Closing the Digital Divide for Families: Meet Richard Hicks

Richard Hicks is the CEO and President of Inspiredu, a Georgia-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding digital access, strengthening families, and creating new opportunities for children and communities. A transformational nonprofit leader, speaker, and advocate for equity in technology, Richard has spent more than 15 years building programs, partnerships, and strategies that help families improve their socioeconomic mobility through digital literacy, access to devices, and community-centered support.

Under Richard’s leadership, Inspiredu has become a trusted force in Georgia’s digital inclusion ecosystem. He has led high-performing teams, managed major projects, and developed growth and fundraising strategies that have secured more than 150 Fortune 500 sponsorships and partnerships in just two years. During Inspiredu’s inaugural year, Richard and his team served more than 3,000 Georgia families during the pandemic, helping bridge urgent technology gaps at a time when access to devices and connectivity was essential for school, work, and daily life.

Richard’s path to Inspiredu grew from more than a decade of service with the national education nonprofit PowerMyLearning, where he served as executive director of the Atlanta region. While representing a national organization, he saw the need for deeper, locally focused work to support Georgia’s minority and low-income families. That vision led him to assemble a strong local leadership team and launch Inspiredu as a spinoff nonprofit committed to continuing and expanding that mission. In the last year alone, the Inspiredu team distributed 2,297 devices to community members and diverted 5,824 laptops from Atlanta landfills in 2023, advancing both digital equity and environmental sustainability.

Richard’s commitment to service is also rooted in his personal history. He is the newest guardian of his family’s roughly five-acre centennial property on Log Cabin Road in Milledgeville, Georgia, a preservation project entrusted to him by his late father, Samuel A. Hicks. The land reminds him of the hard work of his ancestors and keeps him grounded in the responsibility to create opportunities for future generations. Whether leading Inspiredu, serving on the Executive Advisory Board for Atlanta Technology Professionals and the Advisory Board for the Consort Institute at Clark Atlanta University, or volunteering with organizations such as the Agape Family and Youth Center, Richard brings a family- and community-first lens to his work.

A respected voice in business leadership, technology, and nonprofit innovation, Richard frequently speaks on panels and has represented Inspiredu on national and regional platforms. He appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show as a finalist for the Good Neighbor of the Year Award, was featured on WSB Radio during Black History Month, participated as a panelist for GlobalMindED’s Resolve to Solve conference on WABE’s NPR, and was named “Man of the Year” at the Steminist Awards at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. Through every role, Richard remains focused on one clear goal: expanding access to technology and opportunity so Georgia families can thrive.

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Transcript

Why The Digital Divide Matters

Ann Price 0:45

Hi everyone and welcome to Community Possibilities. I'm Ann Price, and on this show I talk with community leaders who are making a difference where they live and work. Today's conversation is about opportunity and specifically about closing the digital divide for families who need it most. Think about how much of daily life now runs through a screen. School assignments, job applications, medical appointments. Heck, you can't even order at a restaurant these days without needing a QR code. For families without reliable access to a computer or the internet, the digital divide touches almost everything. My guest today has spent his career working to close that gap. Richard Hicks is the CEO and president of Inspire EDU, a technology-based nonprofit working to expand digital access and literacy for families across Georgia. In Inspire EDU's very first year, Richard and his team served over 3,000 Georgia families during the pandemic. In the last year alone, they distributed nearly 2,300 devices and diverted thousands of laptops from local landfills. Before founding Inspire EDU, Richard spent over a decade with the national education nonprofit Power My Learning, leading their Atlanta region. He has built partnerships with more than 150 Fortune 500 companies, serving on advisory boards for the Atlanta Technology Professionals and Clark Atlanta University's Consort Institute, and has been recognized everywhere from the Kelly Clarkson Show to WSB Radio. But Richard's story starts long before any of that on his family's century-old property in Milledgeville, Georgia, a place that still grounds him today. I'm excited to talk with Richard about Inspire EDU's mission, what digital equity really means for families, and what community possibilities he sees for the future. Let's get into it.

Richard Hicks And The Calling

Ann Price 2:55

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Community Possibilities. So Richard Hicks joins me today. So, Richard, you and I actually have never met in person. We got connected through a fellow colleague, a fellow Grant uh writer William. But I'm so glad he introduced us, and I'm so happy to have you on the show.

SPEAKER_04 3:15

Oh, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be on your show. And I always say the circle of life is one of those things where your paths are gonna cross and you're gonna you're all family, so you're all gonna be sitting there together and feeling like you've known that person forever. And Ann, when I first met you, I was like, oh, that's just Ann. That's Ann. I know her.

Ann Price 3:34

I'm like, Yeah, isn't that yeah, but so true. And I don't I don't know what your belief system is, but I really do believe that, you know, God puts people in our lives for a reason. It's not an accident that we meet who we meet along the road.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Yeah, we do. We have to also we have to remember that even though our exterior is different, our interior is it all the same. Our blood color is the same. We all have hearts that run our bodies, we have brains and things like that. We talk about the same organs that the good Lord put in all of us. So we're all family, and we all should have the same North Star as loving thy neighbor as thyself.

Ann Price 4:14

Thank you. Amen to that. All right, Richard, here you are. I want you to introduce yourself. Um, first of all, I guess I should say you are the executive director of Inspire EDU. We're gonna talk about that. That's what we're here to talk about. But first, I want you to introduce yourself and tell us how you came to be who you are. Um always uh challenge people to uh resist the urge to recite your resume and tell us really how you how you came to be in this space. Because again, I think you're here for a reason.

