Institute for Emerging Issues announces next round of BAND-NC grant recipients, supporting digital equity across NC

RALEIGH, NC —The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University is excited to announce its next round of grant recipients for Building a New Digital Economy in NC (BAND-NC). Twelve North Carolina county-level initiatives will each receive a $5,000 grant to help bridge the digital divide in their communities.

The initiatives supported in this round of grant funding include:

• A Better Chance, A Better Community (Halifax County)
• ​​Beaufort Hyde Partnership for Children (Beaufort, Hyde counties)
• Community Technical Assistance, Inc. (Wayne County)
• Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church (Nash, Edgecombe counties)
• HUBZone Technology Initiative (Vance County)
• Kramden Institute (Durham County)
• NC One Hundred Strong (Alamance and Rockingham counties)
• Randolph County Partnership for Children (Randolph County)
• Smart Start of Pender County, Inc. (Pender County)
• Stanly County
• Rocky Mount Housing Authority (Nash, Edgecombe counties)
• WinstonNet (Forsyth County)

“Our goal is to help all counties in North Carolina develop sustainable strategies to close the digital divide and equip them with the tools to implement those strategies,” says Maggie Woods, BAND-NC Program Director. 

BAND-NC has now supported 73 $5,000 “rapid response” and “digital inclusion planning and implementation” grants covering 64 counties since the program’s inception. Working closely with the NC Division on Broadband and Digital Equity with investments from AT&T, CoBank, Corning Foundation, Corning Optical, Dogwood Health Trust, Duke Energy Foundation, Focus Broadband, Google Fiber, Hillsdale Fund, John M. Belk Endowment, NC Electric Cooperatives, PNC Foundation, and the Roanoke Electric Cooperative, BAND-NC has fundraised over $2.9 million to support counties working to close the digital divide. 

Through the BAND-NC program and bipartisan leadership, the Institute for Emerging Issues is working to ensure digital equity and inclusion is a part of the larger broadband access conversation. Digital equity and inclusion are vital to building a new digital economy for our state. 

To learn more, visit iei.ncsu.edu/band-nc.

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About Institute for Emerging Issues

The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at North Carolina State University is a nonpartisan public policy organization focused on the state’s vibrancy and economic competitiveness. Since 1986, the Emerging Issues Forum has attracted leaders in business, education and public policy to discuss issues with profound implications for North Carolina’s future prosperity. For more than three decades, the Forum has helped catalyze the policy reforms, public investments and other proactive responses required to build an enduring capacity for progress in North Carolina.

About BAND-NC

The Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State (IEI) in partnership with the Broadband Infrastructure Office at the NC Department of Information Technology, and with principal support from the John M. Belk Endowment, is addressing the digital divide across NC through a program called “Building a New Digital Economy” (BAND-NC). BAND-NC provides mini-grants to communities across the state who want to implement digital inclusion plans, begin a digital inclusion planning process, or who are looking to meet immediate digital needs.