Connecting and Protecting Communities: workshop insights and impact

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 project will see the coproduction of a toolkit that will provide other organisations with the resources needed to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.

This is the third in a series of blogs documenting the project. The first blog in the series covered the background to the project, and the second blog covered the workshop delivery period. In this blog we share some of the insights gathered during workshop delivery that will form the basis of the Connecting and Protecting Communities Toolkit.

The organisations partnering with 100% Digital Leeds on the project are:

100% Digital Leeds developed the Connecting and Protecting Communities project after hearing from partner organisations that the themes of misinformation and disinformation were a deepening concern for their communities. This is reflected at a national level, as identified by Ofcom.

“Misinformation can spread rapidly online, and distinguishing fact from fiction is increasingly challenging. This is especially important with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, which have the potential to convincingly create false narratives and visuals.”

Ofcom, Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report, May 2025.

The Connecting and Protecting Communities project has already helped the five delivery organisations to build knowledge, experience, and tools to support people and communities to develop the transferable skills needed to identify, and be critical of, misinformation and disinformation in all contexts.

Now that the workshop delivery element of the project has finished, 100% Digital Leeds is using these insights to develop a co-produced toolkit that other organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.

“I’ve realised you’ve got to be cautious, I feel less frightened by the internet, and I feel more confident ignoring things on Facebook that may be misinformation and I’ll always ask someone now before I act on something.”

Project participant, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours

Understanding the impact of misinformation and disinformation on learners

In their workshops, organisations shared the definitions of misinformation and disinformation with their learners. Learners reflected on the different ways they have been susceptible to misinformation and disinformation in the past, and the impact and consequences of this.

“Feedback from members reflected a growing awareness of how misinformation impacts emotional wellbeing and community cohesion. Learners acknowledged that prior to the sessions they often accepted online information at face value or shared content without verification, and discussions helped them recognise the mental and emotional toll of constant exposure to negative or inflammatory narratives.”

Anne Pearce, Digital Inclusion Officer, Leeds Irish Health and Homes

Personal experiences shared across the organisations throughout the project, highlighted the wider impact of misinformation and disinformation:

  • Impact on mental health
  • Effect on physical health
  • Financial loss
  • Discrimination
  • Radical views
  • Increasing fear of the online world
  • Lower trust in institutions 

Susceptibility to misinformation and disinformation was seen to be related to:

  • The types of sources of information: Information shared from family, friends or trusted people was more likely to be taken at face value, and less likely to be questioned or verified.
  • Confidence with identifying AI edited content online: Lack of knowledge and skills to recognise when information or content has been edited or manipulated.
  • The quantity of information read and accessed online: People accessing large quantities of information and content at a fast pace (e.g. doom scrolling on social media) meant sometimes information was consumed without knowing the original source and was more likely to be trusted.
  • Busy lives and schedules: People juggling lots of commitments with limited time are more likely to rush when consuming information and they’re less likely to fact check.
  • Language barriers: People with English as a second language found it harder to question information as they prioritised translating the information over fact checking.
  • Digital skills and confidence: People with low digital skills who are less confident with navigating the online world were more likely to trust information on face value as their focus is more on developing their digital confidence rather than questioning the information they consume.

Codesigning ways to identify and navigate misinformation and disinformation

The Connecting and Protecting Communities project reflects 100% Digital Leeds’s Community Based Approach. The project is delivered in partnership with organisations who have existing trusted relationships with the people and communities they support, so are best placed to understand the needs of their learners and tailor their workshop content and delivery approach accordingly.

This approach is reflective of Ofcom research shared in their latest delivery plan:

“Our experience and insights suggest that media literacy interventions are most effective when they are delivered by trusted voices. In addition to the professionals that an individual already trusts to support them, this could be someone from the same community or with similar life experiences as the learners.”

Ofcom, Making sense of media delivery plan 2025-2027

Each organisation took a different approach to delivering the project, tailoring their delivery content and methods to meet the particular needs of their learners: older people, people with learning disabilities, migrants, and low-income families.

However, there were many common themes and learning points across the workshops that helped organisations make their sessions accessible and inclusive for communities.

Building safe spaces and trusted relationships

Each of the organisations prioritised the atmosphere and environment they delivered their workshops in. Creating spaces that were safe, non-confrontational, and judgement-free allowed learners to share their personal experiences of falling foul of misinformation and disinformation.