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Yeah. And uh, you know, you discover that reason as you're writing your book of life. And I'm Richard Hicks, the CEO of Inspire EDU. And I like to say my story started with being uh in divinity when it comes to making sure that you're serving the community in a way that's meaningful. Um my background is in IT, and I was going to hide out and stay in IT and be at a be at a different capacity of serving and supporting. And it was um not my journey that that I was uh going to be in a nonprofit space, and it ended up having uh a turn there. And I feel like uh the nonprofit and serving the community, this space is a more of a calling than it is a job. And coming in and seeing people that don't have technology devices, and I didn't even know bridging the digital divide was a thing, but you learn as you're uh exploring and finding out how can I find a purpose, how can I help the community, how can I actually uh help myself to develop more so that I can be a better human being.

Ann Price 5:58

I love that so much. And you know, that is really the purpose of this podcast is to really shine a light on community leaders who are doing fabulous things to build up the community, because as you say, we are all we are all neighbors. So let's talk about Inspire EDU. I'd love to hear about its history and um mission. I am married to an IT guy. I uh and my husband definitely will go along with me um and support all the nonprofits that I love, but I can't ever see him like making a shift to, and I think I'll be an executive director and work $80 million a week or 80 million hours a week and not make $80 million. So tell us about uh Inspire EDU, what what led you to it, its history, its mission, all the things. What do we need to know?

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Yeah, absolutely.

Inspire EDU And The Tech Food Bank

SPEAKER_04 6:47

So Inspire EDU, we're an organization that provides equitable access to technology and training and being able to make sure that we have learners of all ages, they're developed, their technology skills, so that it can be education and career ready. We want to help them sort of have an opportunity in life as other people has has had one. This is our uh charge today as we're entering into this whole new technology arena. And I love the fact that your husband is uh has an IT background because he would love the donations that we get with some of the devices. We open it up because there's a lot of sustainability around the work that we do and making sure that things are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. And what happens is that we have a uh lot of systems that come here and they're very uh they're very old. Uh and you know, when you're in an IT background, you remember that journey and when remember when some of those systems were actually new in their in their field. But being able to pass that on within the community and being able to serve it in a in a technology space and seeing how they can respond to some of the resources that they need because everything is online, it's humbling. And Inspire EDU, we are working very hard to bridge that digital divide. I like to think of us as a technology version of the food bank.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Oh, interesting. Oh, that's such an interesting metaphor.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Yeah, yeah. It's um it's serving in a can a different capacity because technology right now is just as important as food. If you don't really have the technology and you're not connected, you may as well be on the moon. Uh, because if you can't communicate online to sign up for benefits for somewhere or being able to pay your bills, which you're all online, the days of always going into a branch to do something or being able to uh, you know, pay your bills online, I mean walk in and pay your bills, that is off and on. And I think that what we have to do is make sure that we are doing our due diligence as Inspire EDU and making sure that we're we're addressing that need. We're addressing the the uh needs within our community that requires as an essential piece of it. And Inspire EDU during the pandemic, even coming out of it, we were deemed an essential service to the city. And so we continue, we continued that support, that work, and being able to make sure that we are we're doing things the right way.

Ann Price 9:21

So tell me a little bit about when you guys got started. So it sounds like um you started before the pandemic because I know in rural everywhere, rural Georgia, but we're just nationally, we we saw that very clearly during the pandemic that people did not have the same kind of you know access to the internet and all that kind of thing. So what what tell us a little bit more about your history?

Spinning Out During The Pandemic

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Yeah, so we were part of a national organization that really started as a region in 2007. And throughout the years, uh the national organization, we continued to bridge the digital divide. And then what happened was that there was a recalibration of that, and they wanted to do something a little different, and our community stayed on bridging the digital divide. So in 2020, we spun out from that national organization and became Inspire EDU and hit the ground running. Uh, during COVID, we were actually in a place where we didn't have to do no marketing, we didn't have to do no real uh uh circle to tell people what we were doing, all of the services that we did uh what were needed within the community. And so we were able to go in there and hit the ground running. So a lot of the COVID response, Inspire EDU, we were on the ground floor. We were providing devices, we were supporting the community through help desk and even being able to put some online, uh, put some uh videos online um and on the actual laptops uh so that the families could could see these training videos. And so we responded in the way that was needed within the community. And so the you know, the history that Inspire EDU spun out from has been legacy when it comes to the digital divide and addressing the needs within the community. And I love the fact that we didn't have to go and do a whole bunch of marketing because your work should speak for yourself. I always my family would always say uh as we go through and uh we went to church and we would um spend time together, and they would say, Let my work speak for me. And that's what we want our work to speak for, what the community needs, and it will speak for uh Inspire EDU.

Ann Price 11:30

Oh, I love that so much. I love that so much.

Tech Deserts And Broadband Realities

Ann Price 11:33

So um I think people know what digital divide means, but maybe you could just be really explicit.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah. So using the analogy with the food, we know that there's food deserts and there's not enough food, and you're trying to get to those deserts, you're trying to basically make sure people are eating and things like that. That's no different than technology. We have technology deserts within the state of Georgia, and we have them globally. You know, we have people that don't really have a way to get connected. Um, they don't have the resource, nor do they the infrastructure. Uh, there's a lot of build-out uh that's happening within the community now with the infrastructure. People are basically uh getting all of these things put in there and they're becoming more and more connected with uh, you know, with the resources. And so a lot of connectivity and infrastructure bills are cut have gone through. I've been very excited to see that because now there's an emphasis on building out our infrastructure to get people connected because when you talk about rural Georgia and Inspire EDU, we serve some of these rural communities. And a lot of the the build out they're still doing. And how do those people get connected? How do we go and uh be able to uh make sure they have the resource without having them go out there and pay for something that they may not be may or may not be able to afford, but then they don't even know they don't even know what to get. So we go in, and this is where the training that we provide, it kind of gives them, it sheds some light on how they can respond to the need. And so the digital divide is that is still that gap. It evolves just like when you're talking about food banks and food uh deserts and things that are evolving around that. The digital divide evolves in sort of uh these pockets, and we have to address that divide. We need to make sure that we're providing support in providing this technology and these resources to the community in a meaningful way.

Digital Equity As Economic Mobility

Ann Price 13:29

Okay. So um, Richard, on this show, we're not afraid to say the E-word. Uh you know, so we do say we do say equity on this show and everywhere we can. So let's talk a little bit about why digital inclusion and digital literacy is related directly to equity, because that's really what we're talking about. It's it is getting people connected that are not not connected, but for a large, a bigger purpose. Wouldn't you agree? Isn't that what you are all about? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Yeah, absolutely. Digital equity is one of those things where everybody needs to have a seat at the table and it needs to be across the board. Whenever you're making advancements in your society and you're trying to move people along, you have got to have inclusion, literacy, and you need to make sure that the equity piece is there as well. And it's not to try and, you know, create a situation of uh, like you see sometimes, of the have and have nots. You need to create a situation where everyone can advance with you so that you're not having these dips and buckets and crises because it's a response to the community. Not saying that you want, you know, other folks to basically uh not have it because they didn't try hard enough or they didn't do that. We have moments where people need a little bit more of an egg a helping hand and always say, you know, do do to others uh what you want to be done to you. Um equity is the same thing. Yeah, it's the golden rule. You know, do onto others. And you want them to treat you with equity. You will want them to treat you with having a seat at the table. Everyone started out from nothing. I don't care what they say. I don't care what they say from legacy and you know, riches being passed down. You started out from nothing and you became, you know, a little more than what you were from back then. But it's your charge to make sure that other folks have an opportunity. Because at the end of your journey in life, you're going to explain as to what you've done in this world. And what we want to do is make sure that equity stays on the forefront when it comes to Inspire EDU and work around that digital literacy. We know how important it is. We know that it is one of those pieces that can help address the poverty needle. Now, it's not the smoking gun. Uh, you know, I will never say that because there's a lot of tentacles when you're trying to eliminate some of these things where poverty is producing. It's the classic battle of good versus evil. But what we can do is make sure that we educate, we provide the resources. And if we do that, then our economy, our way of living, even some of the things we have to do health-wise, we'll start being a little better and we'll start leaving this world to quote the late John Lewis. We'll leave this world a little better than we found it. And that's our charge. Right.

Ann Price 16:29

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you just think about uh people's, you know, access to jobs and better paying jobs. There's pretty much no very few jobs that don't require some kind of technical skills.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Yeah. Right. 90% of the jobs or more right now in the state of Georgia requires digital skills.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

You have to be able to make sure that you have those skills in order to be able to do it. It is um, it is essential. And and we have to make sure that we recognize that part. When it's essential, just like eating, it is something that is truly important. It is important to a company for you to have digital skills because you're gonna use email, you're gonna use some of these resources that they have that allows them to automate their systems, everything, all of no matter if you're talking about, you know, a uh all the way from a Fortune 500 company to a bakery that's sitting on the side taking online orders. You're gonna know, you're gonna have to know how to navigate through that. And we need to make sure that we recognize that it is something that is important and needed within our community when you're talking about more digital skills.

The Learning Spark Program Pillars

Ann Price 17:35

So that leads us directly to programs and services. So let's dig in and talk about, you know, uh how how the sausage is made, so to speak. So so what kinds of services do you guys provide?

SPEAKER_04 17:47

All right. So we call it our Learning Spark Initiative. I've loved this, and when we talk about our programming, uh, we've been doing this legacy. A lot of the programming when we were part of the national nonprofit, and again, I've been around doing this for over 19 years. And I always say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But don't be so finesse where you're doing a whole bunch of in football, flea flicker plays, trying to figure out, you know, how I can chase money, how I can do this. You got to do something to actually help the community. And you got to use your impact to find your North Star. So we've been doing this, these programming legacy, our family learning. Through our family learning, we bring the family together to see how we can kind of position uh the family in a better state as they come in and get these digital skills. We train them on what's happening with some of the schoolwork that's happening with their student. And the family together has they sit with their student and they do a host of different tasks within the workshops, even learning from our training specialists what practices you can use, best uh practices when it comes to internet safety, AI safety, what academics, what academic uh uh academic materials that are out there for you, but also being able to uh talk to them about how to better support your student and yourself as you're doing professional development. We go in and talk about all of these elements within our family learning workshop. And then even connecting them, like if the school or community-based nonprofit has resources, here's a good time to bring that together. And we find that that being able to have that family engagement is an important piece when you're talking about an after-school program, students, uh, and schools and others, because that family dynamic is what's going to be discussed at the at the table or in that home as to what to be involved in within the community. So our family learning is our first pillar. Our second pillar is our adult digital literacy. The adults don't forget about them. We have our lifeline learners, we have our young adults, we have our, you know, our adults who are trying to better develop themselves. And so to our adult digital literacy, we teach them a myriad of technology skills and we work with them to see how uh they can learn basic knowledge on digital skills to get them on the right road or even enhancing the road that they're already on, like how to how to navigate that. All of the basic trainings that you need when it comes to understanding the technology, we do that through our Dult Digital Literacy. And I always use a military analogy. Before you're gonna go to Iraq, you're gonna go to basic training. They're gonna see whether you can cut the mustard. And that is true because they don't want you to be sitting out there and hot caking it over there and thinking you're Rambo and you don't understand some of the basic concepts when it comes to technology. We want to be able to make sure they understand sort of that basic knowledge in our adult digital literacy and of course in our family learning as well. And so those two pillars allow us to be able to plant those seeds for the student and family as a whole, our adult digital literacy. And then our STEM pipeline is that's our exposure program. We know that there's STEM jobs out there, there's companies like uh we partnered with uh CGI to do some of these STEM workshops. We did a STEM workshop with Rainbow Elementary to bring the kids in. And they they did the thing around scratch and uh coding and around scratch and creating different um different pieces, but they were also exposed to uh companies that are doing STEM work every day when they are in their everyday jobs. So a lot of the exposure piece comes within our STEM pipeline. And those programs are what we do legacy, and also we do a lot of impact and data to see whether or not those programs are needed. And this helps you to develop programs within your within your nonprofit that can actually survive and thrive. And we do that very well by gathering this information, taking surveys, feedback, you name it, so that we can be able to make the best decision when it comes to what's pro what we need to provide for the community.

Ann Price 21:59

So are

Taking Training Into The Community

Ann Price 22:00

You in um mainly uh schools, community centers, where are the workshops being held?

SPEAKER_04 22:08

So when we were uh with our national nonprofit, we actually did our workshops mainly in schools. When we spun out from them in 2020, we created a community-based rock model where the community is a whole is a learning institution. So being able to even do do trainings within our lift zone here, our uh training volunteering training center at Inspire EDU, we have a training center where they can come in and take classes, whether it be in person. We have a hybrid uh course within our bridge too, and being able to make sure that people who already have devices, they can take our bridge too. They don't need to take the the first part, they can go and do the second where they can learn, you know, hybrid, uh, whether it's in person or or online. And then we have uh we have our need for being in the community so we can be where all of the work is because we don't transportation, childcare, even you know, the location of where these folks are, because we do we do serve a transient population. We need to be within a community so that we can so that we can be able to serve them the right way and they can reach us. So we're at the schools, community-based centers. Sometimes the most central part could be a church that has a classroom with a training facility. We'll partner with them to do the training within that facility. Anything that can help us better connect and serve the community. And of course, the libraries, because when COVID hit, the libraries got hit pretty hard because people needed to get connected. They needed to go to those locations. And we partner with some of the libraries around Georgia to see how we can kind of help be a resource and be able to respond to some of the needs of that of their community in a way that they're not feeling so much pressure.

Ann Price 23:59

Yeah. And you know, I always say uh our community libraries um are just such an untapped resource, and our librarians are because they're they can do so much more than help you find a book, which is great and noble. Yeah, I love to read, but they are great, they are researchers, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Yeah, we went to the library. That's all that's all we did was research. Because my parents would drop me off at the library and say, I'll be back to get you. Uh-huh. Do your homework. You download a whole bunch of homework and books in there. So I was always going to the library. Uh, when we lived in South George, Georgia, I was uh in elementary school. They would go there and we would um, you know, I would be there doing reading books and all of those sort of things. And then the other part was whenever you get in school, uh, high school, middle school, the libraries was where you would go to do that research, and you would ask the librarian, hey, I'm looking for this. Can you help me find it? And they would go to the card catalog and look for what you need, and then you find it, and then you say, Oh, you just showed your age, man.

Ann Price 25:05

Card catalog?

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Yeah. Oh, yeah, card catalog. I still got my Britannicas. No, we still got an encyclopedia britannicas. My dad would not throw them things away because he said they cost a whole bunch of money. So you're gonna keep them things. This is your Encyclopedia Britannica. And right now, and believe it or not, I still got this original set that we purchased back in um, I think we purchased it in the early 90s. And that thing is still, those things are still sitting on the shelf. And and every now and then I'll go and I'll pull one out just so I can reflect on what where we came from and how we are, you know, how we made it this far. I think that you should never look lose that. And yeah, a card catalog. I remember those called card catalogs, the number you were flipping through all that to try to find that specific number code so you can find your book.

Ann Price 25:53

Yeah, we were a world book family, but you know, that's okay. I will hold a whole, I don't know, it was probably cheaper, but um yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

You had a bunch of salespeople running around there selling those things. So you had a world book, Cyclopedia, Britannica, everything. And um, we we were wanting to purchase those too.

Ann Price 26:11

Yeah, I would now I'm having a flashback to my uh first days in graduate school because I'd gotten a master's degree. I was out for probably about five years, worked in uh treatment centers, uh substance abuse treatment centers. And when I went back to graduate school, I remember walking into the library and the card catalog was like over there, it was just waiting to be housed, and there were terminals that you had to look up, whatever the book, journal, whatever, and figure out what floor and all the things. Yeah, getting back to the whole digital digital literacy. I I yeah, you and I have probably seen um a lot of changes. My first computer, by the way, was a Tandy 1000.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Really?

Ann Price 26:52

Really oh wow, you know, one of the big honk and yeah, but you know, the the young people who are listening to this are going probably rolling their eyes right now. But I want to get back to I want to get back to that the the I want to hear a little bit more about the the family um training that you all do. That's so interesting to me. I can just see families coming in. I bet sometimes kids know more than their parents, and then I'm curious as to whether or not the parents maybe then go into your adult program, maybe. I don't know. How does that work?

SPEAKER_04 27:25

So the parents they can get in, they are invited to attend our adult digital literacy session if they want to learn more of their knowledge. But going to the family piece of it, you know, family engagement, going to the original uh impact that we're looking to get out of that, it is essential to have that family piece be sort of of healthy. And the learners are are getting a other students, they're getting all of the pieces that could help them connect as a family. And we do a lot around trying to see how we can how we can connect one to school environment, but then also what pieces within the parent when it comes to internet safety, um, some of the other items that are out there and resources that they utilize that we can adopt into the family learning. And of course, teaching them the basic of how to turn the computer on, how to turn this laptop on, how to do those sort of things. You learn them to you help them get familiar with their device. And that's what we we've adopted, you know, these commandments and things when it comes to the devices and uh being able to know how to how to take care of it first.

Ann Price 28:36

Oh, you mean like uh thou shalt not hard boot your computer?

SPEAKER_04 28:40

Yeah, or don't keep a cup of coffee over your computer and then you spill it on there, spill it on there, and all them keyboards and stuff be sticking, and then nothing works.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

Have good practices where it is a focal point and it's a research center for uh what you and your family is gonna do. So we go through and try to teach them some of the best practices and then going into some of the do's and don'ts, and even explaining to them the basic concept, like you asked earlier, about digital literacy. What is digital literacy? What do they want to do? What do they want to do around that? Why do we have them coming in here? And so we explain the definition of digital literacy and why it's so important in their family, what they're going to be doing. When you're trying to connect with a family and even adults, I like to stay close to the kitchen table items. Uh, you need to talk about the things that that's going to benefit them by having this training and benefit them as they're moving forward and looking for additional resources. So with the family, we talk about a lot in the sense that this is going to be a home learning center that they can utilize in order to move forward. And then as they're getting connected, it it is a broadband ready device for you all. We want you all to connect to various um to various resources. And it may mean that you may not be in a traditional volunteering training center like InspireEDU or a place, a classroom. You may have to connect in other places, like a Starbucks, like a uh a uh Dunkin' Donuts or McDonald's. Like we want to be able to let them know that this this broadband ready device is ready to is mobile and it can go different places. We encourage them to, you know, keep it at the home as best they can, but it is mobile that they can go and take it to other other locations. And so learning those myriad of technology skills and resources to the family, even the school-based resources, this is a good place where the school can put out uh different resources. They print out flyers and give them things that they have going on because the parents have to connect to what what resources is available at that school. And if they have something coming up like testing, like something they plan on doing with uh, you know, with their bus schedules changing, even when it comes to signing up for online, signing up online for some of these response crisis, these crisis response things, they need to know that digital literacy and this family engagement piece go hand in hand. So we do a good job of trying to see how we can marry the two, and we have them in there for at least uh two hours, two and a half hours, and we go through these these uh different components and the curriculum. And then at the end, we say the story doesn't stop here. Inspire EDU, we have additional trainings for you. So these additional trainings are on our website, and they're able to go out, go to our website and look at our community workshops and see what they can qualify or not qualify, but what they can actually register for moving forward.

Partnerships Built On Awareness

Ann Price 31:50

Gotcha, gotcha. Um, so one of the things I wanted to talk to you was about um partnerships, because when I was looking on your website uh before the last time we talked, I noticed just how many partners you have a lot of partners, and that's really important when you're doing community based work. So I'd love to hear you just you just tell us anything you want to tell us about partnerships, how they how you get how you attract partners, how you keep partners, what they do for Inspire EDU, anything that would help other community leaders learn.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

When we spun out from the national organization, I want to Inspire EDU to be built off of collaboration and partnerships. I don't like to be a siloed nonprofit where we're sitting over here and we're scratching our eyes out because we got a 501 and we want to find, you know, different money buckets because we're trying to feed our pockets. This is not like sitting here and um uh trying to, you know, put all this this money and on the side like pollen pockets and you're filling up to take it back to the hive. You want to be able to make sure that you know you're collaborating with others because it's the positive and bright version of campaigning and getting people to get the word out about your, about what you're doing. And, you know, politics, they do their side of things, they're campaigning, they're building all these partnerships, all these endorsements and things like that. And they're, you know, everybody see the commercials and they're going off. And and this is that other side that I like to look at it. This is that other side of campaigning that is truly serving the community in a way that it should. And we we thrive on having partnerships. So we got about 40 to 50 partners that we use within the community or we collaborate within the community so that we can try to build up a sort of coalition around the conversation when it comes to digital skills and literacy and how important it is, especially getting a job, connecting to your children, even supporting every organization we partner with, every single one of them, they all have a focus on making sure that digital skill and literacy is on their forefront because they have resources that are online. We have resources that are online as well. And we marry just like a perfect puzzle piece to be able to make sure that this learner, this family, is getting the most healthy piece from both nonprofits because both of us are going and getting grants and getting funding and all that sort of stuff. I know that's the name of the game, but we're we're both complimenting each other and we're getting, we're giving this learner, this family, the best resource that they have at no cost to them, that they can go out there and have some hope that they can can overcome these challenges where we become effectively a part of their journey in life. And so their chapter of Book of Life is written by Inspire EDU and our community partners as to what we're doing together to help them. And we want to be able to make sure that we're encompassing these partnerships. And that's how we get the word out because when we have these partners, we can get the word out. And then the learners come in and they become advocates and we create this coalition. And that's the nature of a nonprofit is to be that collaborator, that essential service, and that convener so that we can move forward. If we do that, then we'll become one of the greatest adversaries when it comes to evil, and it's trying to plant their seeds. We go in there and we are doing it together, and we're not siloed and even as a nonprofit trying to be everything to everyone. We are not that. We're not gonna be that. We stick in the, we stay in our lane around digital skills, complementing, you know, providing the technology and others who are doing work in that space, uh, or trying to train in that work readiness, workforce development, um, school base, being um uh an act a real good partner or in an active partner with them so that we can we can be able to accomplish great things together.

