Get IT Together and Citizens OnlineDigital Inclusion: A Highlands and

Islands Perspective

Irene Mackintosh

Get IT Together

• 3 year programme

• Funded by BT and local partners

• Local co-ordinators

• UK wide

• Helping people and charities all over the UK develop the skills and confidence needed to join the online community and benefit from the internet. In other words: DOING

•Skye, Wester Ross and Lochaber

•Orkney

•North West Sutherland

In the beginning…. There were the fragile communities…

Beaches! Beauty! Isolation!

But really, really rural!

When we say rural…

Farr High School: 93 PupilsKinlochbervie: 62 Pupils

But: stop talking, start doing!

Creating a digital culture

Finding folk!

AND THEN JUST DOING…

The fun part… learner led motivation

Online dating…. The Skibo Girls…

YouTube… the Dancing Pony

Knitting patterns… Guerilla knitting

Cricket… John

Cooking… Maribelle’s Pickled Tongue

Evolution!

New projects – Nairn, Inner Moray Firth, Shetland with ongoing activity in Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey and the Western Isles

Gorgeous local partners and funders…

Current Statistics: Three Years

• Number of individuals made aware of the benefits of digital inclusion, through presentations, workshops and open days : 9950

• Number of learners undertaking 4+ hours of study: 1309

• Over 300 community groups engaged

• Train the trainer: 30 sessions (within the last year)

Longitudinal study

•Demographics have shifted from older people to unemployed.•For older learners the links to Independent living still need to be made clearer.•80% of unemployed learners say their Internet skills are helping them search for work and 13% have found work.•Confidence at the end of the session determines success of being online 1 year later.•55% encouraging friends and family to use the Internet.•In the Highlands – 67% were online after 12 months, all regular users.•55% had no ongoing support.

Social Return on Investment

•The value of being online to a new user is £1,064 per annum. This comes from having more confidence, making financial savings online, new job seeking skills and a reduction in social isolation.For a professional user, the figure is £3,568 when combined with the benefits for an advanced user. This comes from being able to work remotely and the wage premium to those who use IT at work.• Social return on investment of the programme - £3.70 for every £1.

http://www.btplc.com/Betterfuture/ConnectedSociety/Valueofdigitalinclusion/index.htm

•Not sufficient capacity•Community access points are under threat, not in area of greatest need•Motivation for offline individuals is low•Learners directed to training without any assessment of their existing skills or additional needs•Training doesn’t meet need•Lack of ongoing informal support available

Community issues

Best practice

Strategic partnership

Mapping

Profiling

Triage

Ongoing support

Funding

Training provision

Stable community

access points

Marketing/motivation

Where to now?

Building on successes from a place of understanding… but continuing to work from a basis of stop talking, start doing…

Our learners say…

Next Steps

•Seeking new current funders and projects to continue good work