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DECK Communities of Practice

The Digital Equity Capacity Kickstarter (DECK) program represented an integral and strategic component of the State of Illinois’s Connect Illinois vision and commitment to broadband access, adoption, and use—all through the lens of digital equity and inclusion.

This program accepted two waves of awards in 2023 and 2024. Future waves are not anticipated.

Applications covered one or more of the following categories focused on access, adoption, and use:

  • Outreach and Adoption, including support for (now discontinued) federal Affordable Connectivity Program awareness and enrollment
  • Digital Skill Building, Navigation and Use, including digital literacy programming
  • Community Technology Center Access, providing a physical space with internet access and computing devices
  • Access Expansion Feasibility, preparing local governments to play a role in community-led broadband expansion

DECK Project Summaries

Wave 1 Awardees

  • Center for Changing Lives
  • Chicago Urban League
  • Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community
  • Gads Hill Center
  • Growing Home
  • McLean County
  • Metropolitan Family Services
  • North Lawndale Employment Network
  • Northwest Side Housing Center
  • scaleLIT
  • Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP)
  • TCA Health, Inc. NFP
  • Teague Int. Corporation d/b/a The
  • Trep School
  • The Center: Resources for Teaching and Learning
  • Touch Gift Foundation
  • Women's Business Development Center

Wave 2 Awardees

  • Asian Human Services DBA
  • Trellus
  • Board of Trustees of Western Illinois University
  • Carlinville Public Library
  • Chicago Public Library
  • ConnectWauekgan
  • NFP
  • Digital Leaders Now
  • Howard Area Community Center
  • Law And The Fam LLC d/b/a Legit Pathways Academy
  • Partnership for a Connected Illinois, Inc.
  • Pathlights Human Services
  • Phalanx Family Services
  • Region 1 Joint Planning Commission
  • Southwestern Illinois College
  • St Augustine College  

Both Wave Awardees

  • Association House of Chicago
  • Erie Family Health Centers
  • The quilt Corporation NFP Inc
  • YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago