Grants for technology upgrades coming to South Bronx community boards
Councilman Rafael Salamanca speaking to Community Board 2 at their September all-board meeting. By Usha Sookai.
Allocations of $62,000 to each CB for technology that will increase community engagement
When Bronx Community Board 2 hosts virtual meetings, District Manager Ralph Acevedo sets up a WebEx call on a Macbook and crosses his fingers that the system’s video and sound hold up. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s set to change, thanks to $310,000 worth of technology upgrades intended to make it easier for people to connect with community boards serving the South and mid-Bronx.
Community boards 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9 will each receive $62,000 to use on equipment they say they need. City Councilman Salamanca, who secured the funds, said in an interview he wanted each community board to have an OWL, a high-quality video conferencing system.
“Something that I saw during COVID was that there were many community boards that cannot communicate accordingly or appropriately with their community board members, and that had to do with a lack of technology,” Salamanca said at the September meeting of the full Community Board 2 at the Open Arms senior center on Westchester Avenue.
Acevedo said Community Board 2 plans to use the money to purchase the OWL system and a second television screen, and upgrade their servers and computers so that they are better equipped to hold virtual meetings. Acevedo hopes virtual meetings will lead to greater engagement with residents.
These upgrades have been a long time coming.
Nearby Community Board 1 has been advocating for technology upgrades for over a year, according to Communications and Technology Committee Chair Sonyi Lopez. Board 1’s District Manager Anthony Jordan set aside money from their internal budget of a previous fiscal year to buy the OWL video conferencing system and a PA system a few months ago.
With the grant from Councilman Salamanca, Community Board 1, which serves Mott Haven and Port Morris, plans to purchase Google Drive storage, graphic design software for flyers, tablets to translate meetings, a projector, as well as other audiovisual hardware. The new equipment will help the community board run more efficiently and with greater accessibility and community participation, Lopez said.
“We want more people to participate on Community Board 1 and know who we are,” she said.
This is the first time that Councilman Salamanca is allocating funds from the City Council’s capital budget to the community board. Unlike the city’s personnel budget, which is reserved for staffing and services, the capital budget is strictly for non-recurring, physical infrastructure. The total annual budget for Community Board 2 is $250,000.
Salamanca, who was Community Board 2’s district manager from 2010 to 2016, said he understands how difficult it is to run a community board. He sees these grants as a way to support community boards and amplify community voices.
Though the community boards don’t yet know when the funds will be distributed, they are hopeful about the changes they might bring to community engagement.
“We feel excited that our advocacy was heard,” Lopez said.
