The Highrise Project is a Community Interest Company based in Armley, established to explore the experiences and social connections of people in and around high-rise buildings and council-built estates. The organisation uses art and creativity as a means for people from marginalised communities to share their stories and develop new skills. Their participants include high-rise tenants, people from refugee and migrant communities, unemployed people, and those facing mental and physical health challenges.
Many of the people The Highrise Project work with are from low-income families, and do not have the financial resources to purchase tablets or laptops, or the data and wifi needed to get online. Even if an individual has access to a device and internet connectivity, they may not have the skills or experience to confidently use digital tools and services. Language barriers, disabilities, and health issues, including poor mental health, are further barriers to digital access. All of this means that the communities that The Highrise Project works with can feel left behind and overwhelmed by the constantly changing digital landscape.
With the support of 100% Digital Leeds, The Highrise Project have embedded support for digital inclusion across their programme. For many of their participants, arts and creativity is a safe, low risk, and engaging way to take their first steps with digital. The Highrise Project motivates people who are hesitant about digital, helps them to develop basic digital skills and confidence, and improves the mental health and employability of their participants.
“When we focus on digital arts abilities, it also helps participants build their core digital skills. Working towards artistic outcomes keeps people motivated and adds a sense of purpose to their learning.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Building the organisation’s capacity to support digital inclusion
During the pandemic The Highrise Project delivered arts workshops with groups of refugees, migrants, and unemployed participants. Social distancing rules forced the organisation to deliver their programme digitally and they immediately became aware of the struggles people had with getting online, often due to the affordability of devices and connectivity. To address these barriers, The Highrise Project provided free data SIMs for participants experiencing data poverty.
In October 2021, The Highrise Project moved into a new base at Armley Community Hub to create a space where people could come together and continue accessing support and advice. With support from 100% Digital Leeds, they secured funding to deliver activities with people who didn’t have access to digital equipment, teaching participants new digital literacy skills, and showing them how to use creative software.
They also recruited a Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer into the team. This additional capacity made a huge difference to the support the organisation can offer. The new Support Officer works with participants to tackle specific challenges, like accessing emails, downloading apps, and using devices for things like online shopping and listening to digital radio.
Participants have reported feeling more confident and capable in their digital skills. They feel comfortable asking for help, as they are being supported in a familiar environment by people they know and trust. Participants also report growing confidence when using technology. People who had never accessed digital are now able to download apps to listen to their favourite music, and watch films, reducing feelings of isolation and improving mental health.
The skills developed in workshops have supported participants to apply for jobs, with one participant using the skills to develop a power point for a work interview. Participants also reported learning new creative digital skills to produce their own artworks.
“Having an Officer there to support with digital skills has a huge impact during the workshops so that people can have individual help when needed during the session. This means that you can work with people who have different skill levels at the same time.’
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund
The Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund supports the development and delivery of sustainable digital inclusion interventions in Leeds. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to community organisations aimed at ensuring that individuals and communities in Leeds have the skills, support, and equipment to be active online, now and in the future. The Highrise Project received funding from the Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund in 2022 and 2023.
Funding in 2022 enabled The Highrise Project to purchase a bank of iPads and run a series of six-week courses that supported participants to develop digital skills and confidence through art. Courses included basic digital skills development through art forms such as animation, photography, video editing, and augmented reality, using digital tools such as Procreate and Adobe Aero.
Creative arts were again used to support core digital skills such as web searching, file management, and social media use. Those attending the courses reported increased confidence in using technology, reduced feelings of isolation and better mental health, as well as new friendships and improved creativity within their own artwork. Some participants went on to use their learning to look for work, and some went on to pass on learning to friends and family members. A supportive and inclusive culture within sessions was also identified as enabling progress and encouraging participants to look beyond basic skills to intermediate levels. Further funding in 2023 allowed The Highrise Project to build on their work by expanding their digital inclusion programme. On an organisational level, The Highrise Project were also able to grow their own expertise in digital learning and build new partnerships across Leeds and further afield.
