows in their artistic careers and we celebrate their commitment to transforming communities through their work. Each of our fellows embody the future of arts in LA.”

FVA is one of the most prestigious arts fellowships in the region, which helps artists build successful, sustainable careers that support the thriving Los Angeles arts scene. The grants are often used to develop new work and fund exhibits, travel or general expenses. This year, 512 applications were received in a wide range of visual arts disciplines and reviewed by a panel of five distinguished artists and art professionals. The panel considered the artist’s entire career and future promise in the selection of this year’s fellows.

The 2022 FVA fellows are: April Banks (Interdisciplinary-Mixed Media); Nao Bustamante (Interdisciplinary-Mixed Media); Enrique Castrejon (Installation); Patty Chang (Interdisciplinary-Mixed Media); June Edmonds (Painting); Reanne Estrada (Interdisciplinary-Mixed Media); Asher Hartman (Installation and Experimental Film and Video); Iris Yirei Hu (Installation); Phung Huynh (Painting); Young Joon Kwak (Interdisciplinary-Mixed Media); Sandra Low (Painting); and Suné Woods (Experimental Film and Video).

“As a Southeast Asian refugee, artist, educator, community advocate and single parent, I persist in integrating the most significant aspects of my life,” said 2022 FVA fellow Phung Huynh. “I learn to situate my art in community spaces and look at narratives that are not fully represented. The greatest challenge is time and funding to support my work. The CCF Fellowship for Visual Artists will significantly impact what I do, deepen my artistic practice, and afford me the opportunity for community-based projects I have been dreaming to make. I appreciate how this fellowship demonstrates the need to value artists as essential cultural builders.”

FVA was officially launched in 1988 through a gift from the J. Paul Getty Trust to create a Fund for visual artists to recognize the outstanding talent of Los Angeles-based visual artists and arts organizations. Over the last 34 years, FVA has given more than $6 million in unrestricted funds to over 300 artists. Past recipients include distinguished artists, Carolina Caycedo, Beatriz Cortez, Rosten Woo, Mark Greenfield, and Andrea Bowers, among others.

“We need to help our artists thrive if Los Angeles wants to remain one of the world’s great creative cities,” says Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. “Getty is grateful for the opportunity to have seeded FVA, which has nurtured so many outstanding, diverse artists who call Southern California home. We congratulate this year’s fellows, and we can’t wait to see their artistic visions continue to develop and grow.”

This effort has been supported through the continued generosity of the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts and sustaining contributions from, the Brody Arts Fund, the T.M. and R.W. Brown Fund, the Jennie Strong Memorial Fund, the Joan Palevsky Endowment for the Future of Los Angeles, the Rose Anne Rice Charitable Fund and other CCF funds.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Paula Valle Castañon at pvalle [@] calfund [.] org or 213.452.6233

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The California Community Foundation (CCF) has served as a public, charitable organization for Los Angeles County since 1915. Its mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. CCF stewards $2.5 billion in assets and manages 1,800 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit www.calfund.org.

For more information about the FVA fellows and to view their galleries please click here.

To find out how you can support FVA, please visit us here. One-hundred percent of contributions to the FVA go directly to artists.

The historic donation of two luxury estates will convert high-value real estate into permanent funding for local grassroots sheltering and integration programs.

More than 136,000 students across LA County will be served through these programs, made possible in part by three gifts of $1M or more to CCF, most prominently $3.3M from Ballmer Group

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation (CCF) announced today the 108 summer and yearlong expanded learning programs that will receive more than $7.8 million in grants through the final installment of the LA County Summer Learning Initiative. The grants support learning and enrichment programs for low-income and vulnerable students in TK-12 schools and community-based organizations and will reach more than 136,000 students across Los Angeles County throughout next year, including almost 86,000 students over the next three months.

This unprecedented investment in summer offerings with expanded student learning opportunities extended into the upcoming 2022-23 school year is made possible through the generosity of several partner foundations and donors, including the transformative gifts of $3.3 million from Ballmer Group, $1.2 million from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and $1 million from the Murphy Family Fund. Other major contributors to the 2022 initiative are The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation, as well as the Stone Family Fund.

“Ballmer Group is proud to support the California Community Foundation, for a second year as part of a community wide partnership to ensure that every student in Los Angeles will have access to quality summer programming,” said Nina Revoyr, Executive Director, Ballmer Group – Los Angeles. “We know that too often, access to summer and afterschool enrichment programs is dependent on family income. We also know that students who have access to high quality summer learning and activities see less learning loss, are more likely to stay engaged in school, get more access to mental health care, and have safe places to be – all hallmarks for long term success and economic mobility.”