Ann Price 36:00

So it's really complimentary, is what I'm hearing from you. And I I love that you said coalition like five times because I that I do a lot of coalition work. So I love that so much. So I imagine partners are giving you money. They're probably are they also giving you like laptops and tech technology itself that you can then pass along to to those who need it.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Yeah, when a company or a partner uh want to come in and um you know be generous to inspire EDU and provide their time, talent, and treasure. The first thing I ask for is awareness. I want your ear. I want your ear and I want your voice. That's the greatest thing that you have. The greatest story ever told came from awareness. It was no money transaction, it was none of that. It was awareness. People's voices are a powerful and good thing to have when they are on your side and you're you're trying to go out and spread the word about what you're doing. And so I asked for the awareness. And then the next piece is being able to really evolve to what resources that we can do together and volunteer with us. So you can learn our mission, you can learn the folks that we serve, and even being able to see how your passion is going to evolve over time. And that allows us to connect as a family. All those other resources, when you're talking about monetary, in-kind, all of these, they start happening naturally. And people because people are excited about you.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

You know, when they're when they're excited, they do great things. Look at what happens in in um the alumni programs in football and um basketball we have going on now, the World Cup and everything. People are rallying around and they're doing things and all of those things happen naturally, even though we know some are for-profit, but some behind the scenes are nonprofit, and they're basically working together to see how we can kind of build up our community, and that's what we work to do with our partners.

Ann Price 37:56

Yeah, I love that. And there's such a learning lesson there is to, you know, uh, come hear about us, come see us, come work alongside us, and then you have, you know, you've got a friend.

SPEAKER_04 38:08

Yeah, exactly. My grandmother never liked us come down there and just pass through. She said, sit a spell and talk. So we would always have to come in there and sit, and she'd be asking us questions. And sometimes, you know, you'd be in a hurry, but she wasn't having it. That is true.

Ann Price 38:26

Well, she was she was probably feeding you too, if she was anything like most grandmothers.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

Oh, yeah, yep. She would have a few little snacks sitting in there and um, you know, make sure that, hey, go in there and get you a cookie and come back in here and sit down, sit down for a minute. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. You know, we like to and it's relationship building. Yeah. That's what makes you uh be a greater friend to the community, but also a greater friend to your uh nonprofit that you're partnering or collaborating with.

Ann Price 38:54

Yeah. I love that so much. So how do you decide? I'm very curious

Serving Counties Without Overpromising

Ann Price 39:00

what communities you serve, right? If you're like most nonprofits, it's a lot, you're doing a lot. Um and you have to be really thoughtful about where you plant your resources. So, how do you decide where you're gonna be? Because Georgia is a big state. We have 159 counties, we have a lot of rural counties that are still without internet access. Yeah. How do you?

SPEAKER_04 39:29

Yeah, that's a hard one because as a nonprofit, you want to put your super superman or superwoman cape on and, you know, see how you can serve the community in a way that you are fixing everything. But um, that's just not the case. Um, we are gated by funding, and some of the funding is place-based, and some of the funding is uh, you know, general operating where we can, you know, plant, do some pilots, but we methodically look at where the need is within the community, and even the partnership has to be right in order for us to be able to consider looking at uh an implementation there. Um, we've had a lot of great partners around the state of Georgia and still have more partners and wait lists of people that want to really see how we can get digital skills because there's such a focus on getting people connected in Georgia. Georgia's economy is actually uh centered around how our folks are connected and how they're transmitting different, you know, different uh processes online because a lot of it feeds some of the economy that we hear reports about. And we want to make sure that we are not just trying to go and be everything to everyone. We need to look at every single bucket in county that we that we're working to serve. And if we can't do it now, let's look at it from a standpoint that it's on the table at a later date because we do have to make sure we're not spending out more than what we have coming in. But we do want to explore being able to make sure that we're planting the seed as we're looking to grow in these places. And that is uh something that is ongoing with Inspire EDU. And we encourage other organizations who are in a digital skill space to be in the digital skill space because it's so big, it's so vast, we can't do everything. So we encourage others to get in the fight of being able to serve the community in this digital skill space. And that helps us to be able to make referrals because if Inspire Edu can't do it, then we can refer them to somebody who can.

Ann Price 41:35

Yeah, I love you. I love that about um what you're saying because what I what the learning lessons are, I think, for other community leaders is um know your community, know their needs. Yep, make sure those uh the partnerships that's gonna sustain the work is there. Think about it in the long haul. Don't be afraid to to make the referral. If you're not the right person, we can't be all things to all people, right? Um, because the worst thing I think we can do is to go into community and then pull out that happens so much. Um, and that's that's that's never a good look.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

I know, yeah. I know it's never a good look. When you try to go in there and you're trying to plant seeds and you're trying to do a pilot and you have the rug put off, they have the rug pulled off from under them. And sometimes in a nonprofit space, you have the rug pulled off from under you too. So sometimes you do, yeah. So you have to be mindful that you are committed. But if you're depending on some of these other entities who are committed into investing, and then all of a sudden, you know, you get um you get blindsided, then it alters your plan. It offers alters it alters your plan as you're looking to serve. You don't, you know, you have to basically go where you can survive and not uh not continue to to do it. And there's a a thing in our community we need to make sure that we are uh committed to the things that we do. I think there's a lot of it's the hotness right now, and we're gonna go after it. But then all of a sudden it's like, oh, we're gonna pivot over to this. And see, we got to be careful with that.

Ann Price 43:17

Right. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

We can leave a vacuum, and then when we have a crisis and this thing is like turning from a turn into this big black hole, then you want to come back over here and focus on it and say, hey, can I give you this much and all that? And then you can, you know, uh you can you plug that hole? No, that thing is gaping. And I don't think that we can go in there and and fix everything, and there's not enough dollars to do it in a way that that you are going to be committed to because it's not gonna be a one time thing. It's one of those things where you got to maintain it, you've got to continuously address it, and it's no different than a car and giving it maintenance. Without you can continue to drive it. And as soon as that oil runs out and you have engine breakdown, you can't go and act as if it's not going to cost nothing to fix. It's going to cost you way more to fix it and putting a new engine in it, or you got to get a whole new car entirely to be able to get to point A to point B. And what we like to do is maintain the effort, maintain consistency on addressing these digital divide in these buckets so that we're not having these communities hit a sort of dip. And then when we go back, we got an even greater mountain to climb.

