Members of the RTP community have responded enthusiastically to support the Accelerating Digital Equity Campaign, now underway by the Durham Public Schools Foundation (DPSF). This is one of several statewide initiatives to insure that all public school students have access to the digital resources.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed learning to an online format, and not all communities in our State have adequate access to the web. Many families also lack hardware, web services or the technical experience to navigate the challenges related to online education. Through our STEM RTP efforts over the past 4 years, the RTP community has worked to enhance STEM curricula in schools across eastern North Carolina, but as the pandemic-mandated remote learning has shown, this digital disparity exists among students and families in our own Triangle counties as well.
The Accelerating Digital Equity Campaign seeks to raise $1.5M this year to invest in tools and strategies to quickly close the gap to enable all students to succeed in remote learning mode. Failure to act will exacerbate the education divide that has already been identified among our communities. To date, the campaign has raised $900,000 of its goal.
We would like to acknowledge the following RTP entities that have stepped up already to support this effort: Parmer RTP, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, United Therapeutics and Fidelity Investments.
All have made generous commitments to supporting digital equity in our communities. We encourage other RTP organizations to reach out to learn more and join the effort to support our community public schools. To learn more about this opportunity and get involved, please contact Scott Levitan.