PRESS RELEASE
Digital Champions help people in Gwynedd get online
A new, collaborative programme to train hundreds of Digital Champions to help
thousands of people across the UK to get online has been officially launched today (11 th
February 2016).
At a time when the UK is moving to ‘digital by default’ but over 12 million people lack
basic digital skills¹, One Digital is a unique collaboration between six diverse
organisations to create a sustainable and far reaching digital inclusion solution. Age UK,
the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations, Citizens Online and Digital Unite with its
partners Affinity Sutton and AbilityNet have joined forces to develop the One Digital
programme which will recruit, train and support 1,400 Digital Champions nationwide.
One Digital is funded by £2 million from the Big Lottery Fund and will help around 9,500
people develop basic digital skills.
Each One Digital Partner will deliver individual and bespoke projects but all of the Digital
Champions within the One Digital programme will access one single training and support
network that provides structured courses, extensive resources and dedicated mentor
support.
As part of the One Digital Programme, Citizens Online is working with Digital Gwynedd,
and has established a local partnership of Gwynedd Council, Digital Communities Wales,
Jobcentre Plus, Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd, Grwp Cynefin, Citizens Advice, Mantell
Gwynedd and many local organisations. The partnership will recruit, train and support
“digital champions” to help people in Gwynedd to develop their digital skills. The
Gwynedd team will focus on supporting people affected by benefit changes, and those
people living in rural localities.
Ioan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Housing, Customer Care and Libraries,
Deprivation and Equality, Gwynedd Council commented: “We recognise the need to
support people to develop digital skills whilst helping partners to improve delivery of
services through online transactions. The project is building a strong local partnership to
help support communities at risk of digital exclusion. Digital Champions will be available
to offer coaching at local access points and help people do more online.”
As a new One Digital Infographic demonstrates, Digital Champions are an effective tool
in today’s digital inclusion landscape where those who aren’t online are now becoming
harder to engage and need personal long-term support. Indeed 77% of those offline cite
lack of interest as their main barrier² and 26% of computer beginners do not use their
new digital skills without ongoing help³.
Jordan Eardley, Gwynedd Digital Champion said: “Helping other people to see how they
can find information about bus timetables, email photos to their family or order their
shopping online is really rewarding. Sometimes people find it difficult to complete the
online forms that they need to access benefits or look for work, and we can help with
these too.”
Digital Gwynedd is currently looking for new volunteers to support their work in the area.
We are looking for friendly and enthusiastic people to help local learners to learn about
computers and how to get online. Digital Champions don’t need to be IT experts, just
have the enthusiasm to support others to learn. Full training and support will be
provided.
If you are interested in volunteering for Digital Gwynedd please contact:
Daniel Richards, Project Coordinator
Email: daniel.richards@citizensonline.org.uk
Telephone: 07854 690 529
All of the information about One Digital is available at
www.digitalchampionsnetwork.com/one-digital
Notes to editors
¹Go ON UK 2015
² BBC Media Literacy - Understanding Digital Capabilities 2014
³ Two year longitudinal research study from Citizens Online – April 2015
⁴ Review of Hyde Plus Getting Online 2014/15 by Citizens Online
⁵ A telephone survey amongst Affinity Sutton Digital Champions, January 2015
For further information, case studies and interviews please contact:

Digital Unite and One Digital overview
Katharine Teed Katharine.teed@digitalunite.com 07801 138383
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Age UK
Sara Guy Sara.Guy@ageuk.org.uk
020 3033 1430
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Citizens Online
Emily Harper emily.harper@citizensonline.org.uk
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Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations
Rebecca Stafford rebecca.stafford@scvo.org.uk
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Affinity Sutton
Lucy Pond Lucy.Pond@affinitysutton.com
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AbilityNet
Mairead Comerford mairead.comerford@abilitynet.org.uk
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Big Lottery Fund
Mike Clarke Mike.Clarke@biglotteryfund.org.uk
About the One Digital Partners
AbilityNet (www.abilitynet.org.uk)
AbilityNet is a charitable organisation that provides a range of products and services to
help disabled people use digital technology at work, at home or in education.
One Digital will enable AbilityNet to expand their existing network of volunteers through
standardising and enhancing their training and support so that up to 1,000 disabled
people can receive free digital skills assistance in their own homes.
Affinity Sutton (www.affinitysutton.com)
Affinity Sutton is one of the largest housing associations in England and has been a
pioneer of the Digital Champion model in the social housing sector.
As part of One Digital Affinity Sutton will specifically focus on developing training tools to
encourage young people (18 – 25 years old) to become Digital Champions and develop
skills that will help them into work. These Digital Champions will harness the benefits of
intergenerational learning helping 360 residents with getting online.
Age UK (www.ageuk.org.uk)
Age UK is the UK’s largest charity working with older people.
