Closing the Digital Divide in Santa Cruz County

Equal Access Santa Cruz County Update

Equal Access Santa Cruz County has a simple goal: bridge the digital divide and bring true high-speed broadband to every family in the Santa Cruz community, regardless of income level.

This project is spearheaded by Cruzio Internet, working with Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Pajaro Valley School District, and other local organizations.

The digital divide has existed for a long time and has been ever-growing as resources and school participation increasingly shift to online formats. Low-income students and their families have long shouldered an unequal burden of seeking out publicly accessible facilities like libraries and community centers for internet access that is either inadequate, too expensive or unavailable completely in their neighborhood. The pandemic made this inequity glaring, and students who didn’t have internet at home were in danger of being left behind.

Since launching the EASC initiative, Cruzio and our partners have built new internet infrastructure capable of serving hundreds of families. Right now we’re completing a project at the Buena Vista Migrant Labor Camp where roughly 150 students reside. It’s a huge build with 143 homes and 3 community buildings each receiving individual connections. We’ve dedicated two of our crews nearly every day in the first quarter of the year to hook up each building so that when families return in March, they’ll be returning to homes with a reliable connection - allowing their children to participate in school and parents to access resources. 

Thanks to generous donations from the community in 2020, we made fantastic progress so far and are close to hitting our initial year goal of raising $1,000,000. This year we’re continuing to seek donations to the fund and have plans to build many more projects in south and north Santa Cruz county. 



We’re also running a promotion so that all new customers on our network can be involved: This year, we’re pledging that for every new signup on our Wireless and Fiber services we’ll connect a family in need with a free or subsidized service rate.The need in our county is great but there’s optimism that we can continue closing the digital divide and equalizing educational experience for all students in our county. Go to EqualAccessSantaCruz.com to learn more and to donate.