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Call for Advisors

The ¾«¶«´«Ã½ (ALA) Public Programs Office (PPO) is seeking small and rural library leaders for Community Connect: Fostering Digital Access. Application instructions are below.

Submissions are requested by February 1, 2023.

About the Project

In 2020, ¾«¶«´«Ã½ (ALA) and Capital One Bank launched Community Connect: Digital Access at Home, an initiative that offers grants and resources to help support digital access and financial capability in rural communities nationwide. Building off this work, Community Connect: Fostering Digital Access seeks to help mitigate this demand by providing rural public libraries with resources and support to assist patrons in establishing and sustaining affordable and high-speed home internet connections. The project will create resources and professional development opportunities linked to the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and/or other programs geared to connecting people with low incomes to broadband and devices. It will also incorporate financial and digital literacy resources to assist patrons with building the necessary skills to foster sustainable internet access at home.

Community Connect: Fostering Digital Access is made possible by Capital One and the ¾«¶«´«Ã½.

Advisor Opportunity

¾«¶«´«Ã½will select six project advisors to participate in this project during a six-month term (February 2023 – August 31, 2023).

As a practitioner-focused initiative, participation and feedback from advisors will be crucial to the success of this project. Advisors will be selected for their experience serving rural communities and developing digital/financial literacy programs.

Advisors must have an individual membership with the

Project advisors will be responsible for:

• Participating in quarterly virtual meetings, beginning February 2023 and ending August 2023;
• Providing written and verbal input on project deliverables;
• Serving as content experts throughout the project to provide direction and input on developed resources;
• Assisting with communication/promotion of project deliverables to their networks by blogging and speaking about the project;
• And serving as presenters and mentors on a national, regional and state level by seeking opportunities to share the work of the project at conferences, meetings and other convenings.
• Advising ¾«¶«´«Ã½on any emerging trends or issues rural libraries are seeing in their communities around digital equity throughout the project.

Estimated time commitment: between 10 and 15 hours over the course of the project.

Honorarium: $1,000 (To be paid out as follows: $500 in February 2023, $500 in August 2023)

How to Apply

Applications must be

Learn more about how to use ¾«¶«´«Ã½Apply.

Community Connect: Fostering Digital Access is administered by ALA’s Public Programs Office.

Questions may be directed to publicprograms@ala.org. All applicants will be notified of their status by February 6, 2023.