ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Residents of Detroit, Inkster, Flint and Washtenaw
County will soon benefit from expanded free Wi-Fi access at
more than 50 community locations across S.E.
Michigan. The effort, part of Merit Network's Michigan
Moonshot initiative, was supported by contributions from the
Toyota USA Foundation and Cisco.
Washtenaw Intermediate School District and Merit Network provided
in-kind contributions for the project.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Detroit Public Schools has the highest number
of households in the state without internet access at 82,894. The
Flint School District has the
second highest number with 14,221 households without internet
access. In addition, 57% of K-12 students in Washtenaw County do not have high speed Wi-Fi
access at home.
"For thousands of students across the state of Michigan, the pandemic has introduced new
challenges or highlighted existing ones," said Charlotte Bewersdorff, Merit Network's vice
president for Community Engagement. "We expect this to help both
rural and urban communities access the internet for basic
informational needs tied to living, learning and working."
The grants address the digital divide by providing community
organizations with the technological ability to extend their
existing internet connectivity through Wi-Fi networks which are
accessible outside the buildings. Detroit Public Library will
extend their Wi-Fi network beyond the walls of nine select sites,
during normal business hours. Washtenaw Intermediate School
District is coordinating 30 different access points at area schools
and community partners across the county.
"As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout our nation, Toyota
is proud to partner with Michigan Moonshot and Cisco to expand free
Wi-Fi to Southeast Michigan area
schools, libraries and community gathering locations to provide an
immediate solution to this urgent issue of access," said
Chris Reynolds, chief administrative
officer, Toyota Motor North America.
Beyond Washtenaw County where
Toyota has its North American research and development
headquarters, the Toyota USA
Foundation provided grants to help address the digital divide in 13
states across the nation.
Internet access at community sites is powered and secured by
Cisco's next-generation Wi-Fi and cloud security technology. The
overall effort is supported through Cisco's Country Digital
Acceleration (CDA) program, which has over 900 active or completed
mass-scale digitization projects in 37 countries around the
world.
"It is our responsibility as business leaders to step up and
mobilize the tools and innovations at our disposal to help curtail
the growing disparities in our communities caused by the digital
divide," said Nick Michaelides,
senior vice president, U.S. Public Sector at Cisco. "We are proud
to launch this initiative alongside Merit and Toyota to help ensure
equity of access, and to power an inclusive future for all
Michiganders."
Moving into the future, the Michigan Moonshot will continue to
identify and lessen the impacts of inequitable access to broadband
internet with the help from our communities. If your community,
private or philanthropic organization is interested in supporting
local Community Access Network sites, please contact
moonshot@merit.edu.
To view an interactive map of all locations and hours of
operation, please visit MichiganMoonshot.org/CommunityWiFi
ABOUT THE MICHIGAN
MOONSHOT
The Michigan Moonshot is a collective call to action which aims
to bridge the digital divide in Michigan. Stakeholders include Merit Network,
the nation's longest-running research and education network, the
Quello Center at Michigan State
University and M-Lab, the largest open internet measurement
platform in the world. This call to action is an initiative to
expand broadband access to all citizens through policy and funding,
data and mapping, education and resources. Learn more about the
Michigan Moonshot at Merit.edu/moonshot.
ABOUT MERIT NETWORK
Merit Network, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation owned and
governed by Michigan's public
universities. Merit owns and operates America's longest-running
regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan's public universities created Merit
as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking
assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained at the
forefront of research and education networking expertise and
services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT
solutions to Michigan's public
universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state
government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations. For
more information: www.merit.edu.
ABOUT CISCO
Cisco is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the
Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your
applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure,
and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future.
Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at
@Cisco.
ABOUT TOYOTA
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in
North America for more than 60
years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation
mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands plus our 1,800
dealerships.
Toyota has created a tremendous value chain and directly
employs more than 47,000 in North
America. The company has contributed world-class design,
engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks
at our 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in
Alabama that begins production in
2021.
The Toyota USA Foundation is
a charitable endowment created to support education programs
serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students and
their teachers in the United
States, with an emphasis on science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM). For more information about the
Toyota USA Foundation, visit
www.toyota.com/foundation.
ABOUT WASHTENAW INTERMEDIATE
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) is the educational
service agency for Washtenaw County,
Michigan, serving nine public school districts and the
public school academies in the greater Ann Arbor region. WISD provides an array of
services to the community and local schools, including: special
education leadership and coordination, early childhood services,
technology support, business and human resources assistance,
cradle-to-career community partnerships, and teacher and staff
professional development. For more information, visit
www.washtenawisd.org.
For more
information:
MichiganMoonshot.org/CommunityWiFi
MEDIA CONTACT
Media Relations Contact
Praveena Ramaswami
Praveena.Ramaswami@Toyota.com
Pierrette Renée Dagg
(937) 212-0631
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SOURCE Toyota Motor North America