Missouri has a goal to get everyone in the state online. A regional meeting in St. Louis County this week will discuss the Connecting All Missourians initiative, a $500 million plan with money coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act.
Kristen Sorth, director and CEO of the St. Louis County Library, joined KMOX to talk about the initiative and what the meeting on Wednesday will entail.
"The state of Missouri is going all around the state, the Office of broadband, and doing these listening sessions," she said. "And so they want to hear from Missourians, and from other stakeholders about their infrastructure needs."
But it's not just about getting the internet to everyone — it's about making sure they can use it.
"We know that connectivity is an issue, access to devices is another issue. And then education and training is the third issue. So anyone who needs training on how to use the devices or how to connect to the internet is definitely a target here of the education," Sorth said. "I think libraries all over the state of Missouri, and frankly, the United States have been providing internet and technology education for many years."
Sorth said that many families in Missouri don't have internet access, especially in rural areas of the state. But people deal with lack of access in St. Louis, too.
"It is difficult to do anything without access to the internet. You can't apply for a job, you can't write a paper, you know, all the kinds of things that we've come to rely on," she said. "We definitely learned during the pandemic how many people didn't have access."
Hear more about the initiative in Kristen Sorth's full interview. If you're interested in attending the listening session, find more details here.
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