Superhighway Achievers

Many deprived households are still not online, but one project is providing the kit and the skills to change that
Ella Marshall

This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 27 2008 on p7 of the Society news & features section. It was last updated at 00:21 on February 27 2008.


Using the internet, Maria Whittingham recently arranged transportation, tickets and accommodation for a trip to Kew Gardens for her parent and child group. It was amazing, she says, considering that a year ago she had never used a computer.

Whittingham attends the Aberfeldy neighbourhood centre, in Tower Hamlets, east London, which received funding in 2007 to run a social impact demonstrator project - a model for support groups whose members were identified as socially disadvantaged, by the government's social exclusion action plan. The remit involves exploring how IT can change their lives.

Research last year by UK Online Centres, which runs the project, found that while 39% of the UK population are not online, the proportion of disadvantaged people who are "digitally excluded" is around 75%. Based on the Aberfeldy estate in Poplar, the project actively targets deprived families, supplying them with the equipment and skills to become digitally aware. The scheme provides families with recycled computers supplied by social enterprise firm Digibridge, and with internet access. It is one of 20 such schemes throughout England. According to UK Online, some 5,000 people have accessed the initiatives since last March.

Participants take part in an eight-week course, four weeks into which they are given the computers for the duration of the project. Lessons are supplemented by weekly home visits from volunteers, which continue for six months. Diye Wariebi, Digibridge founder, says the course is more than spreadsheets and word processing; tutors focus on areas they feel will be relevant to participants. "We don't teach things like PowerPoint; it's not seen as relevant", says Wariebi. "The course is about asking questions and experimenting."

It would be relatively easy to distribute the PCs and let the families work out how to use them but Wariebi says people are often held back by a lack of confidence. "Bringing people into a class [means] they can fully express themselves and realise they are not alone," he explains. "It leads to peer-leading where they are willing to help out friends using their new skills."

And these new skills mean parents can keep up with their children's computer knowledge. Rubi Bagom says the course has been instrumental in aiding her involvement with her three young children's schoolwork. "I wanted to learn for both me and my children," she says. Now she no longer uses it just to help her children: "I do everything on the internet. I don't leave the house!"
According to Roger Mullings, project manager at the Aberfeldy centre, Bagom's experience is typical. "The whole aim of the training was for social inclusion, as well as financial inclusion," he says. "Through the courses we can show people the value of what they are missing."

A recent survey by Poplar Harca, the housing association that owns the neighbourhood centre, found that 100% of course participants continued internet usage after the course, with more than 75% using the internet for job searching, and 50% using it for educational purposes.
Whittingham says that before the course she had no idea of the wealth of information on the internet. "I didn't own a computer, so I didn't know what I was missing. Now I know how to use email and how to get in contact with my MP. It has opened doors of exploration."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/socialexclusion