Why We Need Smart Communities

Published: August 24, 2010

Digital technology is transforming our commerce, culture and community. it provides businesses with efficiency, advertising, new markets and new products, and citizens with real-time communications and information about everything from social networks to the daily news. With digital technology, students can learn in new and exciting ways and seniors can remain connected to a fast-paced world.

A neighborhood without broadband access and digital literacy is at a competitive disadvantage in an age when local economies are increasingly connected to regional and global economies. This web portal is one of many tools that will help create tech-savvy communities for the Southwest Smart Communities Partners, comprising three Chicago neighborhoods — Auburn Gresham, Chicago Lawn and Englewood.

It is the result of a collaborative planning effort that brought together representatives from community-based organizations in the three neighborhoods and more than 100 residents from the communities. Those participants created the Southwest Smart Communities Plan, which provides a framework of ideas and projects for local implementation. They projects will be most effective when they work in conjunction with each other:

Outreach gets neighbors involved in trainings to use digital technology to improve their daily lives.
Students use broadband technology in new digital media labs in school.
Local entrepreneurs visit business centers where they can learn more about using software to become more efficient — and more profitable.

These programs and projects are catalysts. No one program is sufficient to provide all the digital resources a community needs. But by putting in place a network of resources to jumpstart a culture of technology, we can support and enhance the values of our neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, the places where we care for our children and our seniors, where education is a lifelong process, where local economies thrive and grow because they are connected to the larger economy, and where residents connect with government and can advocate for their needs.

Download the Southwest Smart Communities Plan.

Keywords: Auburn Gresham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Smart Communities Plan