NTIA Announces Two BTOP Grants Focusing on Increasing Access to Justice
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently announced two BTOP grants, totaling $6.1 million, to help bridge the technology gap and increase access to justice in North Carolina and Washington State.
In North Carolina, the North Carolina Central University School of Law will receive nearly $2 million to upgrade broadband service and expand access to its legal education programs. The project will use videoconferencing to serve low-income residents and undergraduates at Legal Aid of North Carolina offices at North Carolina Central University and at four Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as expand its Street Law project and other public school initiatives. More information about the project is available here.
In Washington, The Puget Sound Center Foundation for Teaching, Learning, and Technology will receive $4.1 million to expand public computing centers and enhance broadband adoption, workforce training, digital literacy, education, and justice resources. This project will partner with the Northwest Justice Project, Washington’s LSC-funded legal aid program, to create public computer centers in five rural courts, including the Kalispel tribal court. More information on the project is available here.
These are the only successful BTOP grants involving legal aid partnerships that we’re aware of. If you know of other BTOP grant awards in which a legal aid program is a partner, please let us know in the comments. -M
