100% Digital Leeds is working in partnership with five third-sector organisations on the Connecting and Protecting Communities project, funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). The organisations working on the project are:
- Afrikindness
- Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours
- Damasq
- Connect in the North
- Leeds Irish Health and Homes
100% Digital Leeds is developing a toolkit of resources, coproduced with the five organisations, that will provide other organisations with the tools to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.
The project is underway and each organisation is taking a different approach in their delivery. They are tailoring their sessions, resources, and learning of misinformation and disinformation to be relevant, accessible, and inclusive for their communities.
Afrikindness
Afrikindness works with and supports families and children from African and ethnically diverse communities in Leeds. They identified parents with whom they had existing trusted relationships to take part in the project. Many of the parents had previously expressed concerns about online safety, scams, and misinformation affecting their households. Many also have low digital skills and confidence. Afrikindness wants to build digital skills opportunities into their delivery of the project through the lens of misinformation and disinformation to support digital inclusion within their community.
Tackling misinformation and disinformation is a priority for Afrikindness as many of their families have been affected by online scams, harmful rumours, and culturally targeted false narratives. The organisation knows that diverse communities may be more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation, and it can have a deeper impact, due to:
- Language barriers and cultural interpretations of information
- Lower trust in institutions
- Reliance on peer networks
Afrikindness has adopted an interactive community learning approach. They chose to deliver their sessions at the Reginald Centre Community Hub in Chapeltown, a trusted location known to the parents. To increase confidence and create an informal, non-judgemental environment they are developing sessions that include opportunities for relationship building and peer-support which include sharing real-life case studies, discussions, and interactive activities. They are embedding digital skills support into the sessions, with exercises on laptops and desktop computers so parents can develop their digital skills and increase their confidence to navigate the internet throughout the course.
Taking a train-the-trainer approach
Afrikindness’s goal for the project is to upskill parents to recognise misinformation and disinformation and to support them to take a train-the-trainer approach, to pass on their learning to their children and share their knowledge to support them.
“We recognise that digital safety is now an essential part of modern safeguarding and parenting. Supporting families today requires more than providing access to devices.”
Bunmi Owolabi, CEO, Afrikindness
For many parents across the Afrikindness community, information often circulates through WhatsApp groups, faith networks, and family and friend groups. Messages shared by these trusted contacts are rarely questioned. As a result, Afrikindness is aware that misinformation can spread quickly and is often believed by many of their community. Without the skills to critically analyse information, parents may unknowingly share harmful content or become victims of scams.
Parents have expressed their concerns around their children accessing misinformation and disinformation as well as their ability to recognise it themselves. This approach will support parents to feel more confident and have greater knowledge of which tools and resources are available to support them in staying safe online and protecting their children online.
“We need the skills ourselves. Our children are advanced online, we don’t know everything they know online, and we want to be confident in helping them, showing them and keeping them safe as well as ourselves”.
Bunmi Owolabi, CEO, Afrikindness
Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme
Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme works with and supports people aged over 60 in Cross Gates and surrounding areas. The organisation has delivered digital inclusion sessions with their community for over six years.
They have previously delivered digital inclusion sessions on the theme of frauds and scams because they have many members who have been scammed and feel very fearful of the internet. They identified members to take part in the project who have some digital skills, are using social media, and are potentially more susceptible to coming across misinformation and disinformation.
Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme know that misinformation and disinformation can have a greater impact on older people due to:
- Negative impacts on physical health
- Negative impacts on mental health
- Financial loss
- Increasing fear of the online world
“Many of our members believe what they read online to be true, and many have been vulnerable to financial scams. We want to build confidence and skills across our members through this project, equipping each member with their own personal safety plan to avoid them being vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation.”
Samantha Haggart, Digital Inclusion Worker, Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme
Taking a role-play approach
At the most recent vaccine clinic run by Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme, 20% of their members chose to have only one vaccine due to a fear of having two vaccines together. On questioning, the organisation realised these decisions were based on no real evidence or research other than information from a well-meaning friend or relative. This left many service users vulnerable when the flu epidemic hit soon after.
Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme are taking a role-play approach throughout the Connecting and Protecting Communities project. They are facilitating interactive activities where members can play different characters using scripts. These reflect real-life examples of misinformation and disinformation such as a family WhatsApp group chat or receiving scam letters and emails that look official. Their goal for the project is for their members to be more confident to ‘Stop, Think, and Decide later’, and to be able to make more informed decisions when they receive or access information in future.
They are going to support members to develop their digital skills within the sessions through exercises including:
- Navigating the NHS website
- Navigating emails and blocking unknown senders
- Reviewing privacy settings on social media
Many members have said that they sometimes forget what they have learnt after a course finishes, so Cross Gates & District Good Neighbours’ Scheme are developing a personal safety plan with worksheets, resources, and top tips for members to put their learning into practice between sessions to reinforce learning and refer to after the course.
Damasq
Damasq works with migrants and asylum seekers across Leeds, supporting people in need and promoting cultural and intercultural awareness across communities. They support a wide range of people including families, older people, and many people who are new to the country. Most of their community speak very little or no English.
They have supported many people with digital skills over the past few years and they work to build relationships across their communities to support people to feel safe, comfortable, and confident. Damasq identified people to take part in the project who they felt would benefit most from developing their skills around misinformation and disinformation as many have real life examples where they’ve fallen victim to acting on untrue information online. Language barriers have added extra challenges, as in some cases their service users haven’t sought to verify information or to question it after translation.
Damasq are using a bilingual tutor to deliver their sessions in Arabic, their learners’ first language. They will build in opportunities to translate the information into English throughout the sessions to improve confidence with written and spoken English.
“There are big challenges with language barriers around trusting information. It’s hard to trust information if you can’t understand the information. Sometimes we are too trusting as the focus is more on translating, rather than questioning the legitimacy of the information.”
Abeer, Course Tutor, Damasq
Taking a cultural approach
Before the project started, many of Damasq’s service users shared information they have received and accessed via social media groups which was misinformation and disinformation. Damasq is taking a cultural approach to delivering the project, tailoring the learning to their service users’ needs and ensuring it is relevant and appropriate. They are focusing on four key themes:
- Minority beliefs
- Building confidence
- Staying safe from scams
- Accessing accurate health information online
Damasq are using culturally specific examples of misinformation and disinformation in their sessions, such as examples of Islamophobia disinformation shared on social media, and misinformation about Home Office regulations and updates shared on closed migrant community Facebook groups. Many of their service users’ families in other countries have seen these examples online and have been worried and stressed for their families. They have said that within their culture it is seen as impolite to question or challenge information that looks like it is from an authority figure or an important source.
“Good people within our culture don’t question or challenge anything from authority because we would always trust authorities.”
Damasq service user
Damasq will include practical top tips throughout the sessions for building confidence in questioning and verifying information, supporting clients to fact check rather than assuming authority and therefore trusting, sharing and acting on that information.
Connect in the North
Connect in the North work with adults with a learning difficulty or / and autism across Leeds, delivering a range of support including digital inclusion sessions. They support people with learning difficulties to have control of their own lives and have equal power in the world. They use the words ‘people with a learning difficulty’ rather than ‘people with a learning disability’ because many of their members prefer this.
Connect in the North identified members aged 30 to 60+ to take part in the Connecting and Protecting Communities project. They held a launch event where they shared more information about the project, the themes they intended to cover, and the benefits of taking part in the course. The organisation knows that many of the people they work with are very scared of being scammed, and some have been victims of romance and financial scams. Their service users are regularly exposed to misinformation and disinformation online, especially via social media platforms and dating sites. Family, friends, and carers have expressed their worries about this, and that can increase the fear of being online for the person with the learning difficulty. Connect in the North invited support workers into the sessions to increase peer support and to enable reinforcement of the learning outside of the sessions.
“We know many people we’re working with are scared of being scammed. Family and friends have scare mongered people and they have really appreciated us supporting them to build confidence and awareness of how to identify a scam and stay safe online, so it doesn’t stop them from doing the things they want to do online”.
