The Neighborhood Tech Help initiative has been in the works for several years, building on several other digital equity initiatives in New York City such as Big Apple Connect and the hiring of a chief digital equity officer to execute the NYC Digital Equity Roadmap, which was released in March.
The latest initiative, announced April 21, is led by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in partnership with three public libraries in the city.
For New Yorkers living in Section 8-assisted households, the digital divide goes beyond a skills gap, according to HPD Chief Digital Equity Officer Dave Seliger. Barriers these individuals may face include a lack of confidence in using technology, and of interest and understanding of its importance. This program aims to help the populations that are hardest to reach by introducing them to technology and showing them how it can improve their lives — and building their confidence to take advantage of those opportunities.
For program participants, it may look “kind of like a pop-up version of the Apple Genius Bar,” Seliger said. Through it, the city will have people offering tech support at sites including older adult centers and community centers, and affordable housing developments. Availability will be recurring; people can make appointments or drop in. They can bring with them a specific challenge they’re having like downloading a banking app or deleting spam from their phone, and tech support helpers will work with them to find a solution they can do themselves.
A program catalyst is research HPD did in 2022 — finding, Seliger said, many residents in Section 8 households don’t think the library is a place for them. Libraries, he underlined, have been “amazing digital equity advocates for decades,” but because the city was delivering the majority of these services at library branches, such efforts were not effectively reaching this population. This project was born of a desire to bring library staff expertise closer to where people are, and the libraries were up to the challenge, he said.
“So, the whole idea of Neighborhood Tech Help is, ‘Can we invest in the libraries to go beyond the walls of their library branches and provide the services that they’re so good at, but in a context closer to where our tenants live?’”
Three library systems are working with HPD — Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), New York Public Library (NYPL), and Queens Public Library (QPL) — and BPL has already had more than 1,000 service interactions through the program. Brooklyn South, a BPL branch, launched this fall, according to Seliger, and currently has 19 active sites serving more than 500 people. QPL will launch this spring and NYPL will debut this spring or in early summer.
City officials will be exploring the volume of people served to measure the program’s broad impact. But to paint a more precise picture of its effect, HPD has asked libraries to measure specific ways it is used to support participants — whether that be how many individuals have gotten help with tasks like opening a checking account, or using the Section 8 online portal.
“That tells a story that more clearly shows the impact of why Internet access is important — and why the skills and confidence to use that Internet are even more important, perhaps,” Seliger said.
In addition to demonstrating that effect, understanding how the program is used might inform its evolution. It could shape future initiatives to address access barriers, by finding where people are most likely to seek out technology support and what specific skills training areas are in the greatest demand. For example, if a lot of the requests are related to telehealth, Seliger said the city might consider having community health workers onsite to provide additional knowledge in that area.
“We’re really kind of testing out the service as an initial step forward, and then as we gather evidence and stories of impact, that will help us shape the program moving forward,” he said.
Some participants have come back for more support, with the average being twice — though one person came 14 times for support.
The 18-month pilot is made possible through Section 8 funding, allowing the city to focus on those households, which the chief digital equity officer said has not been done before. City officials have also applied for state digital equity grants to extend the pilot; once the program’s impact is able to be demonstrated, Seliger said the city will explore more sustainable funding streams.
The pilot was developed intentionally over the last couple of years so as to not act as a temporary solution, he said, but as “the beginnings of a sustainable core library service.”
