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In August and September 2011, the remaining transmitters in the Central TV region will be switching to digital TV. Back in February, Digital Outreach appointed three ‘lead organisations’ to deliver the community outreach programme to make sure people in the local area got the support they needed to get ready for the switch. The three organisations - Age Concern Birmingham, Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, and Age UK Nottingham and Nottinghamshire - have been delivering some great results for Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme.

We spoke to Michael Sharman, Digital Switchover Project Co-ordinator from Age Concern Birmingham, about what’s involved in being a lead organisation on the community outreach programme.

“We were interested in the Digital Switchover programme because we recognised the need to support our client groups and the community as a whole through what could be perceived as daunting technological process," Michael says. "We also recognised that we could help support small community groups to engage with people in need in the community whilst providing them with funding to enable this to happen. As a third sector organisation with a wide reach, the digital switchover programme offered us the opportunity to support smaller grass roots organisations to increase their activity in communities.”

Age Concern Birmingham have employed a whole team of people to work on the switchover project – as well as Michael, there are six information officers and two part-time admin assistants. The information officers build relationships with smaller locally based organisations in central Birmingham, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Black Country. They also deliver training and presentations to organisations they have engaged to spread the word about switchover and the Help Scheme.  Because Age Concern Birmingham’s transmitter area included rural areas as well as Birmingham, they employed people who know those areas well.

“Being a lead organisation is all about relationship building, encouraging and empowering groups and individuals to spread the digital message, it is about transferring information through hard to reach communities,” says Michael. “You’ve got to go out and meet people and gain their trust and empower them by providing the right information at the right time. Age Concern Birmingham is renowned for its quality provision and is trusted by those who have engaged with us, and this has been really important in getting people on board.”

One of the challenges of being a lead organisation is reaching across all six key audience groups – older people, people who are socially isolated, people with sensory, mobility or dexterity impairments, people with mental health conditions, people who speak English as a second language and people with learning difficulties. It involves reaching down to really small groups across the area.

Michael says, “Picking up the phone or meeting someone face to face has been much more effective than letters or emails. The main way we identify the smaller groups is through our existing contacts and talking to them to see which groups they engage with. For example, in Birmingham we were looking for groups in high BAME communities and one small group which has really taken up the challenge of encouraging others to engage with the programme is a group for Asian ladies with mental health problems.”

Delivering the programme through a locally-based, well known organisation is really important to the outreach programme’s success. “Operating in the heart of the community we’ve been able to link into communities who would otherwise be sceptical” Michael says. “For example, we have built up a great relationship with the central Mosque and the Polish community. We also have strong links with the Salvation Army in Wolverhampton, who has been really supportive about cascading the message on. It’s all about talking to the right people and building the relationships.”

The small grants scheme (which is funded by Digital UK and co-ordinated by Digital Outreach and the lead organisations) also helps smaller groups to cascade information: “The grants scheme has really rocketed over the last couple of weeks, as switchover draws closer and word gets out. One of our biggest challenges is the effects of the government cutbacks on small groups and organisations – so the smaller voluntary groups the cuts are very keen to take up the offer of a small grant to help facilitate and maximise the cascade of information and support.”

Age Concern Birmingham have been impressed with the innovative ways in which local groups are taking the message about switchover and the Help Scheme and passing it on. “People are getting really imaginative about how they spread the word” Michael says. “There’s been a 1960s evening with an Elvis impersonator, which was great fun and encouraged many more people to attend and therefore get the information on switchover and the Help Scheme. And the Northern Star Community Arts Project, which supports people with learning difficulties who would struggle with leaflets, have instead been creating a scenario and explaining the switchover through the art of storytelling.”

Michael says: “Working on the community outreach programme has enabled Age Concern Birmingham to reinforce old relationships and forge new relationships with community organisations and groups. It has also raised the organisation’s profile across the region which has its own benefits.  It’s fun working with Digital Outreach - the support has been fantastic. I’ve learnt a lot from it and continue to do so.”

Read more about the community outreach programme on our website, www.digitaloutreach.org.uk

Find out more about Age Concern Birmingham at http://www.ageconcernbirmingham.org.uk/ 

We are now moving into a new exciting phase with the development of Convey, the new division of Digital Outreach. Our mission is to develop a network of voluntary and community groups to help them access funding opportunities. In simple terms, we will pitch for a range of contracts and outsource the delivery to consortia, made up from lead and second tier organisations.

This model, based on our proven and successful outreach method, will enable small and medium size organisations to access larger contracts that have been out of their reach.  

Commissioners will have a single access point to a highly tailored, multi-faceted delivery structure and be able to tap into the skills, local knowledge and community reach of the voluntary sector.

Convey will bring together third sector organisations to form flexible consortia which can be scaled up or down depending on the size, location and type of contract available. We will bring together individual voluntary and community organisations to form bidding groups, or join existing consortia together to strengthen their offer.

You can find more information about Convey and join the partnership by visiting the new website, www.convey.org.uk.

Lead organisations COVER, Gloucestershire Rural Community Council, Age UK Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and CSV Birmingham organised 14 advice points during the recent digital TV switchovers in parts of Anglia and Central TV regions. Friendly, well-trained staff and volunteers were on hand to support nearly 1,300 people with the switch to digital. From answering queries about re-tuning to contacting the Help Scheme on behalf of eligible people, they really went the extra mile to make sure everyone had a positive experience of switchover. Thanks to all our lead organisations for their hard work during the last six months and to all the volunteers who made these advice points such a success.

These are just two of the stories we collected about people who received help and advice over the switchover period.

Mrs A

An 80-year-old lady, Mrs A, turned up at the Leominster advice point very out of breath. She said she had had an awful morning, and now she needed to sort out her television.

