Digital Access Is Infrastructure – the internet isn’t a ‘luxury’ anymore
A few years ago, people talked about internet access like it was optional, something “nice to have” if you wanted to stream a show or shop online.
That’s not true anymore.
Today, you need internet access — and a device, and the know-how to use both — to apply for a job, renew your benefits, pay rent, help your kid with homework, or see a doctor. Internet access is not a bonus: it’s infrastructure. The same way a building needs water and electricity, it also needs the internet.
And it doesn’t fail gracefully. A resident without the internet can’t reach the job portal. Without a device, they can’t fill out the application, even if they find it. Without basic digital skills, having both the device and the connection still doesn’t help. One missing piece turns into three missing outcomes: no job, no benefits, no way to catch up.
Housing and workforce organizations are the ones who see this play out first — because a digital gap doesn’t stay a digital problem. It becomes a housing problem, a benefits problem, an employment problem.
You don’t have to start from scratch!
Here’s the part that changes the math for a housing or workforce organization: closing this gap doesn’t require hiring a tech team, writing a curriculum, or launching a new department.
digitalLIFT trains your own staff to do it.
- Digital Navigator Training turns an existing case manager, front-desk coordinator, or resident services staffer into someone who can run structured digital-inclusion support — no tech background required.
- Ready-made curricula means no one on your team has to design a class from scratch. The modules already exist, classroom-ready.
- It scales down as easily as it scales up. One person can complete the training and start using it right away. A large multi-property authority can build a full program around it. Same model, either size.
- It’s built to survive turnover and funding cuts — because the knowledge lives with trained staff and reusable curriculum, not a single grant-funded position.
That’s the thread running through every partner story below: none of them built a digital inclusion program from zero. They trained the staff they already had.
What this can look like on the ground
YWCA San Antonio saw it change one resident’s career path directly. She came in with no employment resume, little computer experience, and no idea how to apply for jobs online. Working one-on-one with a digitalLIFT-trained Digital Navigator, she learned to build a resume, set up job alerts, and complete online applications. Within weeks, she had a full-time job with benefits.
“With one-on-one help from our Digital Navigator, she learned how to build a resume, set up job search alerts, and complete online forms. Within weeks, she secured full-time employment with benefits.” — YWCA San Antonio
That pattern repeated across YWCA’s broader caseload, too — Navigators trained through digitalLIFT gave one-on-one tech support to residents navigating jobs, benefits, education, housing, and childcare systems, several of whom went on to land interviews and employment they wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
Opportunity Home San Antonio, one of the largest affordable housing providers in the region, shows the same model holding up at a much bigger scale. They run in-person technology classes across their properties, with a focus on elderly and disabled sites — many of which had gone years with zero digital literacy programming. When funding restrictions threatened to cut off some of those sites entirely, their digitalLIFT-trained Navigators kept classes running.
“Navigator support proved essential to maintaining program continuity and expanding our reach. Beyond direct instruction, Navigators provided invaluable mentorship and co-teaching support. Residents who arrive as strangers consistently leave as part of a mutual support network.” — Opportunity Home San Antonio
Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center captures why this matters beyond any one program:
“A client stated that receiving his laptop through our learn and earn program helped him get employment and now his own apartment.” — Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center
Device → skill → job → home. That’s the process housing organizations exist to support, and digital inclusion sits at the very start of it — not as a separate initiative but as the first domino.
More than one way to start!
If you approve programs or hold the budget:
Brownsville Housing Authority built their entire approach around treating devices, connectivity, and skills as one solution instead of three separate programs. At their BiblioTech sites, they loan out hotspots, help residents apply for low-cost high-speed internet, and run a monthly workshop where participants earn a device by building skills first — not simply receive one.
“We achieve digital equity by giving access to internet and digital devices and resources to our residents at our BiblioTech sites. We have the capability of loaning out hotspots, and we also help our residents apply for high-speed, low-cost internet. We offer one workshop a month where participants can earn devices.” — Brownsville Housing Authority
That earn-a-device design is deliberate — it builds investment and community, and makes sure the device goes home with someone who already knows how to use it. Organizations like Brownsville Housing Authority don’t need to design a workshop like this from scratch with access to digitalLIFT’s Workshop Curricula — classroom-ready modules on device basics, avoiding online scams, password management, and more. And digitalLIFT-trained Digital Navigators are trained to assess which of the three gaps — device, connectivity, or skills — a resident is actually facing, and connect them to the right fix.
Ask digitalLIFT about a Customized Training Package built for your sector — no commitment required.
If you’re doing the work on the ground and want to try it yourself first:
You don’t need organizational buy-in to find out if this is useful. Brownsville’s whole program started as one workshop a month, run by staff who decided to try it. digitalLIFT’s Digital Navigator Training is built to be completed by a single staff member, not just rolled out organizationwide, so a case manager, front-desk coordinator, or resident services staffer can bring a structured approach to the residents they already see every day.
Teaching Digital Skills, digitalLIFT’s intro course for individual staff, starts at just $100 — one course, not a program commitment. It’s a low-risk way to see what a Navigator approach looks like before you bring the idea to anyone else.
If this feels like a fit, forward this to your supervisor — or reach out to digitalLIFT directly and we’ll help you make the case.
You have resources here!
Every partner in this piece started the same way: not with a finished program, but with a decision to make digital inclusion part of the core work — then trained their own staff as Digital Navigators using curriculum digitalLIFT had already built for their context.
Run a program or make purchasing decisions? Ask digitalLIFT about a Customized Training Package for your sector — no commitment required.
Doing the work on the ground and want to try this yourself first? Start with Teaching Digital Skills — a single course, starting at $100.
If you manage a program or make purchasing decisions: Explore Customized Training Packages built by sector, or start a conversation about what fits your organization — no commitment required.
If you’re doing the work on the ground and want to try this yourself first: Teaching Digital Skills is a single course, starting at $100 — an easy way to see what a Navigator approach looks like before you bring it to your team.
Next month, we turn to libraries — who’ve been doing sustained, layered community work longer than almost any other partner.
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