Cox Foundation awards $288k grant to help Middle Georgia families

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – More than 1,000 Middle Georgia families will get their hands on new educational tablet computers thanks to Cox Communications. 

The media giant’s philanthropic foundation presented a check to a non-profit looking to help low-income families end the ‘digital divide’ with access to the Internet. 

“This program is going to launch in Middle Georgia,” Pat Esser, the president of Cox Communications, says. 

A chance for a new experience — at least that’s what Adrian Jackson is looking forward to seeing. 

“It’ll really help me with my projects and stuff like that,” Jackson said while smiling. 

The Bibb County 7th grader is one of the first people with a new educational tablet computer thanks to the James M. Cox Foundation. The group is helping families connect to the Internet. 

“We’re back today to launch the next phase of the program where we bring ourselves, the Cox Foundation and their help and their money, EveryoneOn and their infrastructure, along with a lot of software companies to give kids now the computers in their home,” Esser says. 

The Cox Foundation donated more than $288,000 in tablet PC’s — about 1500 — to EveryoneOn, a non-profit that’s mission is to help provide digital literacy training, computers, and the Internet to those who don’t have that access. 

“For two years, we are funding computers for families along with discounted Internet service to give both the technology, the platform, and working with the Bibb and Houston school systems, to give our kids the full circle of exposure to education,” Esser says. 

Several luck Bibb County students were the first to unwrap their laptops. 

Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones says the donation and pilot program will make the transition from classroom back home a little easier. 

“Parents are always complaining,’How am I supposed to learn this new math, what is this new stuff that they’re teaching?’ This will allow them now to see what the teacher is saying in the classroom and make it available to the students as well as the parents,” Jones says. 

He adds it’s an opportunity for students to constantly learn. 

“This will allow students now to learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn it,” Jones says. 

Adrian doesn’t plan on wasting any time. 

“Thank you for making all the plans and stuff, I’m going to really enjoy it,” the 7th grader says. 

The tablets come pre-installed with educational software. Families enrolling in Cox Communication’s Connect2Compete program are eligible to receive the tablet PC’s. 

For more information on Connect2Compete click here. For more information about EveryoneOn click here.