Grant Solicitation for Regional Planning Agencies to Support Municipal Digital Equity Planning Enrollment and Regional Asset Mapping

CLOSED - Solicitation No. 2023-MBI-08

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (“MBI”), a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaboration ("MassTech Collaborative" or "MassTech") is issuing this Grant Solicitation for Regional Planning Agencies to Support Municipal Digital Equity Planning Enrollment and Regional Asset Mapping (Solicitation No. 2023-MBI-08) (the "Solicitation”) to solicit responses from Regional Planning Agencies in Massachusetts (“Respondents”) interested in receiving grant funding to support municipal officials enrolling in MBI’s Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program and to conduct a regional asset mapping inventory in alignment with MBI’s statewide broadband and digital equity planning activities. All Massachusetts Regional Planning Agencies (“RPAs”) are eligible to receive funding and are listed in Section 2 (the "Project").

The goal of the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program is to enable municipalities, or other local bodies of government, to engage in planning activities related to digital equity and bridging the digital divide. These planning activities will result in strategic documents designed to identify the community's needs, interest, and key assets and provide a framework that will guide future municipal decision-making and potential investments and activities that will increase access and usage of the internet for the populations most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In many parts of the state, a regional approach to digital equity planning is preferred as implementation will largely happen at a regional scale. However, many municipalities lack capacity to prioritize coordination around digital equity. RPAs can play a vital role to raise awareness, solicit engagement, forge municipal partnerships, and submit regional or sub-regional applications, ultimately boosting overall participation in the program.

​​​​​​MassTech will provide a grant to the selected Applicants(s) to be used to increase enrollment in the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program and conduct regional asset mapping activities in alignment with the Statewide Digital Equity Plan development. Grant funds may be applied to eligible outreach and data collection expenses, including but not limited to: 

• Staff time to engage in outreach and enrollment activities to increase participation in the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program.
• Development of materials (PowerPoints, web content, print materials, etc.) to support staff engagement activities as described above.
• Direct costs associated with event costs including meeting space, refreshments, audio visual rental, etc. to assist coordination and outreach activities.
• Staff time to conduct the regional asset mapping.

Download RFP Documents:

• Download Solicitation No. 2023-MBI-08 (Revised 05/08/23)
• Download Attachment C - Budget Template
• Download Questions and Answers Document (PDF)