About Us
Promoting Digital Equity
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Jeff Williams, the founder of TEK Collaborative started an initiative in his hometown of Amesbury, MA to help students, parents, and teachers that were struggling with remote learning. Specifically, the lack of a proper device to aide them navigate the remote world that had been thrust upon them. Jeff started by taking two laptops from his personal collection of items he had collected by working over 20 years in the IT profession and posted on FaceBook that he would give them to anyone that needed them for free. From there a GoFundMe campaign was launched and by its completion had raised over $12,000. With that money, and lots of help from his family, Jeff distributed over 800 devices to anyone need through local communities. In 2022, the Essex County Community Foundation engaged in a venture pilot to operationalize and scale the initiative. In the fall of 2022, the TEK Collaborative received the office 501c3 status as a charitable organization. We operate out of an office in Amesbury, MA and in the last 9 months of 2022 distributed over 1500 devices across over 20 communities. Our goal for 2023 is to distribute 4000 devices.