An Inside Look from Xfinity
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the Northwest, Said Mohammed knew it would have major consequences in his community. In Seattle’s Yesler Terrace neighborhood, where he lives, Mohammed worried his neighbors, many of them immigrants, would face barriers to online resources, but as an immigrant himself, Mohammed also saw an opportunity to help. Mohammed came to the United States in 2018. He was 14 years old. “I had no one to help me,” he said. Though his parents immigrated at the same time he did, he was more comfortable with technology than they were, he said, so he felt he had to rely on himself to prosper using the internet.
MMRTI began the digital navigator program as a pilot project for the Seattle Housing Authority during the pandemic, with the goal of connecting people with digital resources. With technical support from internet-service company Comcast, the program is building digital equity in communities like Yesler Terrace. Yesler Terrace, where MMRTI’s program operates, is a very diverse neighborhood. “There are so many East Africans, African Americans, Asians… and we are glad, really, to have young people who are born and grow up here,” said Assaye Abunie, MMRT’s executive director. “And they are our advocates. They are the community [outreach volunteers]… The navigators speak eight languages between them, easing the language barrier that might prevent folks from getting help.”
MMRTI serves a community that often faces significant barriers to technology. About 90% are low-income, Abunie said. So the program’s first order of business was to get folks connected with devices. Mohammed spent many of those early days finding out what devices people already had, what devices they needed, and whether they already had internet access or could obtain it through a program like Comcast’s Internet Essentials, which offers subsidized internet access and low-cost laptops to households participating in federal assistance programs, or whose combined income is at or below twice the federal poverty line. MMRTI was also critical in communicating and building awareness around the Affordable Connectivity Program, a government subsidy that provides qualifying families with up to $30 off their monthly internet bill.
As one of the volunteers who helps MMRTI connect residents in Yesler Terrace with internet and equipment, Sarvar Abdukarimov considers it his primary goal to bridge people and the internet services they need. Over the last few years, said Abdukarimov, who is also a Xfinity Community Representative for Comcast, it became clear “that being connected to the internet and to the world is very important.”
Comcast, recognizing that connection to the internet and basic digital skills can provide access to education, telehealth, and job opportunities, increased digital equity efforts by building safe public Wi-Fi access spaces called Lift Zones, and investing in digital navigator programs, such as MMRTI, that support communities like Yesler Terrace throughout WA.
Community is what empowers this work for Abdukarimov—and for Abunie and Mohammed, all making a difference on Yesler Terrace by connecting their neighbors and peers to increasingly vital technologies.