Essential Families, a state of Missouri 501c3 nonprofit was conceptualized by Terri English-Yancy April 2019, and founded January 2020.
Terri’s vision is to reach, inform, and inspire the lives of children and families. Terri’s mission is to strengthen families because they are “Essential” to our neighborhoods, community, city, and state. Terri believes, and has over 30 years experience, and data that proves Everything Starts at Home...
November 2022, funded by Kauffman Foundation, the Essential Broadband Pilot was a one (1) year project. The goal was to reach, register, and provide services that closes the Digital Divide for 69 families. Essential Families accomplished this goal in 47 days, but continued Pilot from November 11, 2022, to February 11, 2023 - ending with a waitlist of 137 people.
During the Essential Broadband Pilot, Essential Families watched, listened and gathered “empirical DATA” directly from our unserved and underserved clients. This approach helped Essential Families
design and develop services required to Close the Digital Divide, effectively launching Essential Broadband Program.
Effectively September 3, 2023, Terri EnglishYancy renamed Essential Broadband Program to Essential Digital Equity Program. This name change better reflects the program's purpose, and aligns
completely with NTIA Digital Equity inititiaves, to close the Digital Divide.
Today, we have served 513 families, assisted 547 children and families with enrolling in Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP). There is currently 1273 children and families on our Essential Digital Equity Workshop waitlist.
Thank you City of Kansas City Digital Equity Office for your consistent and continued support!
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