STOW – Town Administrator Denise Dembkoski is pleased to announce that the Town of Stow has received awards from two state grant programs, the Cybersecurity Awareness Grant Program and the Municipal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Improvement Grant Program.
The Municipal Cybersecurity Awareness Training Grant Program, offered by the state Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) and its Office of Municipal and School Technology, supports the efforts of municipalities and school districts to improve overall cybersecurity.
Awards were announced on Thursday, Jan. 25.
According to the EOTSS, participants begin their training with an initial cyber strength assessment to measure baseline cybersecurity awareness. Training modules and simulated phishing email campaigns help participants build good cyber hygiene habits to increase their awareness of deceptive techniques used by bad actors to gain unauthorized access to government systems. At the end of the program, participants complete a final cyber strength assessment to measure their progress.
The Town was also awarded $36,728 in grant funding as part of the Municipal ADA Improvement Grant Program, courtesy of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance.
Grants were awarded to successful applicants to remove barriers to, create, and improve accessible features and programmatic access for persons with disabilities throughout the Commonwealth.
The Town will use the funding to upgrade municipal buildings in Stow to make them accessible for everyone and to meet ADA requirements. The Town will also work to ensure that the four pillars of accessibility – Physical, Sensory, Social, and Digital – will be maximized.
“We are so grateful to have received these grant awards, both of which will help the Town of Stow to improve our service to the community,” said Town Administrator Dembkoski. “I want to give special thanks to Ashley Pinard, our Procurement and Grants Administrator, who worked very hard on these submissions.”