Their One Digital project will focus on two geographical areas, Oxfordshire and
Leicestershire & Rutland that cover both urban and rural regions and represent a diverse
range of communities. Led by each local Age UK the programme will formalise and
standardise the role and support of Age UK’s Digital Champions in each area helping
2,000 older people to get online.
Citizens Online (www.citizensonline.org.uk)
Citizens Online is a national charity that works in partnership with local councils, housing
associations, job centres, corporates and the community and voluntary sector to tackle
the issues of digital inclusion in a sustainable and scalable way.
For One Digital they will work with local partnerships in four target areas (Plymouth, The
Scottish Highlands, Brighton and Gwynedd) on an innovative model called Digital Resilience.
This model seeks to find holistic and sustainable approaches to digital champions by working
in deep partnership and aligning to other outcomes such as employability and digital by
default. Citizens Online will support 4000 end learners through 120 Digital Champions.
SCVO (www.scvo.org.uk)
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the membership organisation
for Scotland’s charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. A dedicated
team is working across public, private and third sectors in Scotland to increase digital
participation.
Their One Digital project will identify, develop and assess the contribution that frontline
organisations in the third sector can make with delivering digital skills to the people most
in need. They will test a cascade model of training and support across 250 charity and
voluntary organisations to engage 750 Digital Champions and reach 2,000 beneficiaries.
Digital Unite (www.digitalunite.com / www.digitalchampionsnetwork.com)
Digital Unite is one of the UK’s leading providers of digital skills learning with a specialty
in Digital Champion training and support.
For One Digital, Digital Unite will facilitate the Digital Champion infrastructure for each
partner project using their existing online Digital Champions Network as the cornerstone.
They will also provide overarching co-ordination and support across the programme to
support delivery success.
About the Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund supports the aspirations of people who want to make life better for
their communities across the UK. It is responsible for giving out 40% of the money
raised by the National Lottery and invests over £650 million a year in projects big and
small in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
Since June 2004 it has awarded over £8 billion to projects that change the lives of
millions of people. Every year it funds 13,000 small local projects tackling big social
problems like poor mental health and homelessness.
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Website:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Gwynedd Ddigidol
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
@biglotteryfund #BigLottery
www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
Digital Gwynedd is Gwynedd Councils initiative to make sure the area has the best
possible digital infrastructure and that businesses and people in Gwynedd are supported
to make the most of the opportunities this brings.
Digital Communities Wales
We would like to introduce you to Digital Communities Wales, the successor programme
to Communities 2.0. This two year Welsh Government programme will be delivered in
every county of Wales by the Wales Co-operative Centre.
Current Digital Inclusion Landscape
Over the past six years, the Welsh Government’s Communities 2.0 digital inclusion
programme has helped over 60,000 people to get online. Despite good progress, 21%
of adults in Wales remain digitally excluded. Digital Communities Wales will help
address this by building on existing partnerships and co-ordinating digital inclusion
activities across Wales.
Challenges
We are all aware of the challenges our communities face with the changes to the welfare
system. We also know of the many positive benefits of being able to access the internet,
be it to keep in contact, find employment, skills improvement or saving money. The
figures include people who we know we will need to focus on:
·
disabled people who need specialist support or are mostly homebound
·
people living in social housing who do not have the finance to access the
internet
·
people who are not in employment and may need to retrain or use the
internet to find opportunities
·
people who are older and have never needed to use a computer previously
While these people can sometimes be the most challenging to reach, by working cooperatively we can make best use of our resources to support these individuals to realise
the benefits of being online.
Programme Support
The Digital Communities Wales team are keen to ensure we continue to build on the
positive work already going on in Wales. We will:
·
work with organisations to help support digitally excluded people engage with
technology
·
provide training and support to organisations across the private, public and
third sectors on how to engage people with technologies
·
encourage and support organisations to recruit and utilise volunteers to help
support people to get online
·
assist people to overcome the barriers to ICT and enhance their employability
·
support the development and delivery of a digital inclusion strategy
Contact Information
Our website can be found at http://digitalcommunities.wales/. The website currently
lists our computer courses near you database of support available across Wales. The
contact number for general enquiries is 0845 474 8282 or email info@walescooperative.org.
Grwp Cynefin
Grŵp Cynefin was formed in April 2014 by the coming together of Tai Clwyd and Tai
Eryri. Both associations had more than 70 years’ combined experience of delivering
affordable housing and developing communities across north Wales. We provide over
4,500 homes including social housing for rent, intermediate rental and specialist
accommodation for persons with support needs. Other community services within the
group include Care & Repair agencies, Rural Housing Enablers and support services for
vulnerable people. The group as a whole employs more than 200 people.
Everything we do is about making a difference and more than just housing.