Her main set had been converted to digital by the Help Scheme. However, she still needed to sort out her bedroom television.

Mrs A brought out her Samsung controller for her bedroom TV out of her handbag. She and Debra, who was helping out at the advice point, looked up on the internet how to retune the Samsung TV. Debra wrote the instructions down and explained what Mrs A had to do.

Debra sat down with Mrs A and got her to hold her remote control and went through it step by step. It was obvious that the initial instructions would still be too complicated. So Debra wrote ‘press menu’, ‘press down arrow 5 times’, ‘press right arrow button’, ‘press down arrow 1’, ‘press enter’ etc. Mrs A was able to follow this and said “I hope you don’t think I am dim”. Debra told her “No, all this re-tuning can be confusing”.

Mrs A said “Thank you so much for your help, I appreciate your time. I have two daughters but they live too far away to help”.

Mr P

Mr P came in to the advice point in Kettering because he had lost his TV picture that morning. He is an elderly gentleman and he hadn't done anything to prepare for the switchover. He only has one small portable type TV with its own aerial. 

Mr P was eligible for the Help Scheme, but told the volunteer that he had returned his letter saying that he was able to deal with the matter himself and that he would not be taking up their kind offer. However, Mr P had come to realise that he could not afford to purchase any new equipment.

The volunteer managed to establish that Mr P was in receipt of pension credit and therefore entitled to free help.  He explained that the Help Scheme could assist Mr P with all this at no cost and asked if he would like the volunteer to re-contact them on his behalf. Mr P agreed.

The volunteer phoned the Help Scheme and they were able to offer an installation visit less than a week later. Mr P was thrilled with this and said: “I’m not too worried about not having a TV for a few days, I can watch the news at my neighbours’.”

A new approach to getting the final third of the population online is seeing quiz nights, darts clubs, keep fit groups and bingo events become places where older and disabled people and those on low incomes get their first taste of the internet.

Most digital participation schemes rely on target groups being pro-active - going to their local library to try the web or signing up for an internet course. Although these projects are making progress, the most digitally excluded people in society may not always respond to ‘pull’ techniques. Over 9 million people in the UK still don’t use the internet.

Digital Outreach's ‘embedded outreach’ approach takes the internet to disadvantaged people at existing community events they are familiar with, rather than relying on them to seek out ways to get online.

Trusted session leaders who run local groups such as domino clubs, Asian elders’ sessions, friendship groups or anti-burglary days are trained to give people information about the internet. As session leaders already know the interests of their groups, they show people parts of the web that will be of direct benefit to them.

Although many participants in the Get Connected, Get Online project were initially reluctant to learn about the internet, 77 per cent reacted positively to the session when it was delivered by someone they already knew, and 62 per cent reported that having the session take place as part of their group meeting encouraged them to find out more about the web.

We were commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to look at ways to target people who experience multiple barriers which prevent them getting online. The programme itself was managed by Ofcom.

64 per cent of respondents said that taking part in the Get Connected, Get Online session helped them to see the personal benefits of the internet. Over 67 per cent of participants went on to make a positive behavioural change as a result of taking part.

Ian Agnew, chief executive of Digital Outreach said: “Research shows that the most socially excluded people in society are the most likely to be digitally excluded. These people are difficult to reach through traditional means, they may not cope well with change, they may be fearful about the internet or have had negative internet experiences in the past. We need innovative, community-based methods to bridge the gaps left by current digital participation initiatives so we can change people’s attitudes to using the web.”

Six months on, we looked again at the long-term impact of the Get Connected, Get Online project. The results showed that session leaders who had been trained to give people information about the internet during the programme were continuing to encourage a wide range of groups to get online, demonstrating the legacy of support that has been left.

To download the report, click here. To read more about the project, click here.

Digital Outreach has been helping to build the skills of local young people by providing them with work experience as part of a work placement scheme run by Age UK Training. The training programme is for people aged 18 to 24 who have been looking for work for more than 26 weeks, and aims to support people to develop the skills they need to find permanent employment.

Luke Kennedy recently completed a 13-week placement with us and told us about his experience.

How did you get involved in the work placement scheme?

“I got offered the chance to take part on the scheme because I’d been looking for work for a while.  It’s a 13-week scheme where you work in a business for four days a week, and on the other day you go on one-day sessions where you learn about different work skills.”

Why did you choose to come to Digital Outreach?

“I’d originally wanted to do a retail placement, but working in an office is an experience I’d always wanted to try because I’d never done it before. When Lorraine at Age UK Training told me that there was the opportunity to do a placement at Digital Outreach, I thought I’d give it a go.”

What did you get involved in while you were working here?

“I worked on a few different things, like helping out with researching local charities in new switchover regions that work with particular groups of people, maintaining the photo library, putting together delegate packs for training sessions, and keeping the order log for materials.”

What new skills has working here helped you develop?

“I learned a lot about working in a group. I was a bit nervous at first and didn’t know who to speak to, but as I went on I asked more questions and joined in the conversation a lot more. It’s also given me the confidence to work with people who are older than me. I’ve always been good with computers, but I found out a lot more about Excel and Word through the projects I was working on.”

Which things did you enjoy most?

“I liked doing a range of different things - the variety was good. I liked meeting all the regional team when they came to the Glossop office. And going out for the Christmas meal was good!”

How do you think it will help you in the future?

“What I really want to do is to go into the Navy, so what I’ve learned about working in a team will be really useful for that. Also, the IT skills I’ve developed will help with my training and revising. And it’s given me the confidence to ask if I don’t understand something, even if I think I’ll look daft! Working here has really helped build up my confidence.”