Their expanded programme ‘Developing Digital Literacies Through Art’ doubled the number of courses available to provide more opportunities for people to access digital skills and devices:
“The programme helps to develop additional digital skills such as web search, using and uploading to social media platforms, saving and editing files, and email and communication skills. These transferable skills enable local people to tell their own stories using creative methods, as well as enabling them to engage with digital technologies and access online services.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Funding from Fujitsu
In 2025 The Highrise Project was awarded a grant from Fujitsu, via their social value commitment to Leeds City Council. This funding meant The Highrise Project could expand the remit of their Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer through increased hours. This additional capacity has meant that workshops can run more effectively and efficiently, with one-to-one digital support available to participants:
“Our Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer helps people to access creative digital apps like Procreate and platforms like Etsy and Red Bubble. She also supports them to develop basic digital skills, like understanding how an iPad works, uploading and downloading files, internet safety, and understanding fair use of images. When we’re running workshops, our Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer is there to help people who are struggling with those basic skills and helping them to keep up with the workshops.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
This additional capacity means The Highrise Project has also been able to run more workshops with themes designed to engage participants previously reluctant to explore digital tools. This approach has been effective at engaging participants with low digital confidence and motivation, leading to increased participant take-up.
“One of our participants is creative, but she’s never done digital work. She has an iPad, but she’d never used it, and she’d been very opposed to using digital. Having a Support Officer allowed us to run a workshop which combined bookbinding with digital tools. With support and encouragement from the Support Officer she learned how to use Canva and Procreate and how to upload images. Things that she was absolutely opposed to doing, she’s now really embraced, just by having support and space for five weeks. She said, ‘I’m glad I came on this course because now I can use digital tools and I can see the benefits of it’.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Retention of the Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer role has also increased capacity for the team more generally, allowing The Highrise Project to secure further funding.
“The funding has been amazing because we can continue to work with the Creative Digital Workshop Support Officer and focus on running workshops while they focus on digital inclusion. It means that we have more scope to go out into the community because we have a bigger team. We’ve also been awarded additional funding from other sources to support the work. It’s been a bit of a struggle this year with funding, but it’s always easier to apply for funding when you have ongoing work that you can build upon.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Supporting skills for self-employment with Multiply
100% Digital Leeds worked with Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills team and third sector partners to support communities hit hardest by the cost-of-living crisis through Multiply, a government-funded scheme to improve adult numeracy skills. It aimed to boost people’s ability to use maths in their daily life, both at home and work.
The Highrise Project received funding to deliver a course introducing learners to the skills needed for self-employment, including basic numeracy and digital skills.
“A lot of people would like the option to work as a freelancer, but when you say to someone ‘You should be self-employed’, they immediately start thinking about all these things that they might have to do to get to that point, and it feels too scary, especially for people without financial resources. Being introduced to self-employment in a fun way by bringing in creative digital skills means people find it easier to get started on that journey.
“Because of our own journeys to self-employment, we’re aware of some of the issues that people struggle with. When I was looking for advice to become self-employed, it was something that you had to really search for. You had to go into an office and talk to somebody who was in a business suit. It was quite intimidating. People being able to access support from someone they recognise in a very relaxed way helps to breakdown that barrier and make it less scary.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
The course, delivered at New Wortley Community Centre, covered:
- What it means to be self-employed
- How to register as self-employed
- Where to find further support about self-employment online
- Different ways to calculate how much to charge for your time / product
- Basic bookkeeping
- Using free online tools like Canva to create social media content
- A Dragon’s Den-style workshop where people presented their ideas for self-employment.
Each participant was gifted a digital device and connectivity. Prior to engaging with Multiply over half of the learners had no digital device or struggled with data poverty. For some of the learners, access to digital was the strongest reason for them attending. Of the learners who already had a digital device, most only had access to a smartphone so being provided with a tablet made it much easier to use tools for self-employment, such as accounting platforms.
