A Public Sector View of Tech, Inclusion, and Participation During the Coronavirus
This article is part of our Tech for Inclusion Blog Series identifying goals and strategies for deploying tech for social and political inclusion in Europe and the United States. Register now for GMF’s Inclusive Leadership Summit: Tech for Inclusion convening virtually on December 1-4, 2020 to explore these topics further.
For those of us working in the public and nonprofit service sectors, the coronavirus pandemic has thrust us into a digital world we thought we knew and embraced, but, in all reality, one for which we were not actually ready. In our sectors, the pandemic not only highlights the digital divide and the extent to which swaths of the community, those we serve, do not have the devices nor the connectivity to participate in our increasing remote and virtual environment, but more disturbing is that those we serve are suffering in ways no one could have predicted, from the loss of jobs to domestic violence to feelings of isolation, limited educational experiences, depression, and exclusion from basic human interaction.
Pandemic or not, public and nonprofit services provide critical safety nets and support services to families to address these issues. This new pandemic reality exposes buried questions, each with their own data and technology caveats, issues, and opportunities for public and nonprofit agencies to deal with. The pandemic has also been a harsh reminder that the digital divide is still with us. But digital access is not just about broadband access, it is also about access to the hardware and knowing how to use different software for online meetings, school lessons, and telemedicine appointments we need to share our services and the community needs to access those services. Seven months in, we know even for a household that has an internet connection, the bandwidth may not suffice for a family to be at work and school at the same time. Now more than ever, we have to look at the inequities of technology distribution from the infrastructure to the education of how to use various technologies effectively.
As a nonprofit agency working with students and families during this pandemic, there have been three main areas that we have looked at to better serve the public, but as a sector, there are still many questions on how we can work better in a virtual world.
Service, Access and Inclusion
One of the biggest challenges those in the public and nonprofit sector have faced with during the pandemics has been the redevelopment and redesign of services and the community’s ability to access those services, especially in Cleveland, one the most unconnected city in the United States. This digital transition has highlighted the need for greater training and support for service providers, the persistence of the digital divide, and the lack of vital information about constituencies. Those working in education or social services had to, starting March 2020, quickly reevaluate the services they offer and how to offer them. No longer could we serve students who normally would drop by an office or schedule time during school lunch to get college readiness services or academic support. Developing creative, compelling, and engaging material with no training has been stressful, and some agencies are still struggling. Just as much as we need to train and support students and parents, we have to train those in education, social, and public health services how to best create for a digital world.
The transition to the digital world has also revealed that our data is not always that good at a local agency, city, or state level. Those of us working in urban areas where there is often high mobility in our community sometimes do not have the best phone numbers or email addresses for providing services. And, limited shared data between agencies does not help us find the best contact information. At a broader level, the pandemic and lawsuits have hindered the census count which many of us at the local level need for funding, as well as our data analysis and outreach. What happens when our basic data on our citizens is lacking, old or non-existent? Access to good data is critical for actual service delivery.
Engagement
The pandemic has also challenged how we engage our clients. Without events after school, weekend workshops or in-person options, possibilities for engagement have been greatly reduced. And now, seven months in, most people can say they are “zoomed out.” How do we reimagine engagement for our different populations? How do we address the now pressing generational gap in technological savvy and comfort?
Access to and proficiency with technology impact our engagement with older generations. The benefits of telemedicine by the coronavirus have a potential to provide much needed medical services to both rural areas and those lacking transportation or support needed for visits, yet recent surveys show less than 25 percent of elderly with access to technology are using these services. By contrast, mobile banking has had a huge increase in access and usage during the pandemic. What are the services best fit for digital use and how do we engage various populations on their adoption?
When thinking about hiring experts on technology and technology use for young people, we have tried the traditional messages, materials and outreach on social media platforms, and wonder what more we can do. Public sector agencies rarely put the structures in place to learn from and employ youth expertise and time in teaching us how to engage their peer groups. If we want to get better at digital engagement for public services, now is the time to hire and educate youth on our work, messaging, and service benefits so they can help us engage and connect with their peers.
Participation
Once we have redesigned our systems and engaged our clients, what do we consider meaningful participation? And how do we track that data and use that information for future outreach? Participation with online technologies has increased across the board with approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population attending school remotely this fall. Now that we have gone to these platforms, what are we doing to ask for participation, what tools have been developed and designed to support participation, and how are we using that participation in new ways? We’ve seen our program participation vary week to week, subject to subject, or based on program being offered. Data analysis and qualitative work will help us better understand participation trends and needs, but there is still much work to be done.
If we want civic democracy to exist and thrive, we need to adapt quickly to the changes thrust upon us from this pandemic. The pandemic has offered an opportunity like no other for us to think about how we use data and technology to be more effective and proficient in where, how, and who we serve. Existing structural inequalities and technology gaps shine a spotlight on how we need to connect all our citizens to 21st century resources in all its forms and push us to think about what it means to create an informed digital citizenry.
Kauser Razvi is the senior director of innovation and performance management at College Now Greater Cleveland.