Ann Price 44:35

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Because you've lost that trust. Yeah, we got the momentum, and you're this is a marathon and not a sprint. When you're trying to close digital divide, it is a marathon and not a sprint. It is no different than the food deserts, the technology deserts. They're all in line and you're trying to address it. And the only way you address it, you got to continue to engage in it. You got to tend continue to invest in it. You got to continue to make sure that the resources are there and they're not being diverted over to something who basic what which basically won't do, won't

Measuring Confidence And Real Outcomes

SPEAKER_04 45:10

be addressing anything of a crisis.

Ann Price 45:13

Won't be helpful. So uh Richard, I'm an evaluator, so you know I gotta ask about data. And you mentioned that earlier, and you're a tech person, so I imagine you uh you were running the tech lane, uh, the data too. And if you get grants and things like that, you you know about reporting. Uh talk to me a little bit about some of your um the outcomes that you see in your participants and in the communities that you serve.

SPEAKER_04 45:39

Yeah. So when we talk about our debt and compliance, we go in, we have a four-prong approach. Um, we talk about the devices, we talk about the level of confidence, we talk about um sort of the connection and support. And then we um also talk about, you know, the numbers. Everyone wants to know how many people attended the workshop. And we use our uh, we use SurveyMonkey for some of our data and compliance, and we have Salesforce and others. Um, the the part is with a nonprofit, you always need to develop a grants and compliance team. Um every one of them uh is beneficial because when you're sitting down talking about reports that you have to provide to a to a grantor and uh being able to make sure it lines up with what your outcomes are, you need to really think through that. And Inspire EDU, we think through making sure that we can cite the families having confidence within our workshop and having things that we can control. That is a thing that is very evasive sometimes within nonprofits because you want to say that you're doing all this stuff on the street.

Ann Price 46:46

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 46:47

And then you're not getting real good data to support it. We get good data to support the level of proficiency and confidence our families are going in before and post-workshop, and then going back and doing a little bit of storytelling to see, okay, now that you have this device and you had this training, how have you progressed? How have you moved things forward? They'll tell you. And that helps us to be able to know we're on target with being able to satisfy the outcomes we presented in the grant. And that is so important. And there's your marketing data on the front. You you have that, you're gonna put all that in there, but then you got your compliance and impact data that you need to give to these grantors. We separate the two so that we can be able to make sure that we're giving the right data to the to the grantors, and then we're presenting the right data in a marketing sense. So it's not just being hodgepodged and we're like, okay, here you go, here's all this stuff. Right. You know, we we take data and compliance very seriously, and those four outcomes allow us to have sort of a baseline, and then we dive into those things that we see that we could actually put in that is uh, you know, that is ethical, but we can also confidently say that this is a metric that we're willing to put our hand on and that we've done and that we've seen trends on. And so we pull in um, you know, that data as to now that you have this device, how will you be using it when you're going through your journey and you've got this training? And so they they're able to report out back what we've what they're gonna, what's the intended use? And then we are looking to provide long-term. We have several partners who are doing long-term stories who we've done year after year. Done our we've renewed our program year after year with them. Well, there's some long-term data that we'll be able to cite in percentages as around family engagement, connectivity that they've seen increases within their school, within their community-based organization, even the connection as to how much more frequent are you communicating with parents now that they have this sort of resource. These metrics allow us to be able to show that Inspire EDU is not only closing the digital divide, but we're creating that equity piece that is so important when you're talking about digital equity. We're creating an environment where it is happening across the board.

Ann Price 49:13

Yeah. And so you're able to show compliance, you're a good steward of the money that's invested to you, uh, and you're tracking the things that that you can actually touch and claim. You're not, you know, trying to solve all the world's problems, but you've got your, you know, you're wrapping around your head around that data and you use that data for attracting more partners, shows the community that you're trustworthy, doesn't hurt when it comes to applying for other grants or right. Yeah, right. Exactly, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

Yeah. If you go to our website, iuatl.org slash our our impact, you'll see all of our impact reports. Uh, we have two impact, we have two types of impact reports. Our annual impact report, which is like our marketing report. It has everything from financial to our family of the year and all of the uh different pieces with pictures that highlight the important work that we're doing. Even infographics are on there to be able to show people in a granular sense. And then we have our by the numbers report, which shows our actual demographics and details, partners and everything. It's not a lot of, it's like very few pictures in that. It's more of our grant report to the community. This is the grant report we provide to the community that shows from the program what we're serving, our impact report when it comes to what partners are at the table with us. Those reports have been a way for us at InspireEDU to be transparent. And then you'll see the evolution of our impact reports as we're trying to figure out how do we get it together. And you can see the impact evolution from the first report that we had all the way to the one that we just released in 2025. And I encourage always to look at that evolution because as we're going through and we're figuring out ways we can we can tell the community Inspire EDU is doing the good work. Our impact reports will be a way that we can speak it, that we can speak it and ethically say that we're doing it.

Ann Price 51:11

Yeah. Uh so speaking of doing it, what advice would you give

Staying True To The Mission

Ann Price 51:15

to other community leaders or nonprofit executive directors?