Arts, Culture and Older People: Research Project and Toolkit
In 2025, 100% Digital Leeds worked with the University of Sheffield on a research project funded by Arts Council England, exploring whether participation in digital arts and culture could serve as an initial first step for older people to become more confident with a broader range of digital tools and services. As part of the project, 100% Digital Leeds developed a toolkit advising arts and culture organisations, older people’s services, and digital inclusion specialists on how they can collaborate and embed digital elements into creative activities.
The Highrise Project were invited to provide a case study, sharing their specialist knowledge as an arts organisation in addressing digital inclusion through a cultural lens, demonstrating how arts and culture can act as a ‘perfect hook’ to engage older people in digital inclusion.
“I think this is true of arts across the board. You’re approaching a problem in a different way. You’re not saying, ‘People aren’t accessing their internet, so we’re just going to teach them how to Google something.’ You’re saying, ‘We’re going to approach this in a different way’, using creativity to have those conversations.’”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Supporting vulnerable people with multiple and varied needs
The Highrise Project recognises that arts and creativity aren’t engaging for everyone in the community, nor are they trying to be ‘all things to all people’. They see themselves as ‘part of an ecology’. Forming partnerships with, and signposting people to, organisations that already have the foundational knowledge, skills, experience, and resources to meet particular needs, is an important part of their offer.
“We often work with people who have lots of different needs and are quite vulnerable, but we can’t be all things to all people, and we’re not trying to do everything. From a safeguarding perspective and a boundaries perspective, we don’t want to promise something that we can’t then deliver on. We’re not counsellors, we’re not therapists, we don’t have loads of money and resources and people. We’re only available to support people one day a week – we don’t want people to rely solely on us. So we work closely with organisations that have more capacity, or offer specialist services, and we signpost participants as needed. We partner with organisations whose core offer is supporting people from the different communities we work with, such as refugees and asylum seekers. If people are experiencing food poverty, or they need access to hygiene banks, we signpost to organisations who provide those services and are better placed to support people in that way.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
The Highrise Project are conscious of the fact that many of their participants are socially isolated. They feel that, while digital can be a tool for connecting with others, for some of their participants it may exacerbate their feelings of loneliness. It is important to The Highrise Project that their work facilitates in-person social connections as well as digital connection.
“It’s critical that we recognise that some of the people we work with feel like they’re losing connections through digital. Digital can be an incredibly powerful tool for connection, but it can also be incredibly isolating. Some of our participants struggle with the idea of not talking to a person and just having an app on your phone. When we talk about people accessing medical stuff online, or banking, people can feel a sense of loss. They might not have spoken to anybody all week and then, suddenly, we’re telling them that the one person they feel like they could speak to is replaced by an app. It’s important we think about that in what we’re encouraging people to do, and what we’re facilitating. It’s important we help people to make in-person social connections.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
The Highrise Project are also conscious of the fact that many of their participants are vulnerable and can find it very difficult to trust digital tools and services, or to feel safe online. They can feel overwhelmed by what they feel are mixed messages around who or what they should trust and how they should go about keeping themselves safe, both online and offline.
“If you’re used to using digital tools, you may not think about how much trust is involved. We can take for granted things that might make our participants really nervous. Especially the idea that everything is on your phone, and a phone isn’t connected to a physical ‘back up’. People worry about ‘What if I lose it? What if somebody can hack it?’ We talk about online safety, but people tell us ‘I’m not supposed to give my details out. I’m not supposed to access things if I don’t know what’s going on’. People have to be aware, but it can be a lot for them to take in. To some of our more vulnerable participants it can feel like they’re being told ‘Don’t do anything, don’t trust anybody, but also, trust this random app’.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
The long-term impact of support to develop The Highrise Project’s creative digital and digital inclusion offers
The grant from the 2022 Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund, and the bank of iPads purchased with that funding, meant The Highrise Project were able to deliver digital sessions on themes such as experimental digital photography as part of the University of Leeds’s Welcoming Migrants programme, working with The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery and Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery. They were also able to gift data to the participants, who were helped to attend by charities supporting refugees and asylum seekers, such as LASSN, PAFRAS, and RETAS.
