Endeavor Communications Becomes First Indiana Service Provider To Help Protect Children From Cyberbullying With Bark on the Calix Platform
Leveraging their investment in the Calix broadband platform to rapidly deliver differentiated value for their residential subscribers, the Indiana-based cooperative launches Bark to thousands of their members, with plans to make the service available to hundreds of thousands more families in 2024
SAN JOSE, CA—November 28, 2023—Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) today announced that Endeavor Communications (Endeavor) is leveraging the Calix broadband platform to quickly make social media monitoring service Bark available to thousands of families in Indiana. With this initiative, Endeavor is helping protect children’s mental and physical health from pervasive threats related to digital content.
Bark monitors children’s texts, email, YouTube, and 30+ apps and social media platforms. If a child interacts with alarming content, Bark sends parents alerts so they can take immediate action. Because Bark is a SmartHome™ managed service fully integrated for the Calix broadband platform, Endeavor executed an initial launch of Bark in just eight weeks. In 2024, Endeavor will leverage their national managed IT services business (Endeavor IT) to further extend the reach of Bark to hundreds of thousands of customers across the northern, midwestern, and southern United States.
Broadband leaders like Darin LaCoursiere, president and chief executive officer at Endeavor, are leveraging their positions as trusted local broadband providers to make critical services like Bark more accessible to communities that often lack adequate mental health resources. Additionally, many parents struggle to understand how to help their children navigate the documented dangers of social media. In addition to arming them with AI-enabled text and social media monitoring technology, Bark provides deep educational resources for parents.
“I did not have these tools at my disposal when my child was dealing with school bullying that followed her home via social media,” said LaCoursiere. “Social media amplifies the reach of bullying, and our move to a new town left us unaware of available support resources. If we had known that our internet provider could assist us in dealing with this issue, it would have been such a relief.”
Endeavor is a growing broadband service provider (BSP) founded by a telecommunications cooperative that has served their communities for over 70 years. To educate their communities about Bark, Endeavor offered free accounts to local educators to help students. In late October, they launched Bark to families in their current broadband territory.
“At Endeavor, we emphasize the importance of parental education,” said LaCoursiere. “Families should not have to experience a traumatic event to learn about the tools available to them. The simplicity of deploying Bark via the Calix platform frees our team’s resources to focus on educating our community and strategizing how to reach more families. Plus, Calix Smart Start for Managed Services helped us build out our deployment playbook.”
The Endeavor team also leveraged customizable creative assets in the Calix Electronic Content Builder to accelerate their education campaigns.
“We are proud to support Endeavor as they make an incredible difference in the lives of the families they serve,” said Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer at Calix. “Darin clearly understands the challenges parents face today. By launching Bark, he and his team are making sure the families they serve have a better experience than he did. That is leadership and a great testament to how the Calix platform can simplify launching an incredible service like Bark for the betterment of the community. It is an honor to partner with him and his team as they become the first broadband provider in Indiana to take this important step for children, parents, and the community.”
Schedule a consultation to learn more about Bark on the Calix broadband platform.
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