Draw upon the specialism of the voluntary sector to deepen digital inclusion
ClearCommunityWeb
A social enterprise developing the digital skills, awareness & confidence in the South London community
Schemes such as #GetOnlineLondon are a great resource to draw on if they can make access to devices easier and keep awareness in the public eye. However. it decorates a mere wall within the House of Digital Inclusion.
The work of the VCS on the ground, brokering the relationships
The rich pool of specialism they provide should be informing the next phase of any London-wide (if not nation-wide) resource or asset. Our experience of working with ‘Big Name’ organizations during lockdown was often one of incomplete delivery and difficult processes.
The stories of donations were great but often the cost of these (in terms of the operation, the setting up and the sending back of items) was higher than if we can funded the data and devices ourselves.
Lessons had to be learned and continue so.
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For me it’s a missed opportunity that the VCS leaders throughout COVID in London are not instrumental in the set up, and distribution side of Get Online London. The insights gained by organizations such as Community Tech Aid, CatBytes and Power2Connect could and should be harnessed to make the acquisition, set up and distribution of devices effective and hyper-locally relevant.
These are the types of organization that will fulfil referrals or set up an inappropriate device when the larger schemes can deliver on the ground.
Speak to organizations such as Millennium about how to ignite hordes of younger people hungry to learn coding and inspire the generations moving forward and to learn from hyper specialists such as Paul Clayton and Alex Barker about assistive technology, appropriate device set up and independence for disabled residents.
This is not a grumble, but just a reminder to everyone that there isn’t an end point here, we must and can learn, share and develop from each other – but to do so we must do so!
Chief Exec at Digital Unite
1 年Hey Caspar I've had this bookmarked for a while to respond to, I think you make v gd points in this article; it's a balance and a skill to draw attention to things that could may be benefit from 'tweaking' without 'grumbling' - I geddit! Local #vcs organisations are def the ones with the connections deep into their communities and also the trust and pre-existing relationships. Their size and their geographical edges are often what keep them 'real and relevant' to their audiences. 'Big Name' organisations often have bigger footprints and bigger voices and those things can influence - sometimes seemingly disproportionately - in relation to scarce/limited/finite resources. Ideally, we stitch it all together and the sum of the impacts is greater than the parts. I do think we need to be alert and honest and open about this, and it's one of my concerns when the government responds to that sizzling report from Communications and Digital Committee, especially if (heavens forfend!) there is a new funding commitment for digital inclusion. The investment will be def need to be spread out between Big, Small and Teeny-Weeny Names because what will count is the capacity to reach people in need, not how loud the lobbying is.