Delivering this work has led to The Highrise Project developing an ongoing relationship with the University, providing a much-needed income stream. The project also saw the Highrise Project building trusted relationships with participants who have gone on to engage with the organisation’s core offer in Armley.
Some of those participants have continued to work with The Highrise Project on a recent commission as paid Co-producers, giving them an opportunity to be paid for their expertise and develop as arts practitioners.
“While they’ve been working with us, we’ve been signposting to other opportunities, and they’ve been finding their own, so they’ve been developing their own practice independently. They’re people who self-define as creatives and artists and want to pursue that as a career. One person came to us through PAFRAS at the University of Leeds Welcoming Migrants project. We signposted him to the University’s Lifelong Learning Centre, and he’s now in receipt of a refugee scholarship and is on a degree course. He’s volunteering with MAFWA, he’s on Boards, he’s connecting with other people in the University. He’s got so much grit and determination, he’s amazing. And we can trace all those long-term benefits back to the Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund in 2022, which meant we could buy the iPads. It’s really been transformational for The Highrise Project and our participants.”
Co-founder, The Highrise Project
Developing their digital arts offer has led to The Highrise Project successfully accessing further funding opportunities, including:
- Cultural Bridge, which has seen The Highrise Project form a bilateral partnership with Kulturbühne Neustadt e.V. a non-profit organisation based in Halle-Neustadt, Germany.
- Funding from the Leeds Cultural Investment Partnership to develop an Armley Digital Heritage Trail.
- Partnering with Leeds Arts University and Getaway Girls to create an animation as an output of their Include+ funded project on online objectification.
This work has prompted a shift in how they approach income generation, moving beyond grant dependency towards commissions, partnerships and producing digital outputs for other organisations. Their digital workshops have also created paid roles for participants as support assistants, with plans for the organisation to build on this model to increase capacity over the long term.
Longitudinal impact for individuals
“AB has had a lot of health problems in the last two years. They don’t have family who can support them, and they rely on access to groups to maintain their mental health and wellbeing. They spend a lot of time alone in their flat, and this can be isolating. Through attending a Multiply workshop, AB received their very first mobile phone. They were unsure how to use it but we were able to offer digital skills workshops and one-to-one support where they learned to fill in forms online, take photos and videos. They also received support to learn how to do things that were meaningful for them, including downloading apps to listen to the radio and watch films, which improved AB’s wellbeing at home. More recently they have started to use WhatsApp to message friends, which has helped them to feel less isolated.”
“CD is an older gentleman who lives alone, having lived with his mum until she passed away. He is very isolated, very, very suspicious of all things digital, and very particular about his privacy. He’s very open about the fact that he struggled in school and didn’t understand a lot of the lessons. When CD first engaged with The Highrise Project he had no digital skills at all, talking a lot about how fast the digital world moves and how it’s very difficult for him to keep up. We encouraged CD to sign up to our Multiply course, spending a lot of one-to-one time with him, very patiently explaining every step of the course so he felt comfortable with it, filling out the form, then looking at budgeting and digital skills. The fact that he was willing to take part in Multiply at all is a massive win because he was so suspicious of the internet. Since completing Multiply, CD has signed up for our digital art sessions, which shows how much his confidence has grown. Hopefully by the end of those sessions, we’ll have him confidently using his new smartphone.”
Next steps
100% Digital Leeds has worked with The Highrise Project for over five years. In that time, The Highrise Project has increased their capacity, deepened their understanding of the barriers to digital inclusion, and developed their digital inclusion offer to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Digital inclusion is now embedded as a crucial element of their core offer. 100% Digital Leeds will continue to look for opportunities to work with The Highrise Project to increase digital inclusion and improve outcomes for the people they are supporting.