Suazo Business Center wins national Latino digital equity grant

The Suazo Business Center is one of only 20 organizations around the country – and the only one in Utah – to receive a digital equity grant from Hispanic Federation and Comcast NBCUniversal. A total of $635,000 in grants will be distributed to these nonprofit organizations to train more than 6,000 Latinos over the next year in digital skills, preparing them for the post-COVID workforce.

The Suazo Business Center will receive $25,000, which will allow the organization to build on its digital navigator program and to expand their curriculum. “We competed with states like California and Texas where there are many more Latinos, but the need here is not lower, we actually have more need here,” said Silvia Castro, Executive Director of the Suazo Business Center. “You cannot have economic mobility without knowing how to use a computer.”

“In 2020, digital literacy became a huge component of economic mobility overnight. The digital gap was there before, but COVID made it even wider,” Castro said. “This funding allows us to lay the foundation, to do the programming to serve the community in a way that is sustainable.”

The Suazo Business Center has run the digital navigator program to help Westside residents to navigate life and the workplace in the current digital environment during the COVID pandemic. They have taught people how to write a resume, use spreadsheets, and keep accounting of their budget or business.

Castro is excited the funding came in time to implement a new digital literacy curriculum in the fall, crediting digital literacy as the first step toward economic mobility. The new program will begin with a basic proficiency track, and it will grow to incorporate intermediate and advanced tracks. The intermediate track will expand into the usage of Microsoft Office and other software, while the advanced track will provide training in coding and a pathway to careers in STEM.

Castro hopes that the new and expanded curriculum helps even more Latinos in life and in the workplace. “Everything is online now. We teach people to job search online, how to apply online, how to do life now. From making a doctor’s appointment to checking on your kid’s school, everything is online,” Castro said. “

Lorena Isabelle is an alumna of the Suazo Center Digital Navigator program who has benefitted from the training the center already provides. “The program helped my family and I immensely during the pandemic, especially in a time when everything was done virtually,” Isabelle said.

Data suggests Isabelle’s experience is common. According to the Aspen Institute, 50% of tasks in the workplace are set to go digital over the next decade eliminating up to 39 million jobs. Latinos are 14% of workers but make up 35% of workers without digital skills, which motivated the Hispanic Federation and Comcast NBCUniversal to partner together and offer these grants.

The Hispanic Federation, which provides the grant, is also creating a Latino Center of Digital Skills Excellence, a center which will develop a curriculum for Latino workers in the digital workplace and work with the 20 grantee organizations. “Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in today's increasingly digital economy,” said Frankie Miranda, Hispanic Federation president and CEO. “Bridging the digital divide that disproportionately impacts Latinos is key to creating economic opportunity in the Latino community and a more equitable society.”

The new programs are part of the Suazo Business Center’s work offering different business courses, ranging from putting a business idea in motion to expanding an existing business. Castro sees digital literacy as a critical tool for professional and economic empowerment, especially considering the growing importance of the online space and the relatively low expertise across the Latino population.

“Latinos are the fastest demographic when it comes to starting businesses, but less than five percent make it to half a million dollars in sales a year,” Castro said. “The economic power of Latinos in this state is under-recognized, we are the future of this state when it comes to the economy” and the grant is key toward helping the Suazo Center empowering Latinos to move beyond the digital divide.