SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Comcast is donating laptops and funding to help job seekers build digital skills and change their lives: A national effort to expand digital access is reaching Northeast Pennsylvania.
Comcast awarded a $35,000 grant and donated 35 laptops to the Outreach Center for Community Resources in Scranton.
The nonprofit provides workforce development and digital literacy training to people facing barriers to employment, including individuals with past incarceration, disabilities, and those starting over.
"90% of jobs require at least one digital literacy skill, and so how important it is for us to equip our participants so that they can enter the workforce and become healthy, self-sufficient members of our community," Outreach President and CEO Lori Chaffers explained.
The grant supports Outreach's lead center, which partners with more than 190 second-chance employers across the region.
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Participants like Schrece Graff of Old Forge say the training has been life-changing.
"Digital literacy is what's going to set me apart, to change my children's life, to change my life, to hold my head up high, but never forget how I got here and the people who helped me," Graff told 28/22 News.
Outreach has another success story in Maury Brown of Scranton who found Outreach after a devastating accident and time in prison.
"They helped me get the career I've been working in for a year now. I'm a certified peer specialist working with people with disabilities. Now I have my own personal computer, even the free internet helps a lot. I'm truly appreciative," Brown said.
Each laptop also comes with three months of free internet through Comcast's Internet Essentials program.
The donation is part of Comcast's nationwide project Up Initiative, a $1,000,000,000 commitment to closing the digital divide and increasing economic opportunity.
