The Dallas Innovation Alliance was founded in 2015 as a cross-sector collaborative that unites with a shared mission to build a smart city strategy here in Dallas, which we define as finding the intersection between the community, data and technology. Essentially - how do we find new ideas to key challenges, and create partnerships to bring these ideas to fruition? As an organization that is built on a foundation of partnership, we maintain over three dozen members across the public, private, civic and academic sectors, have worked with over 20 city departments, and over 100 community organizations.
Through collaboration, we develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges for the benefit of the City and its residents. These include broadband and digital access, mobility, sustainability and use of technology for good.
Our vision is to help elevate Dallas as a city that is not only prepared for – but a driving force in shaping – the future of cities, and providing opportunities for prosperity for all residents.
Everything we do is anchored in our core values:
Collaboration - Economic Prosperity - Sustainability - Inclusive Innovation.
With irrepressible optimism, we strive to empower a smart, connected and resilient future in Dallas.
Our first program, the Smart Cities Living Lab (launched in March, 2017), provided a testbed for 11 integrated projects along a six-block corridor in downtown Dallas. These projects were measured across five identified areas of impact: resource efficiency (energy and water), health (air quality and greenspace), transportation (parking and transit), civic engagement (interactive resident education methods) and neighborhood revitalization (public safety and small business growth). The Smart Cities Living Lab is the fastest-to-market smart cities initiative in the country, going from design to ‘in the ground’ in less than 12 months.
Since 2018, the DIA has focused on issues related to equity, including mobility, public safety and the digital divide (now, digital inclusion), primarily in South, Southern and West Dallas. In 2020, its first digital inclusion program, the Mobile Learning Lab, was launched in the beginning of the pandemic. Over the past four years, additional programs and partnerships have been added to the portfolio, culminating in the Connected Dallas Digital Ambassador program.
Connected Dallas: Mission, Vision, Values, History
The Connected Dallas program is powered by the Dallas Innovation Alliance, who oversees all the working elements and teams that make the dream work!
Launched in 2022 following years of learnings, and discussions with peers and service providers around the country, Connected Dallas exists to provide resources that help advance digital inclusion by ensuring there is equitable digital access for all residents of Dallas — no matter one’s zip code. Our commitment, along with our partners and supporters, is to help facilitate training, skills building, high-quality programs and community engagement designed to enhance the quality of life and obtain full access to opportunity in today’s digital world.
Connected Dallas connects the community to all things digital; affordable internet, devices, digital resources and skills, with the goal of ensuring high-quality digital access for all in neighborhoods across Dallas. Connected Dallas seeks to link organizations specializing in digital equity together to cohesively support residents to find the services they need to leverage the online world. Together, we can achieve the goal of equitable access to learning, opportunity and prosperity.
The goal of Connected Dallas is to provide high-quality, equitable digital access directly in Dallas’ neighborhoods and communities through on-site neighborhood locations, with community partners and online. Everything we do is aligned anchored in Connected Dallas’ core values of Collaboration - Innovation - Economic Prosperity - Equity
Connected Dallas is differentiated within the digital inclusion landscape through its role to coalesce service providers, partners, and curated digital resources into an integrated ‘umbrella’ program. Its goal is to take national best practices on the basics of digital inclusion and go further to provide support across 13 different resource areas that connect residents to all online services that improve quality of life and access to opportunity.
The Dallas Innovation Alliance was founded in 2015 as a cross-sector collaborative that unites with a shared mission to build a smart city strategy here in Dallas, which we define as finding the intersection between the community, data and technology. Essentially - how do we find new ideas to key challenges, and create partnerships to bring these ideas to fruition? As an organization that is built on a foundation of partnership, we maintain over three dozen members across the public, private, civic and academic sectors, have worked with over 20 city departments, and over 100 community organizations.
Through collaboration, we develop innovative solutions to pressing challenges for the benefit of the City and its residents. These include broadband and digital access, mobility, sustainability and use of technology for good.
With irrepressible optimism, we strive to empower a smart, connected and resilient future in Dallas.
Our core needs in order to fulfill our goals for impact across Dallas and North Texas include:
* Laptops and tablets for disconnected communities: one of the largest gaps in digital inclusion continues to be access to personal devices. Providing central locations where computers are available for use is a critical piece of successful programs, but without a device in the home, residents are unable to both practice and fully utilize digital skills, workforce training programs and access to services online. Our hope is to expand our ability to provide laptops to those who are participating in training programs to reach their goals.
* Increasing capacity and size of our Digital Ambassador team: We have been able to serve 15,000 Dallas residents in the past two years, and our team is doing incredible work. The success of the program - and the need - of communities has us at capacity in the services we can provide, demand is greatly exceeding our supply. To solve for this, we are seeking to hire additional Digital Ambassadors to more broadly serve communities across Dallas.
* Internet for North Texas: Regional support and resources across North Texas -
At the Dallas Innovation Alliance, equity and diversity are fundamental to our core beliefs and values. That's why we welcome people from all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, socio-economic classes, religions, disabilities and ages in everything we do. We are committed to continuous improvement
Everything we do is anchored in our core values: Collaboration - Economic Prosperity - Sustainability - Inclusive Innovation.
These values are essential to successful execution of our mission to build a smart city here in Dallas, which we define as finding the intersection between the community, data and technology. Essentially - how do we find new ideas to key challenges, and create partnerships to bring these ideas to fruition? Our vision is to help elevate Dallas as a city that is not only prepared for – but a driving force in shaping – the future of cities, and providing opportunities for prosperity for all residents.
We acknowledge that we urgently have more work to do in order to build an equitable organization and are committed to that work. We also acknowledge that equity is not a destination but a journey that we will continue to follow as it is central to our mission.
Organization name
Dallas Innovation Alliance
Causes
Community Improvement
Operating Budget
$500,000 - $999,999
Counties Served
Dallas
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American, Other
Address
3000 Pegasus Park Dr. Ste 724