When schools closed in the spring because of COVID-19, Detroit Public Schools Community District estimated that only 10% of its students had access to a computer and the internet.
To address this, the DTE Foundation joined with the school district, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Quicken Loans, General Motors and the Skillman Foundation to donate tablets and six months of free Wi-Fi and technical support to every K–12 student—all 51,000 of them—through the Connected Futures initiative. Students received the tablets throughout the summer, just in time for the fall 2020 school year.
“DTE aspires to be a force for good in the communities where we live and serve, knowing that when our children thrive, we all thrive,” Nancy Moody, DTE’s vice president of public affairs, told American Gas. Moody was a key player in bringing the need to light.
The program benefits the entire family because students can learn while family members work from home, pursue education, apply for jobs or access government programs, creating a lasting benefit for Detroit families and closing the digital divide affecting Detroit schoolchildren and students across the U.S., she said.
The DTE Foundation contributed financial support and thousands of hours supporting the deployment of tablets, developing information booklets and more. —Carolyn Kimmel