Neighborhood Allies providing 1,000 Pittsburgh school students with free internet service

Neighborhood Allies has arranged free high-speed internet access for 1,000 Pittsburgh Public Schools families as part of a program to provide hardware, online access and digital education to people in need.

The nonprofit community development organization since early April has raised $400,000 for its PGH Beyond the Laptops Program. The program initially focused on providing laptops to Pittsburgh Public Schools families, but the organization has since expanded it to include internet access and education.

Vanessa Buffry, Neighborhood Allies’ senior program manager for digital inclusion, said organizers of PGH Beyond the Laptops quickly realized that in addition to hardware, people needed access to the internet and education on how to use the laptops for school and employment.

She said one-third of the $400,000 went to Comcast for a year’s worth of free internet for 1,000 households.

“A lot of these folks who need internet, they are maybe in areas with poor connectivity,” she said. “What was really important to us was giving them high-speed internet. It’s really hard to livestream classes without high-speed internet.”

PPS Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said laptops furnished by Neighborhood Allies helped the district “chip away at our device needs faster.”

“Now with the addition of Comcast as a partner, we are able to further bridge the digital divide and ensure students have access to the internet as we transition to a full one-to-one laptop district in time for next school year,” Hamlet said.

In addition to school students, Neighborhood Allies also provided computers to people selected by community organizations and the University of Pittsburgh Community Engagement Center. To date, it has given away about 1,600 computers to local residents in need, Buffry said.

The organization also is providing digital and workforce development training to people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, she said.