Introducing Demonstrators
November 15, 2008 by Voicebox
This is the exciting bit, as it’s where people in communities will be getting support and motivation to participate in community development and social media. The digital mentor projects will be commissioned following the research and mapping phase. We are aiming for a mix of both building on existing activities and putting in place some new projects. It’s to be as open a process as possible and include a range of different types of organisations running projects. Any work which can be done during the bidding process to identify existing exemplars will really help us to hit the ground running when the bid is won.
Leonard Cheshire Disability is a national charity working on behalf of disabled people. Principally known for our care homes we are increasingly extending our portfolio of services into areas such as employment support, campaigning and developing online and web based resources. As part of that we have have a long standing record of and commitment to getting disabled people to take advantage of technology. We are interested in getting involved in Digital Mentors at some level to try and ensure disabled people are not left out of any digital initiative as they feature heavily in the voiceless under represented target group for this project.
Thanks very much for leaving your experience on this blog. This is great and just what we want. I hope more people and organisations follow suit.
Just to make sure everybody knows the process. We really want everyone to leave their good practice here for everyone to see. The actually selection of demonstrator projects will happen after phase one of the project, after the mapping and gapping has been done. This is to make sure that the projects/mentors that are commissioned are the right ones to meet the needs identified in the mapping and gapping stage.
I hope that this blog can be the place where we generate good ideas and share them over the next couple of weeks, to get ready for writing a great bid.
This may be a long post, please bear with me!
RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) provides a range of services that could be built on to increase the inclusion of blind, partially sighted and other disabled people in digital technologies.
Of particular note are:
• Our own, Sony award winning, national radio station run by and for people with serious sight loss. Insight Radio broadcasts on FM, Sky, Freesat and online (http://www.insightradio.co.uk/). Headquarted in Glasgow we plan to launch satellite studios in Cardiff, Redhill, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Belfast.
• A technology training, information and support service which supports blind and partially sighted people with computing, digital radio and TV access and mobile technology support. This includes technology experts based in our Regional Centres across England.
• A network of several hundred home support volunteers who provide practical support to people with serious sight loss, getting their computers, mobile phones, new televisions, or their MP3 player up and running, and providing support and troubleshooting for this and technology in the home.
• Signposting and linking to other providers of relevant services locally.
• A large programme of communications and outreach work focussing on digital switchover.
• Our teleconferencing system which brings together blind and partially sighted people with over 100 groups per week, offering information sharing, peer support and training opportunities.
• A growing network of local campaign supporters who are eager to see change in their local communities.
• A growing community of blind and partially sighted people through our membership currently over 10,000 people and access to the hundreds of thousands of blind and partially sighted people who use our services.
• Through our Digi Champions programme, over 100 blind and partially sighted people have had one-to-one training, helping them to get online and access email and the internet. Nineteen people, many of whom are blind and partially sighted themselves, are volunteers trained by RNIB as ‘Digi Champions’, taking ICT access to blind and partially sighted people in their local communities’ right across Wales.
RNIB, together with our partners such as the British Computer Association of the Blind, would be interested in developing demonstrator projects that reach significant numbers of excluded people, and are based on peer support, underpinned by expert organisations who can provide specialist advice and training where required.
We wish everyone the very best with bid preparations.
Digital Outreach Ltd is an innovative joint venture company set up and owned by Age Concern, CSV, Help the Aged and CEL. Our aim is to support access to new technology and technology based services by people who might not normally be able to access them.
We have been comissioned by Digital UK to deliver the Switchover Community Outreach Programme around the country, providing advice, information and support to older people, disabled people, socially isolated and other potentially vulnerable people on the Digital TV switchover. We have just successfully completed this programme in the Scottish Borders region and we are also active in West Country, the remainder of Borders; Wales and Granada.
We are very interested in partnering on this Programme and, in particular, we are very well placed to deliver the suggested demonstrator project based on Digital TV in the Borders. We have a strong, well trained and motivated volunteer and voluntary sector partnership in this region. I’m happy to discuss this and other potential projects with colleagues.
