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The idea for this project came from rural resident’s desires to bring broadband to our communities to aid in delivering self-sustainable community and agriculturally based education. The Rural Broadband Campaign was developed within the Sustainable and Equitable Agricultural Development (SEAD) task force of the Community Economic Development Network of East Tennessee (CEDnet). The campaign utilized lobbying, public education and research to secure the political will, resources and popular support for the development and implementation of affordable and reliable publicly-owned broadband for rural Tennesseans. To do this we attended county and city commissioner meetings and successfully were able to have 8 county level resolutions and 2 city level resolutions passed in support of the expansion of public broadband and the removal of state restrictions. We also pushed the state to move the issue of rural broadband to the forefront of the governor's policy agenda in the form of the "Broadband Accessibility Act". To help demystify the internet we toured internet infrastructure facilities and held public information sessions. 

The Rural Broadband Campaign eventually grew into a project that involved a collaboration with the Highlander Center.  A tower and wireless broadband system was developed at the Highlander Center. This system design, and the ethos of community ownership, won first prize in the Mozilla WINS NSF competition and received $440,000 in funding in 2018. From this competition the Rural Broadband Campaign became Southern Connected Communities Project (SCCP).

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April Jarocki the director of the Southern Connected Communities Project. A single mother of five, she has lived in the Clearfork Valley since 2008. April leads a citizen water monitoring project, works on economic diversification initiatives, plans community events, and has been actively involved in the Rural Broadband Campaign since its inception. She studied at the Southwestern College of Business and completed the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program at the Tennessee Technology Center.

 

Before her role with the Southern Connected Communities Project, April volunteered with the SEAD task force. In collaboration with former co-coordinator, Jamie Grieg, she helped organize and participate in a statewide campaign to promote expanding broadband infrastructure. This initiative involved securing grants from both private and government sources, planning and conducting statewide workshops, presenting on community internet ownership, networking with community groups in Tennessee, Detroit, and New York, and establishing a wireless internet system at the Highlander Research and Education Center in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

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OUR STAFF

Board of Directors

  1. Aftyn Behn - Campaign Director for RuralOrganizing.org and Board Chair of ActionTN - Nashville, TN

  2. Caitlin Myers - Kentucky Headwaters, Alternate Roots, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM), United Campus Workers - Knoxville, TN

  3. Adam Hughes - Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) - Knoxville, TN

  4. James McKinney – Highlander Research and Education Center - Knoxville, TN

  5. Jamie Grieg – University of Tennessee - Knoxville, TN

  6. Deborah Bahr – Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee (CWEET) - Cosby, TN

  7. Greta Byrum – Social Science Research Council - Beacon, NY

  8. Dr. Gabe Schwartzman - University of Tennessee, Department of Geography and Sustainability  

Partners

Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee (CWEET)

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CWEET works for the benefit of all living things by honoring the basic ecological concept that all life is interconnected. We encourage healthy, thriving Appalachian communities by educating ourselves, the public, and our leaders about responsibility for the earth and its people. We do this by advocating for and creating solutions to ensure clean water and environments, flourishing local economies, participation in politics, and positive social and individual growth. Our work is based on the values of empowerment, self-determination, respect, compassion, and ultimately, love.
 

The Highlander Research and Education Center

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The Highlander Center is a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. It works with people fighting for justice, equality and sustainability, supporting their efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny.

Community Tech NY (CTNY)

Community Tech NY (CTNY) builds and support healthy, resilient, consentful digital ecosystems rooted in community needs. We connect our partners with technology teaching tools, direct project support, and community technology practices. Our goal is to support collective self-determination through community choice and governance of technology, especially to address emergent challenges and risks related to technological advancement and climate crisis.

Community Tech New York (CTNY) and Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) are regional “sister” organizations who use and develop technology that strengthens human connections to one another and to the planet. Both sponsored projects of Allied Media Projects, CTNY and DCTP are part of an international movement for consensual, resilient, community-governed communications infrastructure. As the Community Technology Collective (CTC), we support sustainable community ownership of data and technology and cultivate the long-term stewardship of neighborhood technologies that support health, well-being, and access to opportunity.

 

The Clearfork Community Institute

 

CCI is a place-based, action research and education center located in a historic coal mining community in East Tennessee. We offer public space and provide programs for residents to facilitate our ability to take control of our everyday lives by addressing root causes of systemic challenges of poverty and environmental degradation. We build community involvement and grassroots momentum with an intergenerational and cross-class approach to direct actions that leads to positive changes for our community and environment. We work to build community wealth which includes access to clean air, water and land as well as diverse, socially and environmentally responsible economic opportunity for our community.  

Sustainable and Equitable Agricultural Development Task Force of CEDnet (SEAD)

 

Our mission is to increase sustainable and equitable agricultural development and promote healthy connections of environment and community-based enterprises.

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The SEAD Task Force works in coalition to develop and establish, not only sustainable, but practical, long term, land-based economic projects with rural East Tennessee organizations. Recognizing that each local community’s needs are different, the work of SEAD members is based on participatory environment-led initiatives in support of community member

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