Rooted in Innovation, Powered by Partnership: UIUC’s Community-Centered Approach to Digital Inclusion
How U of I’s Community Data Clinic Is Bringing Digital Navigators to East Central Illinois
Part of the Broadband READY Stories Series
East Central Region | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
By: Robbie McBeath, Illinois Broadband Lab
Community-focused digital inclusion has long been a hallmark of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s approach to innovation. In 1960, UIUC faculty pioneered the PLATO (Programmed Logic Automated Teaching Operation) system—the world’s first shared computer-based education platform, featuring early versions of email, chat, and games that foreshadowed the modern internet. In the early 1990s, Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science launched Prairienet, a community network that offered free email and internet access to residents of Illinois. With a focus on connecting non-profits and social service agencies, Prairienet’s “people-powered internet” made Urbana-Champaign one of the earliest networked communities. At the turn of the 21st century, campus and community members came together to expand high-speed internet access through the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) project, an early public-private fiber-to-the-home network designed with equitable home access in mind.
Today, thousands of students from across the globe come to the UIUC campus to carry on this tradition of innovation. But throughout the UIUC campus and beyond, including the six counties that make up the larger East Central region, digital inequities remain. Bridging gaps in broadband access, adoption, and use is essential to ensure that every individual can contribute to, and benefit from, the opportunities of the 21st-century.
To help close these divides, UIUC became one of the first universities to join the Broadband READY program, partnering with the Illinois Office of Broadband to explore and track regional digital disparities as part of the Connect Illinois initiative. Now operating under the Illinois Broadband Lab and the Illinois Innovation Network, the Broadband READY program supports universities in scaling innovative strategies to expand broadband connectivity, deepen digital engagement, and empower meaningful participation in the digital economy.
UIUC and the larger East Central READY team have been key partners over the past few years, culminating in an initiative of community-centered digital navigators that directly increases digital opportunity beyond its campus. Continuing into 2026, this work reflects UIUC’s enduring leadership in advancing digital inclusion across the region.
UIUC Community Data Clinic’s Digital Navigators Program
The East Central READY team is led by Anita Say Chan, a professor in the UIUC School of Information Sciences (iSchool @ Illinois) and director of the Community Data Clinic. The clinic supports community-centered data and research collaborations across east central Illinois. Alongside iSchool Research Program Manager Julian Chin, Chan has guided multiple initiatives aimed at advancing digital empowerment in the Champaign-Urbana area and beyond. One of the clinic’s flagship efforts—strengthened by Broadband READY funding—is the Digital Navigators Training project.
Through this program, UIUC students partner with community social service organizations to co-design and co-develop its “Peer-to-Peer” (P2P) Train-the-Trainer model. Supported by READY funding and additional financial partnerships, the initiative sponsors graduate and undergraduate researchers to deepen research experiences via community-based collaborations focused on vulnerable populations. The “train-the-trainer” model, developed in alliance with communities themselves, places UIUC trainers within trusted community organizations, where they instruct on a locally developed digital skills curriculum and provide equipment and technical support. This approach helps establish sustainable, community-rooted hubs for digital inclusion throughout the region.
In 2025, the East Central READY Team has:
- Trained 14 digital navigators working with 5 local organizations who trained 36 participants
- Distributed devices and support to all 36 program participants
- Hosted 3 regional convening events to celebrate the accomplishments of both trainers and trainees, issued certificates of completion, and share information to support future recruitment
- Delivered over 50 training sessions, with curriculum modules refined through participant feedback, offering topics including:
- Education & workforce development
- Healthcare & wellness
- Tax & financial security
- Housing & job search
- After-school & summer programs
- Addressing school & cyberbullying
- Young adult career readiness
- Mental health
- Microsoft Office productivity suite skills
Participant-engaged research remains a core value of the Community Data Clinic. In Spring 2025, the team conducted semi-structured interviews with organizational leaders, staff, trainers, and trainees to document program impact, identify ongoing challenges, and gather insights for curriculum and service improvements.
The program has received enthusiastic support from participating undergraduate students, who gain hands-on experience working with community organizations while developing professional skills in digital inclusion and civic engagement.
In 2024, alongside the training program, the Community Data Clinic’s media production team—comprising graduate and undergraduate students—launched the ConnectED: Tech for All podcast. This series features interviews with community members, highlighting digital needs and showcasing the resources available in the communities to address them.
The Power of Partnership: Trust, Listening, and Local Leadership
UIUC’s long-standing participation in the Broadband READY program has enabled the Community Data Clinic to build on years of trusted relationships and expand its impact across east central Illinois. This work reflects a broader story about the role universities can play as catalysts for sustained, community-driven digital inclusion.
The 2025-2026 programming includes collaboration with:
Community Organizations:
- Danielle Chynoweth, Cunningham Township Supervisor’s Office
- Stephanie Burnett, Housing Authority of Champaign County
- Kimberly David, Project Success of Vermilion County
- Julie Pryde, Champaign Urbana Public Health District
- Trent Eisenbarth, Georgetown-Ridge Farm School District
- Karen Simms and Richelle Brown, Champaign-Urbana Trauma & Resilience Initiative
UIUC Support:
- Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Technology Services
- School of Information Sciences
This engagement stems from strategic investment over the past few years. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, UIUC joined the inaugural cohort of the Broadband READY program, contributing to regional analysis of digital inequities as part of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Connect Illinois initiative. This foundational work leveraged the university’s research capacity to identify and understand disparities in digital access across the region.