SPEAKER_04 51:20

I would say one, stay focused on the North Star. Stay focused on your mission. Don't go out there and let people really do a whole lot of changes. Be passionate about it. Stay grounded in your work. I have been grounded for over 19 years in this work. I've not faltered and went into other areas that I know we would not be successful in. We uh, you know, you can always try out new little things, but always have that nucleus that you can you can channel back to say, no, this is what we do. And I would encourage leaders, stay, find that nucleus, stay true to that. Don't let people change you. Don't let zeros change you. Right. Go in there and serve the community. Serve the community. Exactly. Go in there and serve the community because chances are you change that now, then the opportunity that's been making its way to you, it comes later, but you've already transformed yourself into something that people don't even recognize. So this opportunity train that's there, it just keeps on going because it doesn't recognize you anymore. You're not there at the station. So what you want to do is stay true to your work, stay true to your mission, stay true to who you are. And then the other piece of it is that I always tell leaders don't get discouraged on what's happening in front of you right now. Know that tomorrow is gonna be a brighter outcome. What happens today is today, but tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be another outcome and a step in the right direction. We're in a we're in a classic battle of making sure that poverty does not beat down our our resolve and what we need to do to help those who need our help. So I always encourage them, don't get beat down, don't get discouraged. Always, always take one step and move that behind the other.

Ann Price 53:17

So as we close, I want to ask you a few rapid fire questions that I've been asking lately. So, what is giving you hope these days?

SPEAKER_04 53:25

You know, what gives me hope is that when we go through these cycles of crises and we go and we come out of it, there's always a brighter spot. It always takes something bad to happen for something good to come out of it. We have been in these sort of response cycles throughout life and let life life and you do the things that you need to do so that you can pick up others as well as pick up yourself. And that gives me hope.

Ann Price 53:54

I'm gonna I'm gonna marinate on that today. I definitely will. Uh, and lastly, one piece of advice you would give to folks who are working in communities.

SPEAKER_04 54:05

I would say if you're working in the community, continue to do that good work. Don't let up if you know that's something you want to do, and know that it's gonna be hard work now. Make no mistake. Stop coming into it thinking it's gonna be fancy. You're gonna roll up your sleeves, you're going to basically be a beacon in serving the community is like washing the feet of the community, not you coming in there and basically telling the community, oh, I'm here to rescue you, and I got this big bright horse that I'm in, and I'm I'm ready to just help everybody. No, you're gonna come in there, be ready to wash people's feet because that's what you're gonna do as a nonprofit leader in the nonprofit space, but be true to it. If you be true to it, nonprofit work is gonna be what you make out of it.

Ann Price 54:51

All right. And lastly, I'm gonna ask you the question I ask all my guests. When you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?

SPEAKER_04 55:00

When I look to the future, I see a community that is better connected than the time we're living in now. Always look at we're now in a place where we're trying to build up these connection pieces. We're trying to provide these resources. In the future, I see a more connected, more knowledgeable future when it comes to making sure folks have access to these resources and they're not feeling so far away from them. I see that as our future. I see that as a way that we're going to evolve more. A lot of the other advancements, I may not be around to see it, but I know I see the road that is happening, and it is going to be a road that's going to be really beneficial for our future generations.

Ann Price 55:52

Well, Richard Hicks, I have so enjoyed my conversation with you today. You've already uh given us the website, but can you give the website again and just let people know how they can get in touch with you or learn more about inspire edu?

SPEAKER_04 56:05

Yes. On our website, you can reach it at www.iuatl.org. Please go there, www.iuatl.org, and follow us on social media. You can follow us at at iu at inspireed. At inspireed you at L. Those are our social media handles. I want to put those plugs in. If you can't find it, go to our website. And at the bottom of the page, you'll see the little icons where you can connect to us on Meta, Instagram, LinkedIn, X. We have all of these channels and even YouTube. We have the videos where you can see the things that we do. We encourage you to connect with us on our website. Look at our different events that we have coming up. You can see that on our website. And please, please, please, whenever you're in the area, stop by and say hey.

Ann Price 56:55

Awesome. Well, Richard, thank you so much for joining me.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

Thank you so much for Anne for having me. I know that uh I can continue talking. And I can take your whole afternoon up with a whole bunch of stuff, but I ain't gonna do that. But I am very excited to be able to tell our story. And I think what we're having, um, what we're having here is something that the future can depend on. And we want to make sure that that's the case.

Ann Price 57:18

Yeah. Thank you for doing what you do.

SPEAKER_04 57:21

Thank you for doing what you're doing, getting the word out, and thank you for having me on your podcast. It's an honor to be here in.

Ann Price 57:27

You're very

What Kind Of Leader Are You

Ann Price 57:28

welcome. As we wrap up today's episode, I want to leave you with this question. What type of community leader are you? Leadership and community work is not just about what we get done, it's about how we listen, share power, build trust, and create space for others to lead with us. Maybe you see yourself as the controller who brings structure and action, or uh the dreamer who helps people imagine what is possible. Maybe you're a little bit of a negative Nelly who asks hard questions and spots wrists. Maybe you're the inspirational leader who brings people together around a shared purpose. The truth is, most of us are probably a mix of these leadership styles. We shift depending on the moment, the pressure, and the people around us. The goal really isn't to label ourselves, but to notice our patterns and lead with more intention. So this week, pay attention to how you show up in communities, in the nonprofit or coalition you serve. Notice when your strengths are helping the group move forward and when they may need a little more balance. If this conversation today resonated with you, head to the resources page on our website, Community Evaluation Solutions.com, and download our free workbook, What Kind of Community Leader Are You? It includes a short quiz, reflection prompts, and practical tools to help you strengthen the way you serve your community. Thank you for listening and for the work you do to build stronger, more connected communities. Until next time, keep leading with purpose, keep making room for others, and keep showing up in ways that move your community forward.