Bexar County Partnership Provides Digital Access to San Antonians Without Internet
- Facebook / Ella Austin Community Center
- Children enter the Ella Austin Community Center in a photo taken prior to the pandemic.
While offices, schools and other services remain closed, internet connection has become a necessity still out of reach for many San Antonio households.
To help fill this gap, the Ella Austin Community Center opened a computer lab on its campus in late June. East Side families can access computers and the internet on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the center located at at 1023 N. Pine St. on an appointment-only basis.
Bexar County and several nonprofits, including Westcare Texas, partnered to provide the hardware to set up the lab.
Beverly Watts Davis, senior vice president for Westcare Texas, told KSAT that to receive government and nonprofit assistance, people are required to sign up online, making internet access all the more important during the pandemic.
“If you don’t have internet, if you don’t have a computer, if you don’t have a scanner, because it requires you to scan documents, how are you going to access these things?” Davis said.
In addition to computer and web access, users can scan documents, make copies and get help learning how to use a computer or navigate websites.
The center has also been distributing food, masks, gloves and toiletries.
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.
