ITS Department Donates Surplus Equipment to United Way, Bloomington Housing Authority

Bloomington, Ind. - The City of Bloomington Information Technology Services (ITS) Department will be donating recently decommissioned surplus equipment to United Way of Monroe County and the Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA), which operates the City’s public housing and housing voucher program.  In all, seventeen monitors and computers will be donated to United Way and the BHA for use in their operations or those of their clients. 

As part of its regular IT hardware replacement cycle, the City makes usable decommissioned equipment available to area nonprofits.  Equipment that is no longer usable is recycled through Indianapolis-based Technology Recyclers in order to keep electronic waste out of the landfill.  Most City computing devices are updated every four years through funding from the Telecommunications Non-Reverting Fund.

The equipment donation aligns with the City’s goal to increase digital equity, one of the challenges to which was identified in the 2020 Digital Equity Survey as limited access to internet-capable devices.  The City’s Digital Equity Grants Program, supported through Mayor John Hamilton’s Recover Forward initiative, is another collaboration with area nonprofits to bridge the digital divide. Now in its second year, the program provides grants to local nonprofit agencies for projects that build capacity in the community to address digital equity challenges. Recipients of the 2021 Digital Equity Grants will be announced this month.  The City’s 2020 Digital Equity Strategic Plan includes goals to improve digital equity across the community and strategies to address challenges and pursue solutions.