Los Angeles County Regional Broadband Consortium
The Los Angeles County Regional Broadband Consortium is organized to work collaboratively with five distinct sub-regions in the Los Angeles area and surrounding communities6. The sub-regional consortia under LACRBC are:
In North Los Angeles County:
- San Fernando Valley
- San Gabriel Valley
- South Bay
- Gateway Cities
- Central/West Los Angeles
1. San Fernando Valley Sub-Region: The San Fernando Valley Sub-Regional Consortium will bring new educational classes and workshops to 14 public computer centers throughout the San Fernando Valley. The classes and workshops will teach youth and adults about the benefits of broadband and help to develop computer literacy, job, and life skills. The Consortium will train 300 residents through new workshops and 150 residents through new classes at public computer centers, subscribe a minimum of 50 new users to broadband within the region, and provide an estimated 2,700 hours of computer lab access to residents interested in attending broadband workshops and
classes.
2. Gateway Cities Sub-Region: The Gateway Cities Sub-Regional Consortium will promote broadband deployment, access, and adoption within the Southeast area of Los Angeles County. The Consortium will provide an estimated 36 Internet literacy classes for youth and adults in English and Spanish, conduct 75 workshops, and utilize its Mobile Technology Center to participate in 18 community events to show community members onsite the value and benefit of subscribing to broadband in the home. The Consortium will also begin a two prong pilot TeleHealth program where once a month over the life of the grant, the Consortium will provide a Skyping for Health workshop. The workshop will allow residents to Skype with health care providers on chronic diseases that are prevalent within the region. In addition, Better Health Online workshops will be provided utilizing the HealthCare.gov website for residents to learn how to navigate the website and expand their knowledge on healthcare topics.
3. Central/West Los Angeles Sub-Region: The Central/West Los Angeles Sub-Regional Consortium will strive to deploy, provide access and adoption of broadband technology to every corner of the Central/West Los Angeles region. The Consortium’s key programs include: (a) high school seniors to senior citizens intergenerational technology exchange to provide basic how-to training in Internet use and its applications; (b) young adult and veterans training in computer repair and refurbishing where refurbished computers will be made available to community residents and non-profit or faith-based organizations at a greatly reduced price; and, (c) technical training on broadband that includes “hands-on” training to repair, replace and maintain broadband services.
4. San Gabriel Valley Sub-Region: The San Gabriel Valley Sub-Regional will promote broadband deployment, access, and adoption within the East Los Angeles region by expanding courses of high demand through a distance learning platform. The Consortium will provide on-line classes that include a new “remote access” option to more than 20,000 people. The Consortium will increase access to on-line learning services by exponentially increasing the number of community residents who can study English as a second language from remote locations as well as targeting an estimated 500 students to acquire digital literacy.
5. South Bay Sub-Region: The South Bay Sub-Regional Consortium will create a synergy of technology-in-motion, emphasizing the use of emerging technologies as educational platforms by establishing Hot Spot Zone Networks7 throughout the Los Angeles region and provide training workshops on Broadband Services such as TeleHealth and mobile communications. The Consortium will deploy Hot Spot Zone Networks throughout each of the 5 sub-regions within Los Angeles, work to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to three low-income, senior citizen housing facilities, and provide a number of training workshops. These workshops include business participants, TeleHealth, mobile technology, and music and technology workshops.
The sub-regional consortia and LACRBC have support of state legislators; local, city, county, and regional governments; college and K-12 districts; and public, non-profit, and for-profit organizations. LACRBC and the sub-regional consortia leads possess experience in developing social and community services; increasing employment opportunities and providing vocational training; working with public safety; providing technology learning solutions in underserved communities; working with diverse linguistic and economic groups; and, K-12 educational districts. From past individual successes, the LACBRC members possess: technical expertise designing, managing, and deploying networks; successful grant awards from CETF, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Broadband Technology and Opportunity Plan (BTOP), and state-funded California Resources and Training (CARAT); and, the valuable support of key community leaders, elected officials, and community organizations within the larger LA area.
The Youth Policy Institute (YPI), acting as fiscal agent over all the sub-regional consortia, is responsible for the oversight and management of the LACRBC funds. The YPI is a non-profit organization that provides education, training, and technology services to impoverished county families. Experienced in managing over $35 million in federal and state grants, YPI also will act as project coordinator for the northern areas along with Manchester Community Technologies (MCT) which will be project coordinator for the south sub-regions. MCT is a public non-profit corporation with experience in deploying metropolitan area networks, creating community Wi-Fi, and providing computer training and educational learning tools in underserved/urban communities.
In its original proposal, the LACRBC requested consortia grant funding totaling $2,310,000 for three years, or $770,000 for each year. In order to ensure that Consortia Grant Account disbursements do not exceed the allowable annual collections for consortia activities, CD asked the LACRBC to modify its budget to a lower fund level. On October 24, 2011, LACRBC submitted a revised budget of $1,346,927 for three years with Year 1 funding of $448,843. The reduction in the budget for the first year from $770,000 to $448,843 reflects modifications in its Work Plans such as reduction in the number of training sessions/seminars conducted, attendance at fairs/community events, and in the number of marketing materials (i.e., publications/newsletters) produced. The LARCBC also reduced its administrative costs, both for the umbrella organization and for each of the sub-regional consortia.
In Decision 11-06-038 (which was subsequently corrected by Decision 11-07-034), the Commission specifically recognized that Los Angeles County poses a unique challenge, being the state’s largest and most densely populated urban area. This characteristic serves as a deterrent to ubiquitous broadband deployment and advancement of broadband adoption. For that reason, the Commission adopted a modified approach for the Los Angeles region. The LACRBC requested consortia grant funding totaling $2,310,000 for three years, or $770,000 for each year. The LACBRC plans to work among an ethnically diverse county population of over 9.8 million in over 6,000 census block groups (CBGs) and 291 ZIP Codes. The LACRBC proposed specific projects addressing broadband access and adoption among various constituents in the region and set clear targets for deliverables.
On 1 December 2011, the CPUC approved $770,000 which would allow the consortia program to reach greater numbers of Los Angeles County residents in promoting broadband access, adoption, and deployment. To address the potential concern that consortia disbursements may exceed annual collections for a temporary period, the Commission stipulated that it may necessarily need to delay payments to LACRBC if such a situation occurs. LACRBC intends to renew its funding in Years 2 and 3.
Adapted from the summary prepared by the CPUC Communications Division