As Digital Inclusion Week 2026 kicks off October 4-10, the Building for Digital Equity webinar series returns with a timely question: with federal support for digital equity work in retreat, what does it actually take to keep this work alive, growing, and reaching people at the local level?B4DE DIW October 8 
On October 8 at 3 pm ET the hour-long livestream — titled “Sustain, Empower, Evolve: Planting Local Seeds for Digital Equity” — will be co-hosted by the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the latest in the popular on-going webinar series, sponsored by UTOPIA Fiber.
It will open with a policy update on where Digital Equity Act funding actually stands, what’s moving, and what’s stalled.
From there, the show turns to the ground-level with a special spotlight on building wireless connectivity for tiny-home communities in Seattle that will uniquely engage the audience in a case-study exploring how local expertise is harnessed, coordinating a cadre of local volunteers, and facing down the challenges of sustainability.
The livestream closes with a forward-looking conversation focused on how digital inclusion work is evolving in practice as front-line workers speak to how funding models and digital navigators are adapting.
The livestream will be broadcast (and later archived) on ILSR and NDIA’s YouTube channel, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
It will feature live viewer interaction with guests and we recommend tuning in on YouTube where the live chat will be most engaging.
Register here.