Sarah, Learning and Development Manager, Connect in the North
Taking a Gamification approach
Connect in the North are taking a gamification approach to delivering their sessions, hosting them in an informal space at their office service users are familiar with and where they feel comfortable. This approach builds games, quizzes and informal group activities into each session around the themes of misinformation and disinformation. The sessions use real-life examples such as:
- Catfishing on dating websites
- Buying fake products online
- AI fake images and videos
- Influencer culture
Each activity is group-based to increase opportunities for engagement and social interactions, as well as building a fun element into the sessions. This is because the topic of misinformation and disinformation can be quite distressing for people with a learning difficulty or / and autism.
“We find sessions delivered in a group setting work best for people living with a learning difficulty, as it takes the pressure off the person and encourages peer support, which creates more of a fun, energetic environment to learn in.”
Sarah, Learning and Development Manager, Connect in the North
Connect in the North conducted a pre-course questionnaire to assess members’ digital skills needs to tailor the sessions in the right way, and to build effective digital skills support into the sessions. These skills included:
- Deleting scam and unwanted emails and blocking unknown email senders
- Setting up parental controls on devices, as many service users said it would help them feel safer online
- Looking at accessibility settings on devices
- Navigating social media safely
Leeds Irish Health and Homes
Leeds Irish Health and Homes work with and support older people with Irish Heritage across Leeds. They have delivered digital inclusion sessions within their community for over five years.
They previously delivered digital inclusion sessions as part of the BOSS project. Many service users said they needed more support around scams and staying safe online as they feel embarrassed that their grandchildren know more about being online than they do. The organisation was keen to provide their service users with more information about current scams and AI, and to make them aware of tools to help them identify misinformation and disinformation.
Many of Leeds Irish Health and Homes’ service users said they read information quickly and feel like they need to act fast when receiving emails and texts, which increases their fear and stress. Many also said that they have been quick to share information they read online, and they would like to learn how to fact check information. Leeds Irish Health and Homes identified service users who had previously attended their digital inclusion sessions to build upon their digital skills support through the lens of misinformation and disinformation.
Taking a Highway Code approach
Leeds Irish Health and Homes are taking a Stop, Think, and Verify approach in delivering the Connecting and Protecting Communities project. They want to build confidence and skills to recognise misinformation and disinformation, and tailor the learning to their service users’ needs. They are introducing a ‘Digital Highway Code’ by using real-life examples of misinformation and disinformation to equip clients with the skills they need.
“A lot of our service users are very active on Facebook, and many have said they wouldn’t dream of questioning the information they are presented with there. They read it and believe it. In the past they may have got their news from traditional newspapers or television and believed what they were told first hand. We want to make them aware that the landscape of news has changed and that now we need to explore a little bit more about where our news is coming from and stop, think, and verify before taking something as true.”
Anne Pearce, Digital Inclusion Officer, Leeds Irish Health and Homes.
Leeds Irish Health and Homes are using the FIRST approach in their sessions to help their members to follow the Digital Highway Code. They are also developing resources and worksheets that their members can take away to reinforce their learning after the course.
The FIRST approach:
F – Fake – Could this be false, misleading, or edited?
I – Identity – Who is this from? Can I check this?
R – Reaction – Does it make me angry, emotional, or sad?
S – Source – Where is this information from?
T – Timing – Is this current or old news?
“We want to support clients to think about who wrote this information, is the source trustworthy? Does it seem designed to upset or trick me? And encourage them to pause, stop, and think before sharing.”
Anne Pearce, Digital Inclusion Officer, Leeds Irish Health and Homes.
Next Steps
Delivery of the Connecting and Protecting Communities sessions is now underway across all five organisations. 100% Digital Leeds is attending the sessions to capture the learning and collate the resources that have been developed and used by each organisation. This will feed into the development of the Connecting and Protecting Communities toolkit that will be published in early summer 2026.
On 18 March 2026, 100% Digital Leeds is presenting to Leeds City Council Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth Scrutiny Board on the progress of this project.
In response to the Connecting and Protecting Communities project Lee Edwards, Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science has approached 100% Digital Leeds to take part in their research project ‘UK Media Literacy Sector Analysis’ which will be published later this year.
100% Digital Leeds will publish another blog update on the impact of the project when all delivery has finished in April 2026.