We’ve been awarded a Scottish Charity Award in the Digital Citizens category for our work supporting thousands of people with digital over the last year!
Run by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the awards celebrate the best of Scotland’s voluntary sector.
Our digital journey
We’re honoured to have been selected as winners in the Digital Citizens category for the Scottish Charity Awards 2021 in recognition of our work around digital inclusion. Over the last year we’ve supported over 4,000 people with devices, digital skills and connectivity across Edinburgh and East Lothian, and we couldn’t be prouder of our brilliant team of staff, volunteers, interns, placement students and trustees who together have made this happen.
Our digital journey began over 6 years ago when first identified the link between social and digital inclusion through consultations and pilots around digital exclusion amongst Edinburgh’s homeless community in 2015. In response to these findings, we ran “mobile digital classrooms”, early versions of our now established digital drop-ins. We brought devices and connectivity to communities, offering a space where people could pop in for a chat about digital. Yet it was clear even at this early stage that this support wasn’t just about digital, but also impacted greatly on social inclusion.
In 2019 we established our service supporting adults and families with digital and wellbeing, Reconnect and were named Power Up grant holders by the Good Things Foundation. The growth continued into 2020, with an expansion into East Lothian and further development of our projects based on our belief that digital inclusion and social inclusion are inextricably linked.
Digital in the pandemic
With the pandemic hitting in the spring of 2020, our services moved to online and over the phone support. As many services and organisations also moved online, we saw the need for a COVID-emergency response project, Computer Delivery, and began delivering devices to people across Edinburgh and East Lothian and providing support with connectivity. Simultaneously, our digital support project Wellbeing & Digital also grew, offering follow up digital support for those who had received a device, as well as a friendly ear to those who may be feeling isolated. Alongside this we began to collaborate with the Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland programme, which shared our desire to provide devices and help people stay connected during the pandemic. We delivered devices provided by the programme, as well as operating the Connecting Scotland national helpline and providing support across Scotland.
And it’s not just the Reconnect team who have had to use digital this year – we have also been able to support young people through digital as part of our Positive Transitions service, creating safe spaces online through which to continue our support amidst the turbulence of school closures and home learning.
With so much work around digital, we increasingly found that we continued to face the same obstacle towards digital inclusion – data poverty. We could provide long-lasting devices and digital support, but connectivity solutions such as those provided by Connecting Scotland came with an expiration date. To explore this further, we invited key voices in digital from across the four sectors to come together and share their experiences from the pandemic in our November 2020 event, Connect Four Digital Inclusion. From these discussions, we derived our Connectivity Now campaign to end data poverty, with its three main actions that form our campaign manifesto: regulate connectivity, link connectivity to shared spaces and zero-rate essential service websites.
“We’re so proud of our volunteers and staff for achieving so much over the last year, supporting thousands of people with devices, digital skills and connectivity. We’d also like to thank all our partners and funders who have made this work possible through their support and collaboration. We will continue to combat data poverty and digital exclusion as we recover from the pandemic and beyond, and can’t wait to see what the future brings.”
Stories
The services that we provide are best seen through the eyes of those we support.
From our most recent recipient Karolina who is using her new laptop to search for a new job, to those who had been shielding like Sharon's mum who used their new iPad in touch with grandchildren while staying safe at home. From those like Lorraine who was able to bring her family together in an online birthday party for her mother who suffers from dementia, to others like Pat who has used her new iPad to use sign language to communicate with her Deaf daughter. Additionally, schools and organisations like St Teresa's Youth Club have been able to continue supporting members thanks to donated devices.
These are just some of the thousands of people we have supported over the last year, whose stories we have shared on our website.
Continuing our work
This year the awards took place online and were hosted by Sally Magnusson. People Know How gathered in our offices for an awards ceremony watch party while our Communications & IT Officer Claudia dialled in on Zoom and accepted the award.
Winning a Scottish Charity Award is a huge milestone for us, and we're so happy to be able to showcase the amazing work of our staff and VIPs over the last year to combat data poverty and digital exclusion. With 74% of those we support with digital skills reporting feelings of isolation, the work does not end with the pandemic, but continues far beyond through to the establishment of connectivity as a basic utility within government policy.
“At SCVO we know that fantastic work is going on all the time in the voluntary sector and we were delighted to celebrate the achievements and successes of our finalists and winners at this year’s Scottish Charity Awards. We had a record-breaking number of entries this year and each one demonstrated just how well the voluntary sector has responded and adapted to changes and restrictions over the past 12 months. Thanks to our sponsors, the team at the EICC, our host Sally Magnusson and everyone who applied and voted for making this year’s Awards so special. Congratulations to our winners for 2021!”
