Deadline: 15-Mar-22
The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through the Office of Statewide Broadband (OSB) is administering funding for the Digital Inclusion Grant Program (MD-DIG).
The OSB's MD-DIG program is a grant program to further the state's digital inclusion efforts.
Covered Populations
While the grant program and its funding offer the ability to serve all communities in Maryland the following covered populations who are most in need will receive priority:
- individuals who live in a household with income less than or equal to 150 percent of the federal poverty level;
- aging individuals;
- individuals with disabilities;
- individuals with a language barrier, including individuals who –
- are English learners; and
- have low levels of literacy;
- individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group; gold
- individuals who primarily reside in a rural area.
Eligible Uses of funds
- To develop a digital inclusion plan and/or to implement digital inclusion activities.
- To facilitate the adoption of broadband by covered populations to provide educational and employment opportunities to those populations.
- To implement (i) training programs that cover basic, advanced, and applied skills; or (ii) other workforce development programs.
- To construct, upgrade, expand, or operate new or existing public access computing centers for covered populations through community anchor institutions.
Funding Information
- Digital Inclusion Planning: Financial assistance for up to 50% of the cost of a Digital Inclusion Plan will be provided. The maximum grant request amount for Digital Inclusion Planning is $30,000 and the minimum amount is $5,000.
- Digital Inclusion Program Implementation: The Office will facilitate the award of financial assistance for up to 100% for the implementation, expansion, or continuation of Digital Inclusion Program(s). The maximum grant request amount for Digital Inclusion Implementation is $75,000 and the minimum amount is $10,000.
- Only applications that are fully complete at submission will be considered for funding.
- MD-DIG program is a competitive funding opportunity and individual grant amounts may be reduced relative to requests and/or based on the impact of the applicant's intended population and ability to deploy funds responsibly and as soon as possible.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible to apply, an applicant must meet one of the following criteria:
- be a local government (Counties & Municipalities);
- be a foundation, corporation, institution, association, or coalition that is – (i) a not-for-profit IRS approved 501(c) entity and (ii) providing services within the State of Maryland;
- a community-based anchor institution.
For more information, visit DHCD .
For more information, visit https://dhcd.maryland.gov/Broadband/Pages/MD-DIG.aspx