DEPO-KC ORIGINS

The bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed by Congress in November 2021, included an allocation of monumental proportions--over $48 billion to support broadband infrastructure and digital connectivity devices and training for all unserved and underserved areas of the United States. For the greater Kansas City region, the States of Kansas and Missouri are responsible for allocating their respective shares of this funding from 2024 to 2026 to regions, counties, and cities demonstrating collaboration, transparency, and evidence that the funds will be managed toward both equitable and sustainable outcomes.

In 2022-23, the Kansas City Coalition for Digital Inclusion supported an analysis of digital inclusion needs in the Kansas City region, which the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) coordinated in collaboration with KC Rising and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Funding to support the work came from the KC Regional COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund and the Civic Council of Greater KC. The report can be accessed through this link.

The report includes a series of recommendations to broaden digital access through collaborative initiatives involving digital organizers and providers, community-based agencies, local governments, libraries, school districts, and business leaders. Multiple philanthropic and civic leaders have pledged support for the creation of a new entity aimed at responding to this challenge to create a focused point of coordination and leadership to achieve digital inclusion. This entity will support and advocate for all programs and projects that align with community goals. Most importantly, the entity will facilitate collaboration across a wide range of projects to achieve outcomes not possible without a coordinated effort.

In January 2024, a Formation Oversight Committee made up of Jeremy Hegle from the Federal Reserve Bank, Lia McIntosh from KC Rising, Erica Garcia-Reyes from UCS of Johnson County, Rachel Merlo from Google Fiber, and Janea Roberts from T-Mobile, approved a temporary fiscal agent agreement with MARC’s Community Services Corporation, authorizing it to receive funding in support of the proposed new entity—the Digital Equity Program Office of Greater Kansas City (DEPO-KC).  Additionally, the committee approved a professional services agreement for the MARC-CSC to contract with Tom Esselman as Interim Director, to take the necessary steps to create DEPO-KC as a new 501c3 nonprofit.

Once DEPO-KC becomes its own nonprofit, the MARC-CSC will relinquish its role as the fiscal agent. DEPO-KC staff is budgeted to include three full-time employees:  a Director, a Strategic Data Analyst, and an Administrative Assistant.. All will have experience with nonprofits serving families in the urban core.  Each of the three will demonstrate key characteristics critical to understanding nonprofits that serve under-resourced families --empathy, patience, positivity, and persistence.

A key value for DEPO-KC is the belief in the potential of every organization striving to achieve digital equity.  The services DEPO-KC offers are directly informed by the perspectives and preferences of the communities it serves. The reporting audience for the work of DEPO-KC is an Advisory Group consisting of representatives of local and regional funding organizations.  This Advisory Group includes members of the Formation Oversight Committee, as well as representatives from MARC, the Health Forward Foundation, and WT Kemper/Commerce Bancshares Foundation.  Other private and public organizations (such as municipal governments, community and corporate foundations, and civic leadership groups) throughout the nine-county MARC footprint will be recruited to join the Advisory Group as well. The Board of Directors for DEPO-KC will consist of seven to nine members representing a diverse mix of business, social services, and civic leadership executives who endorse the mission and vision of the new entity. The board will be a governing and administrative body, helping to secure startup funding, needed for the first two years of operations, from members of the Advisory Group.