DC Area Digital Navigator Summit
District of Columbia Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
The DC Area Digital Navigator Summit, held on June 13, 2025, convened more than 100 service providers from 50+ organizations across the region—libraries, schools, nonprofits, and government agencies—who offer tech help, digital literacy, and digital navigation services to residents. Designed in consultation with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and DC’s State Broadband Office, the summit aimed to strengthen the regional digital inclusion ecosystem through peer learning, relationship-building, and collective problem-solving. Funded by Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and the DC Public Library Foundation, the event launched a shared community asset mapping process and established structures for continued collaboration, helping providers connect residents more seamlessly to digital access and support.
Challenge/Opportunity
The metropolitan DC area has high broadband access but persistent digital inequities, particularly among low-income residents, older adults, and immigrants, as outlined in DC’s state DigitaL Equity Plan.
Many organizations—libraries, schools, nonprofits, government agencies—offer valuable digital inclusion services, but operate in silos, leading to duplication, difficulty making warm referrals, and missed opportunities for collaboration.
These organizations often face inconsistent funding, high staff turnover, and lack of shared infrastructure to coordinate digital inclusion efforts.
The summit addressed the need for a centralized, collaborative approach to strengthen referral networks, share expertise, and amplify the collective impact of local digital inclusion initiatives.
Key Elements of Innovation
Collaborative leadership: Designed with input from DCPL, NDIA and the DC State Broadband Office with presenters and panelists from 9 different organizations
Inclusive participation: Intentionally designed to engage public-facing staff who provide tech help, regardless of title or organization type
Community Asset Mapping: Used NDIA’s framework to visualize and strengthen the regional digital inclusion ecosystem
Future Tech Expo portion: Leveraged connections in tech community, inviting local startups to demo emerging technologies like virtual reality experiences and an AI-powered oral history collection
Equity focus: Centered practitioner voices across a diverse array of organizations and communities to ensure innovation emerged from community expertise
Innovative model: Leveraged DCPL’s role as a trusted anchor institution to shift from primarily public-facing digital literacy programming to convening a community of practice, strengthening collective capacity to serve residents
Achieved Outcomes
-109 attendees from 58 diverse organizations across DC, Maryland, and Virginia participated.
-44 asset mapping survey responses collected, creating an initial Miro-based regional map of digital inclusion assets.
-New partnerships formed among libraries, schools, housing agencies, and nonprofits.
-Post-event survey: Majority of respondents reported new connections and plans to collaborate or expand referral lists as key takeaways from the event.
-Ongoing engagement: Established a listserv and planned quarterly meetups to sustain collaboration.
-Impact: Elevated DCPL’s leadership in digital inclusion, strengthened community trust, and created a replicable model for other library systems to convene and coordinate regional digital equity efforts, and presented to the ALA’s Digital Inclusion working group in September.
