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Everton in the Community (EitC) has supported a new scheme to help digitally excluded Liverpool City Region residents by giving out free digital devices to help people get online.
Login LCR brings together the Combined Authority and 50 consortium partners, to provide digitally excluded residents with a free smart tablet, six months of Vodafone connectivity and in-person digital skills training.
It is funded by the UK Government’s Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The scheme builds on the success of the Combined Authority’s previous public-private sector Digital Inclusion Initiative, which enabled more than 5,500 people to get online and was also supported by EitC.
Cllr Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Region Cabinet Member for Innovation, said:
“We are proud to be working with Everton in the Community as one of our trusted consortium partners on the new Login LCR Project, funded by the UK Government. The project tackles digital exclusion through a holistic offer – providing a free digital device, connectivity and skills training to residents, ensuring they can make the most of a modern digital life online.”
Read more: New scheme to help 1,500 Liverpool City Region residents get online
The consortium partnership agreement has seen EitC receive £8,500 worth of digital equipment, including 20 free digital devices gifted to participants from across the charity’s 60+ programmes.
Amongst the recipients was Ken, 63, a longstanding participant of EitC’s Digital Drop-In sessions, who said:
“I’ve been coming for five or six months every Tuesday. I’ve learnt how to use my phone properly and doing different things on it, emails and stuff like that. I knew how to do some of it already, but I’ve never had a tablet. It’s something I’ve looked at in the past, but they’ve always been too expensive.
“The sessions help people get out and get together and keep you going, instead of sitting in the house doing nothing. The device will just help me get on in life; everything’s online these days, shopping online, getting in touch with people – it’ll help just keep me out there.”
The charity’s Digital Drop-In sessions aim to tackle digital poverty in Liverpool 4 and beyond and take place at the charity’s Digital Skills Lab, the region’s first community-based facility of its kind.
They provide participants with essential digital skills and online support, with areas surrounding Kirkdale twice at risk of being digitally excluded compared to other areas of the city, according to the Digital Exclusion Risk Index.
Since EitC joined Liverpool City Region’s Digital Inclusion Network in May 2023, the charity’s digital inclusion support has grown significantly – from launching its Digital Drop-In sessions with support from the Combined Authority’s Digital Inclusion Taskforce, to distributing 40 digital devices to those most at risk of being left behind.
EitC has supported 20 staff members, volunteers and corporate volunteers from Weightmans Law Firm and St Johns Shopping Centre to become trained Digital Champions.
In the last 12 months, EitC has also become a Digital Inclusion Hub, as part of The Good Foundation’s National Databank, providing free mobile data to those who need it.
Reflecting on the growth of the charity’s digital inclusion support and its involvement in Login LCR, EitC’s Adult Enrichment Manager, Maxine Roberts, added:
“We’re so grateful to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for their continued and generous support, helping us tackle digital exclusion in Liverpool 4 and providing connectivity to those who wouldn’t otherwise have access or the means to get online.
“We’re extremely proud of the digital inclusion offering we’ve developed here at Everton in the Community, but we look forward to expanding this further as needs grow, with help from our invaluable partners.”
As part of Login LCR, EitC received 20 smart tablets, 20 SIM cards loaded with six months’ worth of data, 20 MIFI devices to distribute and in-person digital skills training for 20 of its participants.
To find out more about Login LCR, visit: www.helpingyouonline.co.uk.
And to get involved with the charity’s Digital Drop-In sessions, email: [email protected].
