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Sunderland Digital Challenge Newsletter Issue1 Welcome to the inaugural Digital Challenge Newsletter The Digital Challenge programme is setting the vision for a digitally enabled Sunderland. It will lay the foundations for this transformation by leading the way to a 21st century Sunderland. Services will be delivered where, when and how they are needed and wanted - this could be in the home, a local community point, face to face, or remotely using technology as the enabler. The projects and initiatives are developed and delivered through partnerships of public, private and community sector organisations, all driven by the needs of our communities. By exciting interests in new technology and the opportunities it offers the programme will lead to improvements in social cohesion, economic well being and the quality of life throughout all sections of the community. What is Digital Challenge? Lessons learnt from the programme will impact of future central government policy toward the use of technologies in the community. To view the Minister’s speech and the announcement of Sunderland as the winner click here What Digital Challenge is not It is not a raft of new council mainstream services. The Digital Challenge Partnership targets hard to reach individuals, communities and can be used to enhance existing services were appropriate whether they be from a statutory body or voluntary sector group. Who runs the Challenge? Sunderland City Council is the responsible body accountable for standards, finance control project management etc.
Sunderland City Council has won Beacon Status for Digital Inclusion - tackling exclusion and promoting life chances. Communities Minister Sadiq Khan MP awarded Sunderland City Council Beacon status for their outstanding work in Digital Inclusion. As a result Sunderland City Council will share in £3m government funding to expand their work and help other councils achieve the same success. The Beacon awards recognise local government’s excellence and innovation in improving quality of life for their residents and communities. Sadiq Khan, Communities Minister said: " My congratulations go out to Sunderland City Council. The Beacons are about showcasing the very best in service delivery, and in this, their final year, we really have seen some exceptional examples of Digital Inclusion. " Sunderland City Council is among the top performers in their field, setting the standard for innovation, service excellence and improvement. With the added emphasis on economic recovery in this year’s Beacons, the winners are ideally placed to share their knowledge and skills to improve the sector as a whole. Marianne Hood, chair of the Beacons Panel added: " Being awarded Beacon status means that Sunderland City Council will receive recognition, from national government and other authorities, for its expertise in Digital Inclusion. " I will be closely following the work that the Beacon authorities carry out, and wish them the very best of luck, in their new role sharing knowledge and supporting improvement." Sunderland City Council and the other Beacon councils for this theme will now work together, with the support of the Improvement and Development Agency, using a range of learning activities to help improve standards in all authorities in this area. Sunderland City Council's Cabinet Member for Resources, Councillor Dave Allan said: " We are delighted at receiving this recognition for the hard work being done in partnership with our communities to help people access digital technology and use it to improve the quality of their lives. " Receiving Beacon status is testament to the commitment of our residents and our partners to work together and maximise opportunities for everyone. We all recognise the massive contribution to achieving this status made by Digital Challenge and our high-tech industries as Sunderland strives to become a Software City." The Beacon Scheme is funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and the programme is managed at the Improvement and Development Agency for local government. This year, the independent Beacon panel received 125 applications (involving 159 authorities), and using an extensive judging process, they whittled this number down to a shortlist of 62. For more information on Beacon please click here
The core aim of the ementoring project is to provide disadvantaged and disengaged young people with the continuity and engagement to raise aspirations and awareness of opportunities. The young people are to become members of an exclusive e-friends club and become Mentees with Mentors from all sectors with the aim of adding to the sense of comradeship and friendship for the young people and avoid them becoming isolated and locked in isolation with a computer screen. The official launch was on 25th February 2009 in partnership with Education Business Connections we held our first e - Mentoring event at the Quayside Exchange, Sunderland called Switch on to ICT. The young people involved were from Hetton School, Springwell Dene School and Barbara Priestman School. The event was an interactive event designed to show young people the value of good ICT skills in the workplace. Young people worked with businesses, Digital Challenge and Sunderland University on activities which showed the practical application in the workplace of ICT taught in the classroom designed to develop their key employability skills and understanding the world of work. Running parallel to this event EBC hopes to deliver a range of activities for parents and carers aimed at both upskilling their ICT skills through fun activities and also to give them an insight into what the young people have been doing – so together parents/carers and the young people have something to share and something to talk about. This includes: Bridging the Gap Through Technology – interactive learning through ICT with the emphasis on creation of a CV using Word and a person ‘I’m a Star’ front page CV using Publisher software. To make sure young people get additional face-to-face contact with positive role models from the world of business this event is one of three planned which will see Mentees converge on a large venue and work with recruited business supporters (some of them Mentors, some additional businesses recruited) on a range of hands on activities designed to develop their key employability skills and understanding of the world of work, including potential career choices, career paths. For further information on the project please click here
