EASTHAMPTON — The city has been awarded a $99,515 grant by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) to increase digital literacy and access among residents.

The funding comes as part of a $1.33 million MBI grant package awarded to 19 cities and towns for digital equity plan implementation, allowing for expanded digital access, the hiring of local digital experts and opportunities for digital education.

Using this one-year grant, Easthampton will launch a digital equity program called Go Digital Easthampton in partnership with E-Media as well as the Council on Aging and the Easthampton Public Library. The program will build on Easthampton’s 2024 Digital Equity Plan by focusing on increasing access to reliable, affordable internet, offering classes to community members on a range of technological topics and even giving some participants their own devices.

To help coordinate the training and device distribution programs, E-Media has also brought on a “digital navigator” through Lead for America, an AmeriCorps national service program partnering with MBI.

“One of the reasons I was advocating for this … we’ve kind of been doing this work all along,” said Jeff Mastroianni, executive director of E-Media about the digital equity programming. “This was kind of a natural fit for us.”

Go Digital Easthampton aims to offer information on accessing affordable internet plans, offer classes, workshops and individual assistance regarding the use of technology, and launch a “learn to earn” series of free classes where, upon successful completion, participants get to take home a free laptop.

In-person sessions will be hosted in several locations, including Eastworks, the Council on Aging and the Easthampton Public Library. Information on classes will be made available on the city website.

Mastroianni said E-Media also plans to incorporate an online training program called Northstar, which community members can access independently online to take classes on digital literacy.

E-Media is also a regional partner in the Alliance for Digital Equity’s community media center digital equity network, a digital equity coalition which is also funded through MBI, through which staff at partnered media centers are trained to act as “digital navigators” throughout their communities by coordinating technology programs. Other members of the alliance include Holyoke Media, Northampton Open Media, Pittsfield Community Television and Hadley Media.

“We’re very lucky to have a digital navigator dedicated to Easthampton,” said Mastroianni, who explained that some of the navigators would be operating on a larger regional scale.

For more information on Go Digital Easthampton, community members interested in participating or volunteering in the program can call E-Media at 413-203-1360 or check in on the digital equity page on the city website at easthamptonma.gov/798/Easthampton-Digital-Equity.

Mastroianni said that the website is still a work in progress as the program continues to take shape, but that more information will be posted there as it becomes available.

Mastroianni said that Go Digital Easthampton is “essentially a pilot program” that will be explored over the course of the next year using the allotted funding. But the city and other municipalities implementing their own versions of the digital equity program hope that it will become a long-standing resource that increases technological access and knowledge for all.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.