Connected Services

Facilitated by Birmingham City Council

Introduction

Birmingham City Council have secured £1.1m worth of brand new devices from the West Midlands Combined Authority to support the Connected Services Programme, as part of their digital inclusion focus.

DOR – Romanian Diaspora was one of the organisations that was engaged in actively looking to attract applications from people in the communities we are working with who fell in either of the following categories:

• Carers (including young carers aged 16+)
• People seeking cost of living support
• People experiencing/at risk of experiencing
• homelessness
• People living in temporary accommodation
• Veterans
• Prison-leavers
• Older adults, especially those who are less confident with the internet
• Organisations supporting digital inclusion skills
• development – particularly for marginalised citizens and women

Motivation

Handing out laptops helps people get online and do things like schoolwork, find jobs, and stay connected. It’s about making sure everyone has a fair shot at learning, working, and staying in touch by bridging the gap between those who have computers and those who don’t.

Project timeline

Insights

Audience Analysis

This table presents a breakdown ethnic groups that benefitted from this project. It offers a snapshot of diversity for this context.

DOR – Romanian Diaspora is committed to an open and collaborative approach and as such, it was important to us to ensure the opportunity was open not only to our own communities but also to all communities we collaborated with and who may have benefitted from this initiative.

Surveys Analysis

The project caters to varied groups: carers handle care duties more smoothly with better access to resources; individuals seeking financial aid find stability; at-risk individuals receive support through challenging times; those in temporary housing access resources despite instability; former inmates receive tech support for reintegration; older adults gain enhanced tech access for learning and connection; support organizations elevate services through digitalization, while diverse communities achieve access, support, and inclusion in the digital sphere.

Feedback

A very useful initiative which has benefitted the communities a great deal, helping them with studying and advancing education, looking for jobs, working hybrid or remotely, budgeting, staying connected with friends, family and the community in general.

Some of the feedback received may serve towards continuous improvement of similar initiatives:

1. Early Engagement: involve community organisations at an early stage to ensure active participation.
2. Clear Objectives: provide comprehensive explanations of project goals for better adoption & engagement.
3. Empowerment Through Tools: offer a communication kit (project milestones, visual identity (including logo, banners, fonts, colour scheme), email templates, survey templates, feedback forms, reporting templates, training videos (bitesize), lessons learned from previous initiatives/projects, next steps/initiatives and how can we link in) from the start of the project to avoid duplication.
4. Terminology Clarity: Explain terminology used , adapting language for community understanding and keeping in mind some communities are not mother tongue English.
5. Funding – transport, event management, report evaluation for community organisations.

Smiles all around