Damasq incorporated icebreaker activities into the start of their sessions to build relationships between learners, allowing people to feel confident in sharing their thoughts and experiences. Damasq’s tutor delivered their sessions in Arabic, their learners’ first language. This increased engagement by ensuring learners could easily understand the examples shared, and feed into discussion.

“There are big challenges with a language barrier around trusting information. It’s hard to trust information if you can’t understand the information. Sometimes people are too trusting as the focus is more on translating the information rather than questioning the legitimacy of the information. Delivering the sessions in both Arabic and English has meant people have been able to increase their skills and confidence with misinformation and disinformation without language being a barrier, and developed ESOL skills alongside this.”

Abeer, Course Tutor, Damasq

Connect in the North and Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours facilitated small group activities in their workshops. This helped learners to build relationships, encouraging peer-support opportunities, and the sharing of learners’ experiences of encountering misinformation and disinformation. Encouraging learners to share examples of where they had personally experienced scam emails and disinformation shared on social media increased learner engagement and understanding.

Afrikindness and Leeds Irish Health and Homes supported their members to share their own experiences by working together to complete group quizzes and navigating information together in pairs. This increased confidence, empathy and created a judgment-free environment with learners recognising ‘it could happen to any of us’.

“I have learnt so much. I feel more empowered, peaceful and calm about the theme of misinformation and disinformation, to take my time and slow down to check something before I act. It’s been a lovely atmosphere with no judgement, kindness and I’ve made friends so we can all be better parents together and help each other.”

Learner, Afrikindness

Developing practical approaches to taking the ‘FIRST’ approach

Organisations used the FIRST approach to support their learners to stop, question and fact check information, building skills to critically evaluate information on their own terms:

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?

Organisations practically approached this by teaching learners how to:

  • Verify information for sharing it: Checking multiple, trusted and reputable sources of news before passing on information as fact.
  • Investigate the source of information: Checking for author credentials, website credibility, and date of publication. Organisations shared the Get Safe Online website, the UK’s leading internet safety website with tools such as Ask Silver which can instantly check a communication and indicate whether it is safe or a ‘Red Flag’, and the Check a Website tool which helps people determine whether a website is likely to be legitimate or a scam.
  • Use Google reverse image search: Google’s reverse image search function can help to verify images and videos by identifying the original source, and ensuring images are not taken out of context, or fabricated or manipulated content such as AI deepfake videos.
  • Avoid the spread of misinformation: Stopping and thinking before they share information, as continuing the spread of misinformation can increase belief in the information. Reporting scam emails and texts to the National Cyber Security Centre.

Taking a ‘hands on’ approach to supporting improved digital skills and confidence

Organisations identified learners to take part in the Connecting and Protecting Communities project who had low digital skills and confidence, and who were less likely to be aware of the issues and negative impact associated with misinformation and disinformation, online safety, and the other risks that come with being online. Building opportunities to develop learners’ digital skills and confidence into the sessions was significant in supporting the media literacy of learners.

Project funding allowed organisations to gift digital equipment and connectivity to learners, allowing them to get online outside of the workshops and continue their learning.

Providing laptops and tablets for use in the workshops gave learners the opportunity to develop hands-on experience in navigating online information. Organisations sent example scam emails to learners’ smartphones to demonstrate the kind of email they could receive, helping them to develop the digital skills and critical skills to look for the ‘red flags’ that might determine whether an email is a scam. Learners were taught how to open emails on their smartphone, how to identify the sender, how to delete the email and how to report it to the National Cyber Security Centre.

Exploring misinformation and disinformation through a lens that resonates with learners

Each of the five organisations explored misinformation using different examples and case studies that reflected the personal experiences of their learners, helping to ensure the workshop content was immediately relevant and engaging.

Minority beliefs and cultural barriers

Damasq and Afrikindness shared examples of closed Facebook groups aimed at migrants that some learners had previously been exposed to, which included many examples of misinformation and disinformation. Examples included incidents of Islamophobia designed to instil fear in migrant communities, and misinformation about Home Office regulations.