Smart Sunderland is a 'sign up' text alert system. The project provides a simple, cost-effective platform for organisations to deliver and receive SMS text messages from end-users, it allows for a much greater level of interaction and engagement for a richer audience experience. As well as allowing you to distribute a whole range of content types to mobile devices. The aim is to keep beneficiaries up to date with vital information, building loyalty with them or encouraging a response from them quickly and easily. The solution has a huge variety of uses – to name just a few examples, it could be used to distribute news, event details or to keep up to date with your project beneficiaries and receive feedback. We are currently working with 8 groups to take part in this project and the key benefits they have identified are:
For more information please contact the Community IT Team on 01915614214 or e-mail digitalchallenge@sunderland.gov.uk Hexagon and Flash Meeting - Your contacts Community empowerment and networking were key messages from the Sunderland Digital Challenge bid consultation phase. Two pilots were progressed during that phase, of which one is Hexagon. A key project within the Community Empowerment and Networking theme, Hexagon enables an informal, on-line social network environment and will facilitate individuals, communities and the voluntary and community sector to communicate with each other. It will also enable hard to reach groups to begin the process of engagement and participation where location is a barrier. The Hexagon configuration consist of a number of rooms. Each “room” is administered by a host organisation from that relevant community. Each community provides an administrator, able to manage the room on a day-to-day basis. The Community Room is administered by Andrea Carr from Sunderland Centre for Voluntary Services, Telephone no 01915651566 e-mail andrea.carr@sunderlandcvs.co.uk The Over 50's Room is administered by Alec Redpath from Age Concern, Telephone no 0191 5141131 e-mail alecredpath@acsunderland.org.uk The Learning Room is administered by Andy Williams and Mandy Mills at St Roberts City Learning Centre, Telephone No 0191 2193490. Sunderland Voluntery Sector Youth Forum (SVSYF) also have a hexagon "room" for their activities. For more on this contact the forum directly on www.svsyf.org Please feel free to contact the appropriate organisations to take part in your room. Happy Hexing! Equipment Loan Scheme for the Voluntary and Community Sector OR Digital Challenge have an extensive range of IT equipment available including: • Projectors & Screens • E-Voting Kits • Adaptive Technology If you would like to find out more information, then please call us on 0191 561 4888 or email helpdesk@sunderland.gov.uk quoting “Digital Challenge Equipment Loan Scheme” Equipment Loan in Action
Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum held an event at The Pit Stop Youth Centre in Washington recently. Young people from 6 youth work organisations came together to discuss poverty, its causes and how they feel about poverty in the UK and within Sunderland.
For more information on Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum (SVSYF) please visit www.svsyf.org
A fun session was had by all who attended the WearAble Brain Injury Group social afternoon. Wear Able supports disabled people and raises awareness of disability issues to the wider community. It is managed by disabled people, individuals who have family members who are disabled or carers, as well as local people who are interested in disability issues. Community IT provided a Nintendo Wii and a projector via the Digital Challenge Equipment Loan Scheme. Trusty tech, Graham Sloan, got the whole system up and running while Engagement Officer, Elaine Harbron, supported those in the group who were unfamiliar with the Wii! Bob, one of the group members, also provided lots of support and encouragement to the group. Nine people tried out the bowling, including trusty tech Graham. Greg had a score of 220 in his first game, but was just beaten by a few points in his final game! The Engagement Team look forward to working with the group again in March. Remember if you wish to loan kit please call us on 0191 561 4888 or email helpdesk@sunderland.gov.uk quoting “Digital Challenge Equipment Loan Scheme”
Anonymous information with regards to smoking, drinking and exercise habits will possibly be used to assist in developing a picture of the health of the people of Sunderland.
The intention of the initiative is to pilot the use of community health information points in order to:
The e-Champions - A New Direction is provision of Internet-ready computers for community based practitioners/volunteers supported by appropriate training and guidance dependent on the specific needs. This allows engagement with the most underrepresented, hardest to reach/vulnerable groups across the City and will build on the existing e-Champions network that currently exists within e-Neighbourhoods. The new e-Champions – A New Direction project has four target groups: • Looked After Adults Our first step is to engage and facilitate access to the technologies, building capacity and aspirations. After the initial developmental process, many of the beneficiaries themselves champion the use of the technologies, offering ‘peer support.’ Support for this project is made available from Digital Challenge Engagement and Technical Officers. We worked in partnership with Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum (SVSYF) to identify youth groups to be involved. The groups actively taking part are A690 Youth Initiative, Millfield Salvation Army Youth Group, Hendon Young Peoples Project, North of England Refugee Service - Youth Integration, North Washington Youth Inclusion Project, Pennywell Young Peoples Project, Sunderland North Community Business Centre and Sunderland Voluntary Sector Youth Forum. Visit www.svsyf.org We have 34 Looked After Adults involved in the project with their Support Workers also taking part. Digital Challenge Engagement and Technical Officers are due to deploy the kit w/c 16th March 2009. We are working alongside Sunderland Carers Centre to identify Carers and the Cared for that would also benefit from taking part in the project and will up date you soon on our progress. What have we been up to - Events
Saturday 28th February 2009
The aim of the event was to engage with young deaf people to explore their needs and how they access youth provision in the city, as well as offering a platform to key professionals and various community groups to engage directly with deaf young people. At the free event, deaf children were able to take part in a range of fun activities, including football, arts and crafts, swimming and dancing without any communication barriers. The Digital Challenge team provide a range of support activities on the day including an evoting and a vox-pop session where deaf young people could respond to various questions and offer their own feedback and advice. The event also saw the Sunderland Mobile Customer Service Centre on site. The event was opened by Agony Aunt Denise Robertson and local boxing hero Tony Jeffries.