Initial findings revealed stark gaps in opportunity. Most counties in east central Illinois reported median household incomes below both state and national averages. In Champaign County, the 2022 poverty rate reached 20.1%—nearly double the statewide average of 11.9%.
“Most people hear ‘U of I’ or the ‘Urbana-Champaign community’ and can’t imagine how high a poverty rate and social service need we have, because of the campus’ reputation for innovation. But we also have some of the most forward-thinking and innovation-oriented community partners in the state when it comes to tech and digital inclusion because the need has been so high. The tech leadership in the community that complements the campus has been just amazing to see!” — Anita Chan.
The groundwork for the current digital navigators program began with an additional 2022 survey of broadband needs among 500 low-income households. While the data confirmed widespread inequities, it was the voices of residents that shaped the program’s direction. Through early READY programming and the Community Data Clinic’s community-centered approach, UIUC gathered detailed insights into the barriers residents face and collaborated with them to co-create solutions.
Themes that emerged included concerns around digital safety, dignity, and belonging. One community member, speaking about the exclusion people with lower incomes face with digital technologies shared, “It’s just not the space that they belong in. Like they aren’t supposed to get technology… don’t deserve that because they don’t have a high enough income.”
Another person emphasized the importance of trust and listening: “Relationships are the most important thing… it’s about coming in and listening and building those relationships, not about coming and changing everything. You need to be the listener, actively listen, work with individuals, give them options, and then work side-by-side with them. People should be willing to come in and talk to you, and not feel unsafe.”
The East Central READY team took these insights to heart. They prioritized building a trustworthy network that amplifies the voices of vulnerable community members and leverages the expertise of local organizations. The train-the-trainers model was designed to reflect these values, evolving through ongoing collaboration and feedback. By tapping into established partnerships and co-developing curriculum with community input, the team created a responsive and inclusive framework for digital inclusion.
Participant-engaged research continues to inform program improvements, ensuring the initiative remains grounded in the lived experiences of those it serves. As a result, the East Central READY team co-designed the Digital Equity and Civic Empowerment Curriculum, prioritizing topics identified by community members.
Increased Impact Through Broadband READY: Regional Hubs
Broadband READY empowers universities in each of Illinois’ 10 economic regions to serve as regional hubs for broadband planning and direct digital inclusion initiatives. Each participating READY university:
- Leads a regional digital inclusion impact project
- Hosts convenings to bring together local stakeholders
- Facilitates outreach and collaboration with the Illinois Broadband Lab and Illinois Office of Broadband to ensure Illinois’ digital ecosystems stretch statewide
The Community Data Clinic’s commitment to community-centered feedback, combined with UIUC’s active role in the Broadband READY program, has enabled the East Central READY team to build on its success and scale its impact across the region, connecting local, regional, and statewide work. The team has leveraged funding to distribute devices to underserved households, expand digital literacy programming, and host trainings and convenings on digital inclusion funding opportunities.
The East Central READY team used the opportunity of its 2022 regional broadband needs survey to also include the distribution of 500 laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots to low-income families during the pandemic.
In 2023, the team piloted seven digital education modules and partnered with four community organizations. This momentum continued into 2024, supported by additional funding from the UIUC Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Program to Address Racism and Social Justice, resulting in the training of 39 new digital navigators and the expanded impact seen in 2025.
The team also partnered with UC2B and leveraged UIUC’s Campus-Community Compact to seed the first Broadband Equity Hub in the east central region at the Martens Center in Champaign. Operated by the Champaign Park District, the Martens Center offers space for e-learning, multimedia production, and innovation and business development alongside recreational facilities.
In 2024, the Martens Center hosted a stop on the Illinois Broadband Lab’s Statewide Listening Tour, contributing valuable insights to the Illinois State Digital Equity Plan. In 2025, the East Central READY team continued its leadership by organizing several regional convenings to celebrate the achievements of digital navigators and program participants.
University Leadership in Community-Driven Digital Inclusion
As one of the first participants in the Broadband READY program, UIUC has been a committed partner in advancing regional digital inclusion in east central Illinois. From early statewide efforts to analyze disparities in digital opportunity, to conducting community-centered needs assessments and fostering collaborative programming, to launching an innovative train-the-trainer model that pairs UIUC student digital navigators with local organizations, the East Central READY team exemplifies the role universities can play in leading sustained partnerships that extend digital opportunity beyond campus boundaries. The work of UIUC, the Community Data Clinic, and the East Central READY team tells a familiar story in Champaign-Urbana: community-focused digital inclusion can drive innovation in Illinois.
Want to learn more or get involved?
Visit the Community Data Clinic webpage or Broadband READY to explore resources, partnerships, and opportunities.
The ConnectEd: Tech for All podcast can be found at communitydata.illinois.edu/podcast
