The program is a joint project of the AARP Foundation, AARP’s affiliated charity, Family Matters of Greater Washington, one of the nation’s oldest, nationally-accredited social services organizations, NETGEAR, Comcast, and Older Adults Technology Services. The program, which was launched in May 2013, is designed to combat the issue of social isolation in older adults by connecting individuals age 50 and older to activities where they can adopt new skills, increase social networks, and receive technology training, hardware and internet connection. Program participants received NETGEAR routers, iPad tablets, Comcast High-Speed Internet service, six months of volunteer-led instruction, and training and support for participants to help increase social engagement through technology. So far, these families in Greater Washington are online and enjoying their WiFi.
Read more about the Connect to Community here
Project Horsepower is a partnership between Barrington 220, the Barrington Area Development Council, NETGEAR, and Comcast. This pilot program provides highspeed Internet service to the homes of students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which is the federal free and reduced-priced lunch offering to students residing in low-income households. NETGEAR provided free routers for this important project to help bridge the digital divide for approximately 700 households in the communities served by Barrington 200.
Read more about the Barrington program here
In a nationwide contest, NETGEAR asked schools to tell us why their school needs WiFi. The response was overwhelming, with teachers, administrators, and students all sending in short essays on why WiFi was important to them and their education. The winning school, Innovations Academy in San Diego, CA, won a WiFi makeover with free WiFi access points, a controller and ReadyNAS storage. Four other schools won additional NETGEAR products. It is important that schools have strong WiFi to give every student the advantage of Internet access, and NETGEAR is very happy to be a part of helping schools help kids.
Every year NETGEAR has a food drive in their Silicon Valley headquarters, benefiting the Second Harvest Food Bank. The people at NETGEAR are passionate about giving and as a display of their efforts created some great monuments made out of canned food. A favorite this year was the Nighthawk router, designed from stacks of canned peaches. All proceeds go to serving those in need this holiday season. More information on the Second Harvest Food Bank can be found at http://www.shfb.org/