25 charities, nonprofits get free Google Fiber

25 charities, nonprofits get free Google Fiber

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PROVO — Twenty-five local charities and nonprofits in Provo will receive free 1 GB Google Fiber and dedicated support for 10 years.

Thursday, Mayor John Curtis announced the 25 organizations that would receive the $70-a-month Internet service and dedicated 24-hour support for free until July 2023. Those organizations ranged from Provo City Library and the recreation center to the Boys and Girls Club of Utah County and the Covey Center for the Arts.

The organizations were selected by the Google Fiber Community Connections Program based on “their need for high speed internet, need for financial assistance, ability to enhance the community, reduce poverty and dependence, create jobs and/or support entrepreneurship, create educational opportunities and increase the quality of life,” Curtis wrote.

The organizations applied through videos, presentation software, booklets, and — in the case of the Boys and Girls Club — drawings.

Mountainland Head Start employees said in their video application their Internet connection has kept them from being as efficient as they need. Enrollment coordinator Maribel Res said she nearly quit right after being hired at Mountainland because she felt like she had “gone back into the dark ages.” All documentation was on paper and required being delivered in-person.


We are already doing fantastic work. We're thrilled to have Google Fiber here with us and it's going to help us do what we already do even better.

–Craig Severinsen, Community Action Services and Food Bank


NeighborWorks has helped more than 1,100 families stay in their homes, the equivalent of six square city blocks. Faster Internet would help them reach more families, run their database and move applications along, they said.

“Currently, I feel like I’m putting all my documents through a small straw. I need a huge firehose,” said reverse mortgage counselor Diane Heslington in the application.

Tracey Christensen, founder and director of Now I Can said the Google Fiber services will help the nonprofit physical therapy foundation as it houses out-of-town families for three weeks and works with their children.

Craig Severinsen, communications director for Community Action Services, said the Internet service would help employees run and process information more smoothly on the back end, as well as offer a quicker Internet connection to community members using the three lobby computers for job searches.

“We are already doing fantastic work. We’re thrilled to have Google Fiber here with us and it’s going to help us do what we already do even better,” Severinsen said.

Community Action Services assists between 80 and 100 families in food services alone at any given time, he said.

For a full list of recipients, visit Mayor Curtis' blog.

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Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

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