Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago President and CEO Wendy DuBoe, along with civic and community leaders, Monday kicked off the third year of the Comcast Internet Essentials program. Through this program, the number of low-income Chicago families who now have broadband connection at home doubled to 14,000 as part of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption initiative for low-income families.  The partnership also established “Internet Essentials Learning Zones,” which brings community based organizations together to eliminate the digital divide.

This year, the City of Chicago and Comcast, in partnership with the United Way and more than a dozen leading community-based organizations, will launch the first “Internet Essentials Learning Zones” in the nation.  The zones will incorporate neighborhoods with large concentrations of Internet Essentials-eligible families surrounding five newly-designated Chicago Public Schools “welcoming” schools (Bronzeville/Mayo Elementary; Englewood and West Englewood/Bass Elementary and Nicholson Elementary; and North Lawndale/Hughes Elementary and Johnson Elementary).  For more information about Internet Essentials visit InternetEssentials.com for English and InternetBasico.com for Spanish. Educators or third-parties interested in helping to spread the word can find more information at InternetEssentials.com/partner. Parents looking to enroll in the program can call 1-855-846-8376 or, for Spanish, 1-855-765-6995.