Across the network, digital skills are becoming as foundational to client success as English instruction itself — a prerequisite for applying to a job, booking a telehealth visit, opening a bank account, or checking a child’s school portal. That reality shows up clearly in the data: since Digital Skills for All (DS4ALL) launched in May 2025, sites have consistently outpaced their own targets, enrolling 2,247 individuals (146% of the project goal ), delivering more than 24,000 hours of instruction (170% of the project goal ), distributing 1,090 low or no-cost digital devices, and supporting nearly 500 clients to receive technical assistance with their digital device, including technical assistance to support connection to the internet and/or broadband.

That demand is easiest to see up close. In Abilene, TX, David arrived from the DRC with a high school diploma he couldn’t get recognized in the U.S. Learning to navigate websites, create accounts, and write formal emails let him complete a credential evaluation, apply for financial aid, and get accepted into a technical college program — none of it possible without those skills. In Missoula, MT, Lena, a former law professor in Afghanistan, used what she learned in DS4ALL, including Canva, to grow into a leadership role at a local daycare and to create children’s books in Dari and Pashto for her own kids. Stories like these are the norm across sites, not the exception — and they’re why demand for this programming keeps climbing.

The La Follette School research partnership

As part of this project, IRC’s Economic Empowerment Technical Unit partnered with the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs (UW–Madison) on a study of digital skills gaps among English Language Learners. Critically, the survey data came directly from IRC’s DS4ALL participants and was benchmarked against U.S. Census data. This isn’t outside research about a general population; it’s a direct read on the people this program serves.

The research confirms that the ELL digital skills gap isn’t primarily a language issue — it’s compounded by limited device access, lower educational attainment, geography, and socioeconomic status. That’s the exact combination of barriers DS4ALL targeted by pairing instruction with free devices and connectivity support, rather than training alone.

The recommendations point to specific next steps: strengthen data collection on advanced digital skills and employer demand, a gap sites have already flagged in their own reporting; take a more place-based approach, given how much geography shapes outcomes; and keep integrating digital literacy into other services rather than running it stand-alone, validating the embedded model Boise, Denver, and other sites already use.

Why this matters for Strategy100

DS4ALL sits squarely inside IRC’s priorities under Strategy100:

This is also a program worth protecting. When federal funding was abruptly cut in 2025, IRC prioritized gap funding to keep DS4ALL running rather than let it lapse — a sign of how central this work already is to the network’s priorities, and a strong case to keep building into future proposals.

What’s next

Given the demand and the evidence now lined up behind it, the priority is scale: more advanced content, broader device access, and continued investment so DS4ALL keeps pace with client need.

This post was originally written by Jennifer Potts, Technical Advisor, Economic Empowerment. It has been adapted for external sharing: some images and linked references were removed, names have been changed, and other edits were made for formatting, safety, and security.