Cultural barriers appeared to make it harder for people to challenge information. Learners’ cultural beliefs of trusting admired and inspirational people by default meant they were more likely to believe information when it appeared to be from authoritative sources.

“It is hard to challenge information or sources sometimes. We come from a different country, things are different back in Africa, we need to adapt and adjust to broaden our thinking and upskill ourselves, so we are more confident to identify misinformation and disinformation.”

Learner, Afrikindness

Building confidence with questioning information was key to people developing the skills to not fall victim to trusting disinformation. Damasq shared two tools, ‘the pause phrase’ and the ‘the three question confidence check’ to support with building confidence and avoiding being susceptible to trusting misinformation and disinformation online.

The pause phrase – phrases you can use:

  • “Let me check this later.”
  • “I’m not sure if this is true.”
  • “I don’t need to share this now.”
  • Practise saying them out loud

The three question confidence check – before believing or sharing, ask:

  • How does this make me feel? (Angry, scared, rushed?)
  • Who benefits if I believe this?
  • What happens if I do nothing?

Misinformation and disinformation in health

Health was a common theme in workshops across the organisations, with many people sharing personal experiences of believing misinformation and disinformation related to vaccine hesitancy, ‘miracle remedies’, medication advice, and information about their long-term conditions.

“I saw an article in a magazine saying that certain medications that I was taking cause health problems. It made me think about stopping my medication, but I learnt in our sessions to check the NHS website before believing everything I read.”

Learner, Leeds Irish Health and Homes

Organisations included opportunities to develop confidence in navigating trusted sources such as the NHS website and the NHS app in their workshops, supporting learners to understand where to find accurate information about their health and wellbeing, and how to confidently fact check.

“I don’t actually know why I chose to not have the two flu vaccines, because I can’t remember where I read something about it or heard something bad about having two, but I did and it made me not have the second one.”

Learner, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours

Recognising and avoiding scams

Across the board learners shared personal experiences of having been scammed in the past. Many felt that, prior to the workshops, they didn’t have the skills to identify whether an email or message was a scam.

Afrikindness found that many of their learners had seen scams relating to Asda vouchers shared through WhatsApp groups and online. To many, the ‘vouchers’ appeared legitimate, and some learners had been scammed in this way in the past. Afrikindess used this scam as an example in an ‘identifying the red flags’ exercise to build learners’ skills and confidence in looking for signs of when something is a scam, reinforcing the message that ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is’.

“As parents we have no control over what information and content is out there on social media and online, but we can adapt to stop, pause and check to verify something and teach our children to do the same.”

Bunmi, CEO, Afrikindness

Leeds Irish Health and Homes and Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours developed workbooks and worksheets that gave top tips for identifying a scam or phishing email, using real life examples. Many of their learners who are over 65 had felt anxious and nervous about receiving scam emails and texts, especially those that appeared to be from their bank. The organisations encouraged people to check their bank’s website for information on the texts and emails they’re likely to send, and to make note of the numbers or email addresses any messages would be sent from.

Damasq found many of their learners had been made aware of charity donation scams, fake charities and WhatsApp impersonation. They facilitated group activities using real life examples of scam texts and legitimate texts from the NHS and other trusted organisations, pointing out the differences. They focused on increasing confidence in translating the messages first, before supporting people to identify whether they were from legitimate sources. Learners expressed that part of their culture was to not question messages appearing to be from trusted institutions, as this can appear rude. This has meant people have developed a tendency of trusting everything before being critical.

“Good people don’t question or challenge anything from sources that look like authorities or social media groups we go to for information. We would always trust authorities. We are learning the skills on this course and it’s a balance between not wanting to lose our culture and adapting to this new way of life to stay safe.”

Learner, Damasq

Connect in the North shared that many of their learners had experienced romance scams. These include ‘catfishing’ on dating sites, and online impersonation scams, which involve the creation of a fake social account or profile to mimic another person, organisation, or entity. Connect in the North used interactive quizzes and games to demonstrate top tips for avoiding scams. They also facilitated small group discussions around the benefits of not acting immediately when receiving an email or message, encouraging people to check with someone trusted, such as their support worker, before acting.

Identifying fabricated and manipulated online content

AI and its role in fake news was a common area of concern across the organisations and workshops. Many learners shared that they lacked confidence to be able to identify whether information or content was fabricated or manipulated using AI.