Revoyr went on to say, “We are excited to have CCF and the unprecedented collaboration of the City, LAUSD, the County Office of Education, and the nonprofit community, all working together on behalf of our kids.”

Among the recipients of the 2022 LA County Summer Learning Initiative grants is the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles who will run 45 summer camps throughout LA County, providing children throughout the county with academic support and learning recovery, plus expanded social emotional learning.

The group’s President & CEO, Victor Dominguez stated, “The YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles (LA Y) would like to thank the California Community Foundation (CCF) for their generous support. This summer, with the help of partners like the CCF, the LA Y will provide over 20,000 kids and teens with safe, high-quality sports, arts, fitness, civic engagement, and STEM summer enrichment activities that will help develop them into future leaders in their communities. Together, the LA Y and CCF are making summer enrichment possible.”

CCF first launched the LA County Summer Learning Initiative in 2020, in partnership with the LA County Office of Education, to address the physical closures of schools and community centers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption to traditional school operations exacerbated long-time gaps in educational opportunities and access along racial and socioeconomic lines for the County’s young people.

Despite the return to in-person learning in schools and programs throughout LA County, the need for responsive summertime learning environments and increased expanded learning during the regular school year to mitigate cumulative learning loss and address the social-emotional needs of youth still recovering from pandemic driven social-isolation continues.

“CCF and our partners have collectively given more than $16.6 million in funding support to schools and community-based organizations across LA county to ensure that students during summer and beyond had access to critical services in response to the pandemic,” said Antonia Hernández, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “We are proud of the impact we have had to more than 248,000 students over the last three years through the LA County Summer Learning Initiative.

Hernández went on to state, “As we embark on our final year of the Initiative, CCF will serve as a funding bridge to provide pandemic recovery support services to regional youth serving organizations, nonprofit academic and socio-emotional wellness programs, and recreational programs as well as partner with local school districts and charter schools.”

A grant to the philanthropic arm of the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) will increase staff capacity to provide critical support to approximately 30 local school districts to encourage, enhance, and manage partnerships with nonprofit and community-based organizations so they can effectively leverage federal covid recovery and state Expanded Learning Opportunity funds or program grants.

“We are thrilled to partner with the California Community Foundation to help districts build partnerships to expand learning and enrichment opportunities,” said Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Debra Duardo. “Los Angeles County has so many unique resources. With this support districts, educators and students will be able to take advantage of everything that our region has to offer. I am so grateful for CCF for their investment in public education this summer, and beyond.”

Additional partners working collectively to increase expanded learning opportunities across the LA region this summer and beyond include the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, Great Public Schools Now, Expand LA, LA84 Foundation, Partnership for Children and Youth (PCY), Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation.

The full list of grantees can be found here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Paula Valle Castañon at pvalle [@] calfund [.] org or 213.452.6233

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The California Community Foundation (CCF) has served as a public, charitable organization for Los Angeles County since 1915. Its mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. CCF stewards $2.5 billion in assets and manages 1,800 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit www.calfund.org.

For more information about the LA County Summer Learning Initiative please visit https://www.calfund.org/la-county-summer-learning-initiative/.

Gloria Molina, former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, to serve as chair of the board for a two-year term

The grants which were made possible by a $1M gift from Facebook, will fund long-term infrastructure of Black-led and Black-empowering organizations throughout Los Angeles County

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation (CCF) announced today the inaugural cohort of 20 community-based organizations that will receive $1 million in grants through the Black Empowerment Fund. The grants, which were made possible by Facebook, will support organizations that work to strengthen the leadership pipeline, build wealth, change the media narrative, advance system reform, develop a conduit for research and intellectual advancement, and empower Black voices within the Black community.

CCF launched the Black Empowerment Fund in February 2021 to invest in the long-term infrastructure of Black-led and Black-empowering organizations throughout Los Angeles County. The 20 organizations that have been selected, in collaboration with the Black Equity Collective, represent dynamic leaders that develop transformational, community-centered solutions for the Black community, and create conditions for the Black community to achieve their full potential for self-actualization and social and economic prosperity.

