FRONTLINES

High-Speed Access to Opportunity

One Economy Corporation came to the Ford Foundation seven years ago with a vision of maximizing the potential of technology to help low-income people improve their lives and enter the economic mainstream. Ford provided One Economy with its first grant—$250,000—enough to start operations in a Washington, D.C., basement.

Today, One Economy's "Bring IT Home" campaign has succeeded in getting 42 states and the District of Columbia to require developers to include high-speed Internet access in affordable housing units. The initiative has provided 300,000 low-income people in the United States with broadband in their homes.

"Naysayers told us that the poor have little use for computers or the Internet," One Economy Founder and CEO Rey Ramsey has said. "We saw them as folks who were fighting every day to give their children better lives." In addition to access, One Economy focuses on providing information. In 2001, One Economy established a multilingual Web site called the Beehive. The free resource provides information on homeownership, health, finances, employment and education geared to low- and moderate-income households.

A new initiative, ZipRoad.org, uses ZIP codes to help parents find school information, after-school tutoring programs and other education-related resources in their neighborhoods.

www.one-economy.com
www.thebeehive.org

Buzzing with Information and Resources
As of November 2007:

- 740,000 sought information about unemployment benefits

- 475,000 accessed Medicaid information

- 435,000 found information about diabetes

- 467,000 received assistance finding child care

- 480,000 received homework help

- 456,000 sought assistance on family budgeting

- 109,000 found information on earning a GED

- 110,000 sought information on how to write a check