Organisations shared examples of:

Influencer culture: “Because I’ve seen everyone sharing it or seen it in a few places or quite a few times, I’m assuming it must be true.”

Click bait and social media algorithms: “The more you click and engage, the more you see of that sort of content that could be misinformation and disinformation.”

Deepfake Videos: “Just because it’s information shared from someone you trust and admire, such as famous people, politicians and inspirational speakers, it doesn’t mean it is accurate or true.”

Connect in the North created a list of key questions for learners to ask themselves to help identify if content is AI generated, fabricated, manipulated, click-bait or trying to make you act urgently:

  • Does it make you feel scared?
  • What’s the date?
  • Are they trying to sell you something?
  • What’s the evidence for it?
  • Is it AI? Are there any defects in the photo/video?
  • If in doubt, use trusted information and talk to someone.

“Many people we’re working with who have a learning difficulty are very scared of being scammed. This can often be down to friends and family scaremongering. Our learners 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 Wheatley, Learning and Development Manager, Connect in the North

Outcomes and impact to date

For learners

After the Connecting and Protecting Communities workshop series all learners said they felt more confident in spotting and avoiding misinformation and disinformation and felt better equipped to stay safe online.

Learners from across the five organisations delivering Connecting and Protecting Communities workshops highlighted the following outcomes:

  • Increased awareness of misinformation and disinformation.
  • Increased confidence in their ability to be critical of whether information is accurate.
  • Increased awareness of fact-checker websites, and other useful tools.
  • Improved knowledge of the tools to identify misinformation and disinformation.
  • Improved ability to recognise and avoid the risks of being online.
  • Reduced anxiety and worry when accessing information online and receiving messages and emails.
  • Increased understanding and awareness of trusted information sources.
  • Reduced likelihood of inadvertently spreading misinformation and disinformation by sharing information without checking its accuracy.

Learners shared the impact of the above:

“I will be more confident to question something and ask for information to be translated so I can make the right decisions, rather than agreeing to things because I don’t understand.”

Learner, Damasq

“I think I’ve been hacked quite a lot, so I always change my password. I now feel more confident to look for the red flags and not act on something straight away, I will check with someone else before I believe something is true.”

Learner, Connect in the North

“My nerves would go when I read things online and when I got emails that made me feel anxious. I now know these have been scam emails, and I stop, think and check the sender and don’t click the links and I feel less flustered and anxious.”

Learner, Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours

“I’ve learnt that if a scam text or misinformation comes to me online or through a message, I can break the chain of sharing by not passing it on if I am not 100% sure it is true. I will now pause and fact check before I share.”

Learner, Afrikindness

For organisations

The five delivery partners report that they have developed new skills themselves and now have greater access to a wide range of resources to continue supporting people with misinformation and disinformation. Many of the organisations have seen huge demand from their wider service user groups for further support around this theme, and around developing digital skills and confidence more generally, so are seeking further funding opportunities to continue this work.

Feedback from the organisations included:

“Partnering on this project strengthened our ability to combine grassroots community trust with specialist digital expertise, ensuring the programme was both practical and meaningful for the families we serve.”

“Co-producing the resources with other organisations and sharing information knowledge tips and tricks is invaluable. The knowledge, support and advice from 100% Digital Leeds are absolutely second to none.”

“Having the time to dedicate to this project has given us the chance to really examine this area in detail and decide on the best way to tackle this vast topic in a way that suits our learners.”

Quotes from staff across the organisations delivering the project

Next steps

Now the workshop delivery period of the project has finished, 100% Digital Leeds is using the insights gathered to develop the Connecting and Protecting Communities toolkit. This will be a co-produced bank of resources that organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.

The resources will include session plans, case studies and examples of misinformation and disinformation that will resonate with a wide range of organisations and their learners. They will set out different approaches to embedding these discussions within existing services and digital inclusion interventions. The resources will enable other organisations to deliver meaningful digital inclusion interventions on the theme of misinformation and disinformation. The toolkit will be published in early Summer 2026, on the Digital Inclusion Toolkit.

