Following up on our June Digital Equity Planning for NH listening session. The National Collaborative for Digital Equity (NCDE) and UNH Cooperative Extension have been officially awarded the six-month contract to develop NH’s four-year plan and funding request for digital equity. They can now start forming inclusive groups in each of NH’s 9 regional planning commission regions (per this map/website).
The role of the regional coalitions is to identify the digital divide priorities they most want NH’s plan to address with that region’s share of about half of NH’s $5 million/year for four years, starting in 2024.
Each regional coalition will also name 2 reps to an 18-person statewide advisory board that will determine how to spend the other half of the $5 million/year, so that priority setting, planning and resource allocation happen transparently and responsively.
REGIONS Central Region Lakes Region Nashua Region North Country Region Rockingham Region Southern Region Southwest Region Strafford Region Upper Valley/Lake Sunapee Region
The NCDE will be reaching out to recruit folks in their respective stakeholder groups. The hope is to fill every regional coalition by the end of July and to convene them via a Zoom call for their regional coalition in August. This in turn will position the coalition members individually and together to be at the table to determine how funds get spent, by whom, over the next several years, and how the funded efforts should be held accountable for impacts that matter to the stakeholders. This may be an imperfect approach however, the NCDE is open to improvements on this plan.
If you are interested in being on your regional coalition team, or know of someone who should be on a team, please email us at WelcomingNH@Miracoalition.org and we will pass your information on to the NCDE. Please include the town you live in and contact info.
To the Editor: Fourth of July, a day to celebrate independence and freedom in America. Also a good day to honor the work of the Colonial patriots of 1776, who migrated from Europe, and the work of generations of other immigrants who followed in their footsteps. Working hard generation after generation, they helped make our country the economically strong country we live in today.
Today our American economy still needs immigrant workers to provide an adequate workforce. Many of our NH retail stores, healthcare services & hospitality businesses are currently unable to find adequate staff to serve the public need. According to the US Chamber of Commerce website, NH is listed on their Worker Shortage Index as one of the most severe in our country.
And all this is happening while asylum seekers at our borders are seeking safety for their families and jobs to support those families. Instead they are being prevented from doing so. So they wait and wait at our borders when they could be working, supporting their families, and paying income taxes. That makes no sense!
I am writing to ask our US Congress members to update our very outdated Immigration laws immediately. Bills such as Lifting Immigrant Families Through Benefits Access Restoration Act (LIFT the BAR Act) and the Asylum Seeker Worker Authorization Act of 2023 will not only benefit DACA recipients and Green Card Holders but will boost our local economies and businesses.
Time for all Congresspersons to put constituents before party affiliation or elite donors!
HR 1325, The Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act, reduces the waiting period for asylum-seekers to obtain work permits in the U.S. to 30 days from 6 months. Asylum seekers now often wait from 8 to 15 months to get a work permit, leading to more economic crises for them and heavier burdens on U.S. taxpayers and municipalities.
The bill has bipartisan support and is currently in the House Judiciary Committee. Clickhereto see if your House Representative has sponsored the bill, and ask them to co-sponsor it if they haven’t. If your House Rep. is on the Judiciary Committee, ask them to advocate bringing it up for a vote.
