Big Local North Cleethorpes recognises the value of technology and the internet in peoples lives (more so now than ever), but also we realise that many local residents do not have access to computers, smart phones or even the internet.  This puts them at a disadvantage and leaves them potentially  ‘digitally disconnected’ from society and services.

It’s not easy for us to find these people (they won’t be reading our emails, blog or social media of course). But we hope through newsletters, word of mouth and referral, we can find a few local residents we can try and experiment with ways to support them.

Our plan

If people have no internet at home then we’ll explore ways for them to get online.  There are very cheap deals offered to people on benefits for example to signup for home broadband, but we can also investigate the donation or loan of wifi hotspot devices to provide local internet, or with changing sims or mobile phone deals to provide data connections.

If people have no technology then we can look at loaning or donating old/refurbished laptops or chromebooks or tablets.  Something that will enable them to access the internet.

But we’ll also have to help with skills. People will need to learn how to do things with the technology – and we’ll need to do much of this remotely.  So our team members will make phone calls and act as ‘digital champions’ to support residents to make the first steps online.

We’ve started this as an experiment with a small budget and limited time available. So we won’t be helping dozens of people – probably just a few. So please help us to find local residents in the North Cleethorpes area who we can support.