With the help of 2020 CARES ACT funding through the United Way of the Central Carolinas and the City of Charlotte, CSL through its ReEntry Entrepreneurship Program (REEP), was able to segue into a role of designing and delivering training for and deploying a team of justice-involved men and women as digital navigators.

This team has been working in a customer service/help-desk role in support of five projects in Charlotte, where citizens have been experiencing the digital divide: 1) the Mecklenburg County Library’s MeckTech Project – the distribution of thousands of computers, 2) E2D – the distribution of computers to families with school-age children,  3) Mecklenburg County’s Criminal Justice Services office – help-desk for computer usage in transitional residences, 4) the Mecklenburg County Library’s Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) project in collaboration with the West Boulevard Library, and 5) with Digital Charlotte’s digital navigator project – Learn more here.

CSL/REEP also sourced, recruited and placed a team of returning citizens as internet technicians working with Access Charlotte, which installed wireless internet services and public wifi in communities around the city.