35 Mile Foundation Supports Civic Engagement through Grant to Open Media Foundation

The Open Media Foundation (OMF) works exclusively with non-profit, government, and media organizations to engage, connect, and mobilize communities, specializing in government transparency and accessibility. 35 Mile Foundation recently provided a grant to OMF to support civic engagement in small, rural communities in Colorado. 

OMF has a SaaS (Software as a Service) that provides small, rural governments the same level of transparency and accessibility that they developed to stream and archive meetings of the Colorado State Legislature. It goes beyond streaming and archiving government meetings. It also transcribes and translates every word spoken and makes issues searchable for citizens. This provides greater opportunity for citizens of small communities without the same resources as larger communities to participate in the issues impacting them. 

OMF will use the grant to focus on governments that serve fewer than 50,000 constituents by covering the cost of the SaaS tool for one year. This will allow small governments a chance to increase involvement and feedback from the people they are serving. The software has a focus on helping non-English speakers gain accessibility and have their voices heard. 

“It is clear that 35 Mile Foundation has a deep understanding of the complex challenge, not just of addressing the digital divide, but the larger scope of leveraging emerging technology to increase equity in society, when so much tech is being leveraged by corporations to do the opposite. It's great to have a partner equally committed to using emerging technologies to build a more equitable future for everyone,” states Open Media Foundation Executive Director, Tony Shawcross. 

Without access to high-speed, affordable Internet, members of the community can not take advantage of the tool. 35 Mile looks to partner with organizations that understand the negative impact of people not having the digital resources in order to fully participate in today’s society.   

“Working with the Open Media Foundation fits well within our mission which is to help historically marginalized people step across the digital divide by funding digital equity initiatives and unexpected opportunities that enable affordable internet access and advance social justice. In working with Open Media Foundation, we are supporting an avenue for social justice once community members are online. We are excited to see how small governments in Colorado use the tool to support their community members,” said 35 Mile Foundation VP of Broadband Services, Cassie Bair.