TITLE
Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and any necessary documents including any necessary subsequent amendments, with the Knight Foundation and/or the Long Beach Community Foundation, to accept and expend grant funding in the amount of $150,000 for the Technology and Innovation Department’s Long Beach Collaboratory Program, for program activities including community engagement, technology deployment, and technology training; and
Increase appropriations in the General Services Fund Group in the Technology and Innovation Department by $150,000, offset by grant revenue. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
City Council approval is requested for the Technology and Innovation Department (Department) to enter into an agreement with the Knight Foundation and/or Long Beach Community Foundation to accept and expend grant funding for program activities related to the Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co-Lab) Program. The Long Beach Community Foundation will act as grant administrator for the Knight Foundation.
Long Beach Community Foundation serves as a local granting agent for The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. In 2010, the Knight Foundation announced an initiative with community foundations aimed at helping communities find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged. Long Beach Community Foundation Knight Donor Advised Fund invests in civic innovators using place-based strategies to accelerate civic engagement, attract and keep talented people, expand opportunity for all, and support innovative recovery approaches to increase equitable digital engagement.
In 2020 and 2021, the Department engaged over 800 community members and learned there is growing demand for new, diverse, and more comprehensive technology services, in addition to a need to equip residents with skills to compete in today’s “smart” economy. The LB Co-Lab Program (Program) was designed to address these two service gaps....
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