COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — There's been a tremendous shift during the pandemic in the way that we work and teach our children. For many Southern Colorado families, remote learning and work-from-home have become a regular way of life. Thanks to a new charitable effort from Comcast, it's now easier for families and students in the Pikes Peak region to stay connected.
The company donated Lift Zones to partner agencies the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Salvation Army, YMCA, and the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center. The Lift Zones are wireless internet routers that can handle a lot of devices logging on at once.
Maurice Henson, Vice President of Operations for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Pikes Peak Region said they've been a huge help.
"We've just seen an increase in the amount of kids like if we have kids in our learning center that are on virtual-learning or just on the internet doing Cool Math, high-yield learning activities, they're able to function," Henson said. "If our teens are down in the teen room, doing their thing on the internet, doing the high-yield learning as well."
During the past decade, Comcast has helped around 480,000 Colorado households to get online through their low-cost Internet Essentials program. Nicolas Jimenez, the Director of Government Affairs for Comcast of Southern Colorado said the Lift Zones program was created to help fill in gaps coverage, like when you're away from your home WiFi in an after-school program.
"During the COVID pandemic, we really saw an opportunity to double down on our investment in bridging the digital divide by working with our non-profit partners," Jimenez said.
Henson believes that investments like these will benefit the community both in the present and in the future.
"The young people that will get to benefit from them, they're just going to excel," he said.
Jimenez said they're currently reaching out to the public to find additional spaces where Lift Zones would be beneficial. You can submit your suggestion by visiting this website.
