Youth broadband survey yields surprising results
September 9, 2022
Lora Whelan, The Quoddy Tides
The original article was published by The Quoddy Tides and appeared in the September 9, 2022, edition. It is reprinted here in its entirety with permission.
A youth broadband survey spearheaded by Elaine Abbott of the Sunrise County Economic Council with survey design assistance of Corrie Hunkler of Healthy Acadia has brought to the fore the voices of the next generations and their thoughts about IT access and use and what role IT could play in their futures in Washington County. Some of the results were an encouraging surprise.
Abbott explains, “The survey was designed to ascertain access to the Internet, Internet usage and the level of Internet satisfaction among young adults in Washington County. Included in the survey were questions designed to elicit responses relative to retention of the young adults in Washington County for continuing education and entrepreneurship within the county. Community leaders strongly desire to retain their young adults to live and raise families, start businesses and continue their education in Washington County.”
“The issue was broadband and the lack of youth involvement in the broadband discussion,” adds Hunkler. There have been some significant studies about youth in Maine and how they matter, she explains, “but they don’t feel like they do.” The youth broadband survey changed that dynamic. Abbott notes that it was the first of its kind in the state, and the information is being shared with other organizations and communities to use for replication.
“Washington County has a large population of retirees who greatly contribute to the character and development of communities,” says Abbott. “However, if Washington County does not examine the cause of out-migration among young adults and does not aggressively promote the availability of resources the county is at a serious risk of losing its future workforce, leadership and entrepreneurs.”
“Youth, everyone wants to talk to them,” says Abbott. “But it’s very extractive, not an equitable relationship,” adds Hunkler. Thus the survey, which approached students and principals at county schools.
An immediate result that jumped out at Abbott and Hunkler was the large number of student survey takers who weren’t sure about staying in Washington County for careers and adult life. However, when they were asked about staying if they had reliable, fast and affordable IT service, the answers changed. Abbott says, “Our youth have ideas for businesses,” and those business fields that were mentioned such as accounting, marine biology and more are already areas with high demand and low supply of workers.
The survey discussion created some new partnerships, including with the Downeast Teen Leadership Camp, notes Hunkler. When the youth came to the camp they were introduced to free resources to help with business development plans and more. “One kid walked away with a full business plan,” she adds with a grin. “It’s so exciting,” interjects Abbott.
Another connection was made when a camp participant talked about the need for a co-work space so that they would not have to conduct a business from home. Hunkler says, “So SCEC invited them to come utilize space. That was something that came up right away and that was a real, local, small-scale” solution. Another benefit was that about 25% of the students want to keep in touch with SCEC and Healthy Acadia, and a young adult broad-band newsletter has been started to share information with them about affordable connectivity programs and other resources.
Adult perception of how students use IT was another interesting result of the survey, says Abbott. Some of the school principals responded to the question of how students were using IT during the pandemic, with the thinking that students were primarily using it to game. Students reported they were using IT to write, to do their work, for telemedicine and more that showed how comprehensively students used IT to go about living their lives.
Challenges ran the gamut. One school wanted to offer more complex educational opportunities but couldn’t because of the lack of bandwidth. “As young adults, when they see that they think they need to move elsewhere,” explains Abbott. And one student gave an example that clearly illustrates the need for better IT connectivity. The student’s two parents use the home broadband to telecommute for work, with not enough bandwidth for the student to be able to do their school work at home during the same time. “They would get up at 2 a.m. to do their homework so their parents could work.”
As SCEC’s community and economic development planner, Abbott provides assistance with comprehensive planning, broadband planning and other community initiatives and can be reached at eabbott@sunrisecounty.org.
To expand youth engagement work in a business or an organization or for more information about the Downeast Teen Leadership Camp, contact Corrie Hunkler at corrie.hunkler@healthyacadia.org.