Nashville Broadband Grant Unlocks Digital Skills, Opens Doors for Overlooked Residents

State funding helps metro residents gain computer literacy and workplace skills in a rapidly growing tech economy.

NASHVILLE, Adrian Titington had never opened a document in Microsoft Word. Amanda Curry, who has worked hard to rebuild her life after serving time, struggled to find employers willing to look past her record. Both found opportunity through the Skills for Success program, funded by a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development broadband grant and administered through the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.

The need was urgent. Nashville, recently named one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, is attracting companies in research and development, technology, and advanced manufacturing. These employers offer high-paying jobs and genuine advancement opportunities. But many residents registered with MDHA, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, lacked basic computer skills: they could not send email, navigate Word, create presentations, or search the internet effectively. Without those skills, they could not even apply for the jobs being created.

Lisa Booker, MDHA's Resident Services Community Partnership Supervisor, launched the Skills for Success program after conversations with local employers revealed a consistent gap. Employers wanted to hire, but applicants arrived unable to perform basic digital tasks. Booker recognized that the problem was not ambition or work ethic. It was access to training. With TNECD's broadband grant support, she built a program to close that gap.

For Titington and Curry, the program was transformative. It provided not just technical instruction but confidence and a pathway. As Tennessee grows and competes for talent, residents without digital skills risk being left behind. Broadband grants that fund basic computer literacy programs serve a critical function: they ensure that opportunity reaches beyond those who came of age with laptops in hand, extending it to residents whose lives have followed different paths. In a state investing heavily in research and advanced manufacturing, those residents represent untapped workforce capacity and human potential.