Ian
Multi-Media Arts Documentation Community Interest Company
We have been working in Cornwall using digital media as a tool for community development for the past 12 years. . Our work is and always will be about community engagement, the technology is a tool to support this.
We work across the board: with young people; elderly; families; community groups; support organisations, etc: to help them use digital technology to explore and develop their understanding of their lives, environment and how they interact, also helping to explore new ways of communicating.
Our studio, based in Launceston, North Cornwall, is well equipped with, film and sound equipment, editing suites, training rooms, projection studio and is used by a variety of people from the local area for a variety of different activities. The young people have their own film club once a week; community groups and individuals use the facility and are supported by us to create short films focusing on current issues they think need to be aired.
Recently 2 single mothers put together a film showing the difficulties of being a single mum in rural Cornwall, trying to find good quality support, training and work. They organised a showing and invited many local councillors and representatives from support organisations in Cornwall, one of the audience was our local MP Dan Rogerson who was incredibly supportive and took some of the problems on board. This was taken up by the South West Region Politics Show.
We have worked on many reminiscence projects, helping people record their stories, sometimes recreating these as short films and plays. I have been working for the past 2 years on the Bude Canal regeneration project working with members of the community in Bude to record experiences of canal life. These will now form part of the exhibition in the TIC in Bude. We are hoping to carry this on by working with young people at risk of becoming NEET to gather more stories and find new ways of representing these.
We run an E2E and Freestyle programme, helping young people to develop communication skills as well as a variety of digital media skills to enable them to have better life choices. One area which is proving very successful at engaging young men is design for computer games.
We work closely with the County Council and district councils, using digital media as a tool for consultation, documentation and evaluation. One of the projects was to document and evaluate the NCDC E-Innovation project which worked with volunteers from the local community who were given laptops and internet access, which they would then use to help other members of the community access information. One of the volunteers worked from a post office on Bodmin Moor.
We have been developing the idea of a Positive News Channel website working with NCDC and the new play rangers for the district. Our E2E group are starting to create short positive news films showing what young people are doing in the district to be shown on the site.
Krystyna Zdan-Michajlowicz
M-MAD CIC
2 Ladycross Cottages, Yeolmbridge, Launceston, Cornwall PL15 8TN
M-MAD Studio Priory Lane, 31 St Thomas Road, Launceston Cornwall PL15 8DA
Email m-mad@btconnect.com Tel 01566 777316 http://www.m-mad.co.uk
Vital Regeneration (VR) is a dynamic charity working to reduce deprivation in inner city areas of London through community and economic development. VR works in the top 20% most deprived neighbourhoods, as identified by the Dept of Communities & Local Government, Indices of Multiple Deprivation (2007).
Our mission is to educate, empower and promote enjoyment. We aim to; develop and sustain community education, enterprise and creative development programmes tailored to individuals and communities; remove practical barriers to accessing education, employment or enterprise; enhance individuals’ economic welfare and wellbeing through information, advice and guidance; develop long lasting relationships with partner organisations for the benefit of the community; capacity build grassroots organisations to ensure long term sustainability of programmes; and to facilitate community cohesion.
FreqOUT! is a Vital Regeneration project that pushes the boundaries of technology, arts and learning activity, to meaningfully engage young people with multiple barriers to learning. Through accredited programmes, access to technology, artists, businesses and statutory service providers, FreqOUT! aims to improve young peoples’ opportunities for employment, further education and creative enterprise. FreqOUT! was a winner of the 2008 UK Catalyst Award for ‘Social Technology Innovation with Communities’.
We are very interested in partnering in the Digital Mentors scheme and specifically interested in working with excluded young people in broadening their access to technology though innovation.
Many thanks for these contributions, everyone. We feel slightly guilty that they are hidden away in the comments here rather than being blog posts in their own right!
If you would like to write a blog post for this site, do let us know! It can be about anything you like regarding digital mentors and the bid: what you can offer, what you have done in the past, what your general thoughts are about the project.
Just drop us an email at admin@voice-box.org.uk to let us know you are interested in contributing to our blog!