“Facebook is supporting the Black Empowerment Fund to help counter the social and economic challenges faced by the Black community by dismantling systemic barriers to opportunity and expanding access to resources through online trainings and technical and financial support,” said Alex Bashian, Strategic Partnerships Manager for Facebook Los Angeles. “We hope these grants will increase access to jobs, workforce development, and career coaching to support economic growth in the local community.”

Among the recipients of the Black Empowerment Fund grants is Project Joy Inc., which works to empower, educate, and encourage the most vulnerable youth and families. This grant will directly impact youth, who will be able to participate in programs like Youth AI (artificial intelligence) Career Learning Program, which increases confidence, mental wellness, job readiness and career awareness. The funding and training will also enable them to grow their social enterprise, Project Joy Media, and offer digital marketing services to the hardest hit business owners in the community enabling them to tell their unique stories by providing critical media support.

“We are elated at the support and exposure that is offered by this grant,” said Kim Watson, Founder and Executive Director of Project Joy Inc. “The funding, training and increased visibility is a springboard; allowing us to create jobs, sustain life changing programs, increase joy and deepen our career services to the youth and families in our community.”

CCF has an established record of investing in the Black community to build greater community resiliency through programs like BLOOM, LASIF-YMOC, PAT, and Ready to Rise. This Fund is the next step in CCF’s evolution from resiliency support to long-term infrastructure investments, with the focus being on improving the social and economic outcomes to empower Black communities throughout Los Angeles County.

The Black Cooperative Investment Fund (BCIF), also among the Fund’s recipients, plans on using the grant to positively impact the Black community, by deploying low to no interest loans to Black-owned businesses. BCIF’s role in the ecosystem is to create jobs, build assets, improve chances for economic mobility in the community, and address the racial wealth gap.

“BCIF is laser focused on pooling dollars and raising awareness about the importance of economic empowerment, equity, and wealth building in the Black community,” said Robert Lewis, President and Board Chair of the Black Cooperative Investment Fund. “BCIF believes the Black community can get the change it seeks when it impacts the bottom line of corporations, politicians, and systems that take advantage of our ‘blind loyalty.’ As such, being an action-oriented partner within the ecosystem of efforts to close the racial wealth gap is paramount for BCIF.”

It is by resourcing and empowering our communities to address the root causes of systemic issues and persistent barriers, which will create lasting changes in our communities.

“CCF is committed to working with our leaders and community to invest and empower individuals and organizations that are developing responsive solutions to address the root causes of racism and disinvestment, which have disproportionately impacted Black communities,” said Antonia Hernández, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “We know that inequalities in education, health, civil rights and housing require investment in the capacity of people and communities in order to bring about real change, which is why we are thrilled to have partnered with Facebook and the Black Equity Collective to provide needed resources to our grantees.”

Queen, the Founder of the EarthLodge Center for Transformation, a Black-led spiritual sanctuary centering LGBTQI, women, youth, their families, and allies, stated: “This grant will allow us to expand our healing justice and trauma transformation work at a vital time as the world works to recover from the global pandemics of COVID and anti-Black violence. The rates of depression, isolation, violence and emotional distress, especially in the LGBTQI community, reached all-time highs since last March and the support of these funds will help us to continue to provide tools for healing, balance, wellness, community safe space and sanctuary to our marginalized communities…so that we can all experience a just recovery and healthier new world.”

The full list of grantees can be found here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

press@calfund.org

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The California Community Foundation (CCF) has served as a public, charitable organization for Los Angeles County since 1915. Its mission is to lead positive systemic change that strengthens Los Angeles communities. CCF stewards $2.4 billion in assets and manages 1,700 charitable foundations, funds and legacies. For more information, please visit www.calfund.org.

For more information about the Black Empowerment Fund, please visit The Black Empowerment Fund.

The landmark contribution will build a permanent financial bedrock for the smaller cultural institutions that form the backbone of the region’s diverse creative communities.

More than 62,000 students across LA County will be served through these programs, which was made possible in part by a $5M gift to CCF from Ballmer Group

Los Angeles, CA — The California Community Foundation along with four other California based Community Foundations urged California legislative leaders in a letter this week to support and adopt Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed $7 billion investment in digital equity. The COVID-19 pandemic this past year made it undeniable that access to the internet is a civil rights issue.

“Recovering from the pandemic and building a stronger, more just, and more equitable California will require further investments in bold, innovative, and transformative change. Digital equity – ensuring universal access to fast, affordable, reliable broadband – will be critical to any inclusive recovery,” the Community Foundation heads explained. “The Governor’s proposal and investment is a strong and visionary step forward, and we believe it should be enacted immediately, as proposed.”

