Communities One Alun Burge Project Manager Communities One

Communities @One Alun Burge – Project Manager

Communities @One 2005 -2008 • Digital inclusion: Social Inclusion through Technology • How to engage the disengaged? 2008 -2011 • move [some of them] on from using technologies as an end in itself to exploiting them for economic ends • income generation, skills enhancement, support new and existing social enterprises to improve business performance…

Communities @One Rationale 2005 -2008 To enable communities and individuals to use ICT in ways that are relevant to them to enhance their quality of life, overcome difficulties and support them to fulfil their social, economic and cultural potential.

Communities @One • Using community and voluntary sector to deliver digital inclusion • Community Brokers use community development approaches, centrally contracted, locally embedded • Based in community and public venues, and organised as a part of community provision • Bring complementarily; plug gaps; not reinvent wheel • Creative, flexible and non-prescriptive

Communities @One • 200+ projects agreed • Over £ 6. 6 million grants allocated • Shopping on line; community radio; technical support; podcasts; blogs; web design; rebuilding computers; build flight simulators; computer aided design; model making; community archives; employment/job search; family trees; Elderly; Somali; Pigeon Fanciers; Welsh Language; Sight Impaired; Tenants and Residents; ‘Teenage Mams’; Pakistani; Chinese; Lone Parents; Unemployed; Mental Health; Disabilities; After School Clubs; Social Enterprise

Evaluation • A community development approach is a viable and successful way of tackling digital inclusion • The initiative succeeds in process terms • The broker based approach is a model for other programmes of community engagement • It encourages take up of underutilised resources • Financial resources are well targeted • Need closer links to FE and ACL

Communities @One: Post 2008 -2011 - in essence: engage people with technologies and move [some of them] on from using technologies as an end in itself to exploiting them for economic ends, including income generation and skills enhancement, and supporting new and existing social enterprises to improve their business performance…

Communities @One: Post 2008 Principles: • Social Justice • Lisbon agenda - Economic edge • Strategic • Complementary/Plug Gaps/No Duplication

Communities @One: Post 2008 Content 1. New community/local voluntary groups (dig inc) 2. Develop current projects (200+) towards… - identify potential/support change 3. Current social enterprises 4. New social enterprises around ICT 5. Individuals/Themes

Communities @One: Post 2008 Issues • Tailored package of support • Not grant fund led • Long term development process • Progression routes • Major difference in work approach of project– more rounded/developmental

Communities @One: Post 2008 Linkages • Adult Community Learning/FE/Libraries – evaluation – signposting/progression – merthyr moodle project – how to meet in the middle? • e-government/Making the Connections – over the horizon

Communities @One: Post 2008 Wider Context • EU backdrop & targets • International developments • Develop a shared digital inclusion vision for Wales • Where in 1 -2 -3 years time?