Connecting Greene County Rural Eastern NC Beyond Tobacco Misty Chase Director

Background Population , 157 Geographic Rural Eastern North Carolina Economic Median Household income 32, 074 Families below poverty level 802 Individual below poverty level 3,591 Mainly agricultural In labor force 57.7 These figures are from the 2000 Demographic Profile Community Great vision to improve and make Greene County a better place to live and work. IT readiness- approximately 95% of GC has access to broadband, 5 years ago it was 5%

Project History The Beyond Tobacco initiative was a plan to help to improve a small rural county in eastern North Carolina. The initiative will help allow the historically agrarian community to adapt to a changing economy by increased agricultural and non-agricultural related entrepreneurial opportunities, job training and access to broader health care programs through online resources and computer access through the increased exposure of network availability to homes and business in Greene County. With Greene County being so dependent on tobacco and realizing with the federal cuts in quotas, decline in the number of farmers, and the buyout of tobacco taking placed in our community was going to suffer with increased unemployment. Our community embraced all of these issues and initiated an innovative and grassroots approach to education by providing every middle school and high school student, and teacher with an Apple Laptop computer. Project ITECH aims to prepare the workforce of the future through bilingual technology training beginning at the middle school level. The Beyond Tobacco project reaches all areas of the county that include both students, citizens, and business. We purchased a mobile lab of laptop computers that we train in the community which include a large population of senior citizens. The Beyond Tobacco project also aimed and has improved the economic well- being of our rural community. The project has changed lives in Greene County. It has had an impact on many families who now have a vision of the future. Greene County applied and received a TOP grant to assist with the cost of providing wireless network service to a population that less than 40% had any type of access to the Internet. A partnership with Wavelength Technologies, The UNC School of Government, North Carolina State University, Lenoir Community College, One Economy Corporation and others Beyond Tobacco is transforming Greene County’s core economy and developing a blueprint for other rural and agrarian, low- wealth communities throughout the United States. We are into the third year with this project and have outstanding data to show the improvements that have been made.

Mission & Objectives Mission Statement: Get Plugged In and Be Connected Project Objectives: Create a Broadband Wireless Network Development online resources that include entrepreneurial opportunities on the farm, non- agricultural opportunities as well as career development programs Improve the economic well-being of our entire county Ensure that access and equipment are affordable Provide training and connections that make technology for everyone

Project Economics Cost Structure - Equipment cost for Phase I of broadband $278,316 - Contributions from Wavelength included 20% of equipment cost plus labor to design, develop, and install - Cost to design, develop, market and train local portal $128,169 - Contributions from One-Economy included hosting local beehive, licensing cost for beehive, and 3yrs marketing - mobile lab (30 laptops) $35,000

Investment Sources/Funding Sources -TOP GRANT $524,151 -GREENE COUNTY $160,512 -Inkind contributions/other $399,899

Business Model We have a mobile lab that we reach into the community to offer free computer classes as well as support for onsite training for business, the faith based community and government agencies. We train high school students that apply into our program to become digital connectors, the teach our community. We have developed many partnerships in making this program successful. The entire county has embraced the multi level project that we have undertaken. Targeted users: students, parents, business, with increasing number of our population weekly.

Partnerships We have many parterships that have very instrumental in our success to date. The County Government, One-Economy, Wave-Length, North Carolina State University, UNC-School of Government, Duke Endowment and many local organizations have had a key role in our continued usage.

Deployment Timeline: Deployment started August 2005 Completion should be by August 2008(Delays have taken place that caused us to not be complete- these included equipment changes and shipments being received) Deployment specifics- equipment had to be designed to meet the rural needs, then the equipment had to be produced- then changes needed to be made to give a better signal strength and overcome some interference activities.

Impact Analysis 95% of Greene County has access to broadband We have over 1100 households that are connected and some waiting to be connected More than 2 dozen hot spots are in our county students have their own laptops More than 500 residents have received free computer training (30% of the people trained were senior adults) 111 Digital Connectors have been involved Over 1200 hours have been logged

Lessons Learned and Next Steps Continue and speed up deployment Continue building a public, private, philanthropic partnership Continue to ensure that access and equipment is affordable Provide training and connections that make technology accessible Create online community development applications that are useful Continue to assist small business with online access Set goals that clearly articulate expected outcomes Measure results

What Next? We must continue to make it reality for every American, especially those living in rural communities to have access to the full opportunity of the Internet. We must work toward doing away with the DIGITAL DIVIDE. There are many challenges to overcome but it can be done!

Contact Information Misty Chase Director Beyond Tobacco Greene County Government 229 Kingold Blvd. Snow Hill NC phone: