In a public update event held at the Foundation for the Carolinas, Bruce Clark, executive director of the Center for Digital Equity at Queens University of Charlotte, highlighted the significance of Queens University's involvement in the Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative, a $250 million community-wide public-private partnership to advance racial equity in Charlotte.
The Center for Digital Equity (CDE) is the lead partner for the digital equity priority focus area of the Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative. As the first of four focus areas of the initiative, CDE is focused on solutions to make Charlotte the most digitally equitable community in America.
"To be a part of the Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative makes sense for a lot of reasons," said Clark. "There's a strong intersection between racial equity and digital equity. We cannot make a community racially equitable without making it digitally equitable at the same time."
The Mayor's Racial Equity Initiative seeks to invest $250 million to address inequities and remove barriers to opportunity. Other priority focus areas include investing in Charlotte's six "Corridors of Opportunity," transforming Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) for the future, and catalyzing employer commitment.
Housed at Queens University of Charlotte and supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, CDE is an evolution of two key community initiatives; Digital Charlotte and the Charlotte Digital Inclusion Alliance."The issues we face as a community are bigger, broader and more deep-seated than any one organization can address alone,' said Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles. "The response from our corporate partners surpassed even what I could have expected. This collaboration is what distinguishes Charlotte. We have set a new standard for an American city that's starting to draw attention from several other major cities."
"The first and the most important aspect of the Center for Digital Equity is that it is co-created with residents," Clark said. "We've been working directly with residents across the community at schools, detention centers, senior centers, and community resource centers to learn and create solutions along with our residents through our community council. Any Mecklenburg County resident who wants to participate can do so by visiting our website."
"We owe a debt of thanks to the faculty and staff of the Knight School and Bruce Clark, executive director of the Center for Digital Equity for leading this effort," said Queens President Dan Lugo. "It is because of the relentless work of Bruce and his team, that we can leverage resources already in place to collaborate and deploy our initiatives as part of this partnership which is well-aligned with our motto, 'not to be served, but to serve.' The collaboration across business and community organizations shows that our collective work, focused on bridging divides – in this case digitally – leads to a more just, equitable, and inclusive home for all."
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