The supporters, which include Antonia Hernández, President and CEO of California Community Foundation, alongside Fred Blackwell, CEO of San Francisco Foundation, Nicole Taylor, CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, James Head, President and CEO of East Bay Community Foundation, and Mark Stewart, President and CEO of San Diego Foundation, submitted the letter to the California legislative leaders expressing strong support for Governor Newsom’s historic investment of $7 billion to expand universal broadband access and affordability for high need communities. The letter urged them to act on the proposal without delay.

“Digital equity is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time, and is a priority for the California Community Foundation,” said Hernández, President and CEO of California Community Foundation. “The pandemic laid bare the consequences of inequitable access to fast, reliable, and affordable broadband, which made the disproportionate education, economic, and social impacts of the last 18 months significantly worse for unserved and underserved communities across Los Angeles County and the state. Justice delayed is justice denied; there is no reason to delay critical investments in public infrastructure that gets us closer to digital equity.”

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Full text of the letter below and posted here:
https://www.calfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CF-Budget-Letter.pdf

Honorable Members of the California Legislature,

The undersigned community foundations would like to express strong support for Governor Newsom’s historic investment of $7 billion to expand universal broadband access and affordability for high need communities, and support for moving this entire investment forward without delay.

We want to thank you for your leadership in ensuring that the state’s responses and investments in these unprecedented times have focused on equity and inclusion. Without your commitment to racial equity, the communities that suffered the most severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and were often left out by federal CARES Act dollars, would have been further left behind.

Recovering from the pandemic and building a stronger, more just, and more equitable California will require further investments in bold, innovative, and transformative change. Digital equity – ensuring universal access to fast, affordable, reliable broadband – will be critical to any inclusive recovery.

The Governor’s proposal and investment is a strong and visionary step forward, and we believe it should be enacted immediately, as proposed.

More than 15 million Californians live in a broadband monopoly in addition to the 2.3 million who have no access to broadband at the speeds required to fully participate in modern society, from education to economic development to accessing government services. These monopolies have led to digital redlining, where the fastest, most reliable, and most affordable broadband infrastructure investments have been limited to wealthy communities, while the rest are stuck with older, slower, less reliable, and more expensive service or without any service at all.

The long-term, systemic solution to equitable access, service, and affordability is a statewide open access middle mile network as the Governor has proposed — public infrastructure for the public good — and the time to begin building it is now.

We are concerned that delayed and staggered funding will mean millions of Californians living in unserved and underserved communities will continue to fall behind as they face down the disparate impacts of digital exclusion. These are the same communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of pandemic impacts and further delaying their access to fast, reliable, and affordable broadband will result in further denying them opportunity for a resilient recovery.

Like you, for more than a year we have responded to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in highly impacted communities, from Oakland and San Jose to Southeast Los Angeles. Through grantmaking and public-private partnerships we contributed to efforts that provided economic and rent relief, COVID 19 testing and vaccine equity, and supported distance learning in disconnected communities.

From that vantage point, the inequitable impacts of the digital divide have been glaring—with tens of thousands of Californians facing tremendous barriers to distance learning, left out of the promise of telehealth and unable to schedule access vaccine appointments, locked out of access to government services, and unable to be counted in the Census because of poor connectivity and access to devices.

Just as glaring has been the limited ability of local jurisdictions to quickly expand access or ensure affordability or the necessary speeds and reliability. The governor’s proposal would allow localities to immediately begin to solve those shortcomings.

Publicly owned open access middle mile infrastructure is useful mile-by-mile, making a difference as soon as building begins. Slow action, extending the investment across multiple years, or delaying implementation by even a few months would come at a tremendous cost, perpetuating the inequities for years or even a generation to come.

The Governor’s plan puts the dollars to work immediately, leverages federal funding that may become unavailable in the case of delay, and deploys solutions to address many facets of the digital divide in parallel, further accelerating the impact of the investment.

We urge your support and immediate adoption of these critical investments in digital equity and our communities’ future.

Antonia Hernández
President and CEO, California Community Foundation

Fred Blackwell
CEO, San Francisco Foundation

Nicole Taylor
CEO, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Mark Stewart
President and CEO, San Diego Foundation

James Head
President and CEO, East Bay Community Foundation