Community Tech Consultants help Detroiters thrive online
Tuesday, 01/06/2026
This story is written by The University of Michigan Poverty Solutions. Read the original story here.
Martina Hinton-Jones tilted her laptop screen so Monique West could see the mockup of her company’s logo adorning a black T-shirt.
“I’m going to put that on everybody,” West grinned at the first merchandise design for the STEAM education business she incorporated three years ago — WesTec Possibilities .
West met Hinton-Jones on a Wednesday afternoon in mid-November for a recurring tech consultation for her business, which aims to bridge the technology gap by connecting elementary and middle school students with robotics and other Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) educational resources.
West is passionate about diversifying the tech industry and capturing children’s imaginations with digital tools. After taking coding and web development courses, she saw tech as a way to combine her skills from working as an accountant, on the assembly line at General Motors, and as a property manager.
“(Martina) is helping me merge my gifts that I have all over the place and incorporate them into me. Because that’s what my business is – it’s me,” West said. “I learned that all I’ve done, … it can be used in tech. I want to help other people see that.”
West arrived at her meeting with Hinton-Jones unsure whether to accept an invitation to table at an upcoming Black Tech Saturdays event. An hour later, West left with a plan for what to showcase at her table, how to gather contact information from potential clients, and design options for a T-shirt to wear at the event.
The conversation between the two Detroit natives was part pep talk, part marketing strategy session, and part technical assistance with using digital tools to design merchandise.
“I want you to go out there and be the star that you are,” Hinton-Jones smiled at West across a sunny window table in Detroit Sip, a coffee shop in the West McNichols corridor on Detroit’s north side.
These consultations are free to Detroit small business owners through a Community Tech Consultants program run by the University of Michigan in partnership with Jefferson East Inc and Live6 Alliance . The program equips local residents to provide tech support and digital skill development for small business owners, while strengthening community ties.
It’s proving to be an effective way for Detroiters to close the digital divide and remain competitive in the online economy.
The Stakes of the Digital Divide
Since the pandemic, Detroit has made strides to narrow the digital divide, which refers to the gap between those who have affordable access, skills, and support to effectively engage online and those who do not.
“The research shows that digital inequality is multidimensional,” said Tawanna Dillahunt , a professor of information at U-M and one of the creators of the Community Tech Consultants program.
“It's not just what skills I have to use a computer, it’s also what access I have to technology,” Dillahunt continued. “And there's also this ability to translate my skills into meaningful outcomes. How can I use my skills to perform well at work? AI is particularly important because the technology is changing so quickly, that the divide is widening, right? It's being amplified.”
The University of Michigan saw it had a role to play in improving Detroiters’ access to technology. When Poverty Solutions at U-M and the City of Detroit Mayor’s Office established a digital inclusion fellowship in 2019, 24% of Detroit households did not have internet access of any kind. Only 40% of households were “digitally included,” which means they have access to high-speed internet, a technological device, and at least one person in the home knows how to use the device.
Digital Inclusion Fellow Joshua Edmonds became the city’s first director of digital inclusion and laid the groundwork for a citywide digital inclusion strategy called Connect 313. Black Tech Saturdays has added momentum by convening Detroit’s tech community to drive economic opportunity, close the racial wealth gap, and diversify the tech industry.
While more than 70% of Detroit households are now digitally connected, according to Connect 313 , 9.7% of Detroit households still did not have home internet access in 2024. Perpetuating the digital divide means shutting Detroiters out of the online economy.
“The stakes are really high, because digital access is foundational to economic mobility,” Dillahunt said.
The Community Tech Consultants program focuses on small business owners because small businesses are an economic lifeline, and entrepreneurship gives people with low incomes a chance to increase their earnings on their own terms.
“Increasingly, being able to do that work involves a lot more technology than ever before, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Julie Hui , an assistant professor of information at U-M who studies how technology influences access to work. “You have to have a social media presence, you have to have online ads, you need to have e-commerce payment systems, and be able to apply for grants online.
“All of this requires so much technology usage that wasn't always the case maybe 20 years ago,” Hui continued. “So there's this big on-ramp to doing all these things that can get overwhelming.”
Community-Based Tech Support
In seeking to give people in resource-constrained communities more chances to learn digital skills, Hui and Dillahunt drew inspiration from the Community Health Workers model. Community Health Workers had increased use of Medicaid services by teaching Detroit residents to talk to their neighbors about available health care resources.