Hot-shot entrepreneurs shared the secret of their success with budding business minds at the region's first youth enterprise summit. Anthony Hutton was also on hand to tell how he went from being a Big Brother winner to opening his own chain of North East hairdressing salons. Meanwhile, Chester-le-Street-born Caspar Berry, founder of 21st Century Media, actor, author and professional poker player, led the day's events. Highlights included topic stations, a vox pop camera, an enterprise trading area and an area to showcase young entrepreneur's business products. Community IT Dave Hughes went along with Jay Arnott from North of England Refugee Service - Youth Integration Group. The aim was integration into a mainstream event and gain knowledge on how to set up a project or business. The young people also interviewed Tre Azam and other attendees to ask what they think the barriers to setting up a project/business could be for young people from a cultural group. The event was aimed at being a day of inspiration, opportunity and knowledge-sharing between young people and entrepreneurs. Article from Sunderland Echo here
Local people young and old turned out for the event which included a jumble sale, healthy eating stalls with delicious smoothies, a sweety stall, stop smoking support and many fun activities such as face painting and cake decorating. Digital Challenge also had a stall with freebies, Laptops with connectivity and an Interactive Whiteboard which went down a treat with the young children as shown in the picture opposite.
Our BarCamp was the ‘first’ in the north east, bringing together people that use services in the community with the people that build and provide them to talk about how technology can improve everyone’s life. The Bar Camp was held In the Stadium of Light the night before the big IT in the Community Conference. A BarCamp is an ad-hoc ‘unconference’ born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Goalies View by Graham Jordan Digital Challenge Project Manager Ok, I have to admit to being a bit nervous about this first Sunderland Community Barcamp. We’d not spent months organising it, and we knew we were venturing into the unknown, ‘boldly going’ as one of the speakers at IT in the Community suggested. The format was BarCamp-ish, and I think we held true to the BarCamp spirit. So how did it turn out?
Around 40 people attended from all sorts of backgrounds - some local, some had travelled a long way, some community reps, techies, digital mentors, digital challenge team and some involved in skills training. I didn’t see anyone with a long face, but perhaps I missed something….We would like your comments though so please feel free to tell us what you thought. It’ll help us in organising the next Sunderland Community Barcamp. Thanks to those who came along, and those who couldn’t make it but sent their wishes and helped promote the event. And special thanks to everyone that ‘made it so’. Cheers! Graham Please click here to view the slide show of the night Other News The Sunderland Partnership TV system was launched in September 2007. It operates alongside the Safer Sunderland Partnership TV network, which has been in place since July 2005, and broadcasts positive crime prevention and public reassurance messages. The screens are located at the following venues: The Digital Challenge Team support some of this quarters footage which looked at ways ICT can support the individual. The revised Sunderland Partnership Structure was agreed by the sunderland partnership Board in December is available to download here. For more information on your Sunderland Partnership please click here Sunderland Community Network Annual Event The Network held their Annual Event on the 26th January, to debate the New Structure Proposal, The Way Forward for the SCN and to vote on the New Structure. The event was a resounding success, a lively debate took place, culminating in the outcome that the VCS in Sunderland do want a Community Network. We will be taking onboard members comments and will be developing further. For those members who were unable to attend the event key areas have been recorded and are available by clicking here
Freephone advice line: 0800 269545. This video ‘Think about it’ has been created by the National Digital Inclusion Team. It sets out how we can take the opportunity to use technology as a tool for improving lives and life chances or face the risk of increasing economic and social costs. Improve your English and maths with Skillswise - Designed with adults in mind who want to brush up on their literacy and numeracy skills for whatever reason. Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games to help improve your skills. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/
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What have we been up to - Projects
e - Mentoring - Switch on to ICT Event 
Smart Sunderland 
E-voting kit
Wii
Community Health Information Point (CHIP)
e-Champions - A New Direction 
Aiming Higher Team and National Deaf Children's Society Event - 
Cloud 9 Event - Wednesday 25th February 2009 
Wearmouth Community Development Trust Fun Day - Wednesday 18th February 2009
A fun day was had by all at the Swan Street Centre, Southwick when they had their family fun day.
The first Sunderland Community BarCamp - Not just for community activists or the IT crowd!
Well, if you weren’t there you missed out on:
AbilityNet is a national charity helping disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their technology. Below you can download a range of free information leaflets. 
