Comcast Changing Lives: Internet Essentials

This post is sponsored by Comcast and our opinions are our own.

Last week I attended an event with Comcast and Olympic Gold medal winners Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux. These two women are inspiring others to be strong and make a difference wherever they go. They have so many important passions like equal pay, fitness in children, and social responsibility.

Jocelyne and Monique have been fighting for gender equality and equal pay for hockey players. They are quite passionate about how this transcends to all employment opportunities. As they continue to work towards this equality they told us that they had to do a lot of research. They had to learn about the wages men were getting and it was a challenge to push forward but they did. They also fought hard for maternity leave saying, “you shouldn’t have to choose between being a mom and your career in hockey”. This carries over into so many different career paths in our country. They recently joined the “Know Your Value” platform, an NBC News digital media platform that supports women to advocate for their value that was founded by Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

What were they doing in Seattle?

Jocelyne and Monique are using their platform to help bridge the gap for children in lower-income areas. With the help of Comcast they are giving away computers to students across the country in an initiative to raise awareness to Comcasts Internet Essentials. They gave away 150 computers to 5th and 6th grade students in Seattle just last week. Students were so excited they were in tears from receiving this amazing gift.

For 7 years now Comcast has been offering a subsidized internet plan for low income families. For only 9.99 a month families can get a Terabyte of date allowing students to be able to do the homework they need to do to be successful in life.

Imagine this:

(this is a story we were told during the round table Comcast event)

A young child has to go to the library to get her homework done. She has to put her name on a list because the computer has to be shared. While she is waiting for her turn she works on her other homework. Once it’s her turn she has 30 minutes to use the computer. If she doesn’t finish she has to put her name on the list and wait again. She does this until the library closes at 9 PM and then walks home. Comcast asked her how often she did this and she said every day Monday – Friday. They gave this student a computer and 1 year free of Internet Essentials. When she told her mother what was happening her mother was so appreciative. What may seem so small to some of us is going to make a huge difference in this young girl’s life. She will be able to get her homework done at home.

How do you qualify for Internet Essentials?

There are quite a few ways to qualify for Internet Essentials. For families, if your student goes to a school where 40% of the students are on the free lunch program, all families are elibilble for Internet Essentials. The program is also open to low-income veterans. Comcast is reaching out to people in low-income areas through different charitable groups. They are working with HUD through public housing initiatives. They are also working through the VA, the Elizabeth Dole program and Psych Armor Institute.

Comcast Corporate Responsibility

As part of its effort to promote equal opportunities for all in its own workforce, Comcast publishes an annual diversity and inclusion report, sharing information about workforce, governance, procurement, programming, and community impact.  According to this year’s Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity and Inclusion reports, Comcast:

• Provided approximately $470 million in cash and in-kind contributions to nearly 5,000 nonprofit organizations
• At year end 2017, women or people of color made up 61% of the company’s overall workforce
• Hired over 15,000 military community members since 2010
• Helped more than 4 million individuals access low-cost internet service at home through Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive high-speed Internet adoption program
• During the company’s 17^th annual Comcast Cares Day, more than 115,000 Comcast NBCUniversal employees and their families, friends and community partners spent nearly 700,000 hours volunteering at over 1,200 projects in 23 countries around the world