The community tech workers model was initially piloted with public housing residents in Detroit and later expanded to support more residents and Afghan refugees resettled in Washtenaw County. Then the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project at U-M adopted the model to serve small business owners in Detroit, in partnership with Jefferson East Inc. and now Live6 Alliance. Poverty Solutions provided seed funding for the initial pilot and additional support has come from the National Science Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation , The Kresge Foundation, and U-M.
“Some of these business owners are in a bubble. They’re focused on specific issues and technology escapes out of their vision. We have to educate people so they know they’re going to do this on their own, but we’re also assisting them so they’re not feeling alone. We want to make it as easy as we can,” said Donovan Brown, one of the community tech consultants who works alongside Hinton-Jones at Live6 Alliance.
Since the initial pilot, community tech consultants and U-M students have provided tech support to approximately 300 small businesses. U-M’s research found several benefits of the community tech workers model:
- Helping businesses determine where to start with technology use,
- Offering support grounded in the day-to-day realities of running a business, and
- Building caring relationships with business owners to foster trust in technology support services.
“There are always consultants that you can hire, but the value of this project is building the strengths and assets of the local community,” Hui said. “Even if the whole process is a bit slower because it involves training somebody and building up all those relationships, the fact is the skills are not coming from an outside source. … If we were to leave, the assets are still there and there’s trust between the consultants and the small business owners.”
Dillahunt said the program has underscored the importance of considering digital capacity at a community level.
“If I need support logging into tele-health care, or for a business, if I need support with search engine optimization, who in my area might I rely on, might I trust? Trust is a key component,” she said.
The challenge now is to see where else the community tech workers model could be successful.
What Makes a Good Community Tech Consultant?
With a National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2025, U-M researchers are assessing how to make the community tech workers model replicable. They hope community development organizations, small business resource hubs, and funders interested in entrepreneurial development will train community tech workers to serve their own communities.
The relationship between the community tech consultant and the business owner should be mutually beneficial, Hui said. Often the dynamic includes intergenerational mentorship: older business owners share their experience while younger tech consultants help them navigate technology. Strong people skills are essential.
“We would rather hire someone who is kind and approachable and willing to problem-solve and maybe doesn't have the greatest tech skills yet, but is willing to learn” Hui said.
Tech consultants also can be involved in training their peers to do the job, Hui added. That work experience can lead to more career opportunities.
“What's nice about being a community tech consultant is that you meet so many people in the job, and so then you can leverage that role to build out your network and maybe your next career step,” she said.
In many ways, Brown exemplifies Hui’s vision for community tech consultants. He previously worked at a computer help desk, then taught himself to code and went into web and software development for the chance to earn more. Those jobs gave him plenty of technical skills and screen time, but less face time.
“(Being a community tech consultant) is more client-facing and more interactive. It took me a little while to get used to it. I’m not writing as much code as I was before, but it’s more validating to see what goes on behind-the-scenes of a business instead of just being siloed to code,” Brown said. “I’ve found out that this is a great way to build my brand and be more comfortable with client-facing experiences.
Brown and Hinton-Jones are Detroit residents hired as community tech consultants and paid with grant funds. For Hinton-Jones, who describes herself as a “serial entrepreneur,” working as a community tech consultant is an invaluable chance to network with other small business owners.
U-M students in the Learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public Good education degree program and School of Information also are training as tech consultants. Bringing together the two groups of tech consultants allows the program to serve more Detroit business owners and provides unique learning opportunities.
“The Community Tech Consulting program creates a powerful social capital exchange where Detroit residents open doors for U-M students that might otherwise stay closed, while students share their research and presentation skills,” said Christie Baer, managing director of U-M’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project. “Together, they blend university training with community wisdom, teaching each other everything from building client trust to asking the right questions.
“What makes this collaboration work is shared humility — students bring curiosity without pretense, while local residents bring resourcefulness rooted in real-world problem solving,” said Baer, who co-leads the tech consultant training with Lutalo Sanifu, director of community engagement for U-M’s Detroit Center for Innovation. Sanifu previously worked at Jefferson East Inc., where he co-managed the program with Baer.
Going forward, the community tech workers model can continue to be replicated and scaled to bring more and more Detroit residents the opportunity to develop their digital skills.
“The Community Tech Consultant model offers so many different possibilities for the future,” said Kristin Seefeldt, an associate professor of social work and senior associate director of Poverty Solutions at U-M, who was part of the team that developed the program and is currently evaluating its efficacy.
“High schoolers could be trained to work with younger students,” Seefeldt added. “Community tech consultants could be housed within community centers to offer assistance to their fellow residents. Senior housing facilities could be another place community tech consultants could work. This way, residents of all ages could have their digital skills bolstered in settings familiar to them.”