We at Connecting for Good have successfully installed 70 Wi-Fi radios on almost 40 buildings at Juniper Gardens, a 390 unit low income housing project in Kansas City, Kansas. Located at 3rd and Quindaro, Juniper Gardens is a place where the average household income is half the average of the rest of the state and where the crime rate is four times the national average.

We are working to bring free broadband Wi-Fi to every family at the complex, nearly 1,000 people a majority of whom are children under 18 years old. Internet connectivity will absolutely transform this under resourced neighborhood.

Though we have constructed a four block wide “hotspot,” without the funds to install the remaining high gain antennas, we will not be able to provide the access speeds that we know this network is capable of, up to 20 Mbps.  Adding the 9db antennas to the radio units increases their bandwidth output nearly 10 times. This will bring true broadband Internet access to all 400 families who call Juniper Gardens home, in every room of every apartment.

Already with 11 of those have upgraded antennas installed, over 500 devices have connected to the network in the past month. Of those, 38 Kansas City, Ks High School issued laptops have used this network.  About half of the devices are smart phones.  We see approximately 100 to 150 devices daily.  With the rest of the antennas installed, the network will totally cover the entire complex, resulting in a greatly increased usage.  In May, we will begin conducting regular digital life skills classes on-site at Juniper Gardens and offering residents there $50 refurbished laptop computers.…