then’s commodity transformative about being with people who partake a commitment to driving positive change in our world. Comcast had an occasion to help produce space for this community at our 2023 design UP Summit. Held lately at our headquarters in Philadelphia, the Summit convened hundreds of leaders from nonprofit associations across the country for programming and conversations concentrated on heightening the impact of our collaborative sweats to advance digital equity as a pathway to profitable mobility.
Encompassing programs and community hookups across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky, through Project UP, our$ 1 billion commitment, we’re connecting people to the Internet; furnishing them with bias; helping them make digital chops; and opening doors for the coming generation of originators, entrepreneurs, fibbers, and generators.
This time’s Summit leaned into the power of community ─ helping our mates consolidate their connections with each other, discover different ways to unite, and gain further alleviation as we continue this important work.
Our two days together were rich with perceptivity about the crossroad of equity and invention, the power of liar, and the significance of harkening and erecting trust in our communities. Programming included limelights from leaders at our nonprofit mates; rout sessions about Accessing Public finances for Community Benefit and spanning for functional Impact; and mainstage panels on justice, occasion, the future of media, and inspiring the platoon of hereafter ─ a discussion with Olympian Jordan Burrough and Paralympian Trevon Jenifer.
It’s noway been more clear to me how connected our sweats are to close the digital peak and help further people exceed in an decreasingly digital world. I left our gathering with deep gratefulness and so numerous gems that will continue to stretch my thinking and gauge our impact. Then are just a many
- hear to and value the voices and gests of the people you’re aiming to serve. We heard variations of this communication during nearly every session. It’s a memorial that liar is data and we need to use it to inform our work.
- Have sanguinity. Then, we can take cues from youthful people. They’ve great energy, a sense of urgency, and are laboriously refuting what numerous of us have come to accept. We need that type of approach to grow impact and get to the coming position.
- Commit to making the honey. During our domicile converse, Professor Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice and Princeton University professor, participated a brilliant yarn about notions in her yard toiling to fill a hive with honey, though they won’t survive the downtime. She explained that we frequently must commit to making the honey, indeed if we may noway taste it. What we do to advance digital equity is n’t only for us ─ the current generations. It’s structure a stronger foundation that will profit those to come. Indeed if we do n’t see the full fruit of our labor, the work is still worth it.
- “ Hope is a discipline. ” That quotation from community organizer Mariame Kaba is a throughline for our work, and maybe a lifeline for numerous of us at some point during our peregrinations. Hope requires focus, intentionality, authenticity, and prosecution. We ’re not going to make a further indifferent world without it.
- Be realistic and be visionary. As Ruha said, despite what numerous may suppose, these aren’t contending interests. We’ve a responsibility to address the current challenges of our communities, and we also have an occasion to change the narrative about what we can achieve. During the Summit’s ending panel, Jordan,U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist in wrestling and Trevon,U.S. Paralympic Gold Medalist in wheelchair basketball, spoke about the type of community it takes to win gold. For Trevon, it includes people who help you stay focused, aim advanced, and understand that “ we ’re going after commodity lesser than we have. ”
