Digital Skill in the Community

The Pitch

Problem statement

KCLC CIC is seen by the local community as a central and trusted information hub with over 250* people using the centre every week, to engage in: accredited and non-accredited I.T. classes (with OCR), ESOL sessions, drop in, surgeries, bi-lingual support groups, CV advice and help with job searching. Since January 2022 the centre has had over 670 attendances of unemployed people, the majority of whom live in the Kensington & Fairfield ward. Digital skills is a big issue around are area, with more and more people unable to afford the internet or a device. So, therefore digital skills are suffering, and these are important in our day and age to do almost anything in life.

Solution

The goal is to introduce digital skills to the most disadvantaged people around our area and give them the ability and the tools to learn how to use the internet securely and effectively. The funding will be spent on qualified tutors and volunteers teaching what the learner specifically need, such as security, job search, application forms, how to use email, online banking, or just the basics of using a computer. We want to fund £1000 worth of devices with internet access. The impact will be that the learners will be able to use a computer and the internet enough to enable them to do the things they need with confidence and hopefully get them to a place which is financially more secure.

Why are we best placed to deliver?

In the past two years alone, we have provided access and support to over 2000 unemployed people in looking for work, updating the skills and CVs and providing work experience in the form of meaningful volunteering roles. We are ideally placed, right in the heart of our community. We have the staff, volunteers, infrastructure and facilities, and 21 years of passion and experience of providing IT/|Employability support to the local community. We receive no financial support from either the JC+ or local government to provide these services and must generate our own income – your funding will go some way towards enabling us to continue.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

50 people

Expected impact

In the past we have had amazingly positive outcomes, our learners have gained employment, gained brilliant digital skills and have gone on to get qualifications which will in the long term help with unemployment. Some of our learners will come back and tell us about the jobs they have got, send us cards or flowers, or chocolates, we feel so proud to have helped them achieve this. When they have gained employment, we ask them to complete a small survey of how they found the services offered her at KCLC, I must admit some of the comments are so lovely and often make me cry. One lady had been out of work for quite a few years, had no digital skills, after being her for a few months applied online for a position, got an interview and got the job, she was thrilled and always says without our support this would of never happened. She is still in this job over 5 years later and keeps us updated. We have a database to which all the data is added this helps with our reporting for funders.

Track record

We work closely with UKOnline Centres/Good Things Foundation and have done for many years, receiving funding for numerous projects. Unfortunately they lost a big part of their funding resulting in us losing our big pot, but we still have a close relationship with them. They quite often ask us to work with them testing products, changing websites, speaking at events for digital inclusion. Most recently I spoke at there AGM about the impact we have had over the years with digital Inclusion and our learners. We have passion about what we do and that is why we get asked to do these things. Our passion is brought out from our learners/volunteers/ community who inspire us to want do bigger and better things for them.

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