Partner Profile: Give a Gift

Give a Gift is a registered charity based in Harehills, an inner-city area of East Leeds. The organisation provides support to local communities facing disadvantage and destitution, including people from asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds. It supports these communities by bridging the gap between the assistance provided by statutory agencies and the needs of individuals and families. The aim is to help individuals to improve their wellbeing and quality of life by developing the skills, knowledge, and self-confidence to progress and better integrate into society, reducing dependency on support services. Give a Gift’s provision ranges from advocacy, befriending, and interpretation services to short‑term financial assistance, housing support, social and recreational activities, and volunteering opportunities.

As members of Leeds Community Anchor Network, Give a Gift worked with 100% Digital Leeds and other partners in the Leeds Anchor Network on a Community Listening Exercise to help deepen understanding of the practical, cultural, and emotional challenges residents face when trying to secure employment. With the support of 100% Digital Leeds, the feedback from these sessions directly informed the design of a range of interlinked activities at Give a Gift, achieved through coproduction and collaboration, with digital inclusion support embedded throughout.

The work of Give a Gift shows that when delivered with empathy, flexibility, and trust, digital inclusion activity can significantly improve confidence and opportunities for people facing disadvantage.

Community Listening Exercises

Give a Gift works with grassroots communities and has considerable reach and expertise in engaging with sections of society that other stakeholders might describe as ‘harder to reach’. As an ABCD Pathfinder organisation, their approach is to involve and engage communities at the outset in decision making. Give a Gift works in partnership with users to take a bespoke, flexible approach to delivering activity and projects based on users’ input, encouraging people to play an active role in services impacting their lives.

“Over the years, we’ve built strong relationships and trust through culturally sensitive, grassroots support, and we have a proven track record of running successful community-based programmes.”

Director, Give a Gift

Give a Gift initially fed into Voluntary Action Leeds’s Good Jobs, Better Health, Fairer Futures report in 2023, along with fellow community anchors New Wortley Community Centre and LS14 Trust (on behalf of We Are Seacroft). This first report found a number of barriers that communities face to accessing good jobs that lead to better health outcomes. Digital exclusion was highlighted as a major factor:

“Digital exclusion provided a significant barrier to many participants being able to access information about jobs, how they can apply for them and how they can also acquire the skills for those jobs.

In one group, it was stated that 50% of people in the room do not have access to the internet either due to cost or not understanding how to use it, representing multiple barriers that caused digital exclusion for communities.

The internet was described as ‘scary when you don’t know how to use it’, implying that some participants would, at the very least, require support from a friend or other knowledgeable community member when accessing opportunities on the internet.

In addition, other participants described the financial barriers that contributed to digital exclusion, with cost being highlighted as a factor in not being able to use the internet.”

Good Jobs, Better Health, Fairer Futures report, June 2023

100% Digital Leeds became involved with Leeds Community Anchor Network after the initial report, meeting with partners to discuss findings in more depth. Give a Gift then held a second Community Listening Exercise in January 2025, attended by 100% Digital Leeds and Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills team, to unpick the report’s findings and to concentrate on overcoming the barriers facing people searching for employment. Along with barriers such as language and comprehension, childcare, and qualifications from overseas not being recognised, the key barriers to digital inclusion faced by people – affordability, access, skills, and confidence – were discussed at length by participants.

“In the past, we had a lot of people coming to us and asking ‘Can you print this form for me? Can you fill this in for me?’ We saw and heard firsthand that many people don’t know where to start with navigating the internet, and sometimes they also don’t have the actual equipment to do that, like a laptop, or even a smartphone – something you can take for granted these days.

Many important things are increasingly only available online so it’s about giving people those skills to be able to engage with vital services, and it means independence for them, because otherwise they’re completely dependent on our service, who are already stretched as it is.”

Project Coordinator, Give a Gift

“We know from direct experience that digital access and learning digital skills remains a low priority for many of the families we support—not because it isn’t important, but because they face more urgent day-to-day challenges.

Many are dealing with poverty, language barriers, racism, trauma, and housing issues. As a result, developing digital or employment skills often gets pushed aside, even though it could help improve their situation in the long term.

Our team hears regularly from families who lack confidence with online systems, whether that’s applying for jobs, supporting their children with schoolwork, or accessing public services. Parents have told us they often rely on others to complete basic tasks online, which leaves them feeling disempowered.”

Director, Give a Gift

Development of a digital inclusion offer

With guidance and support from 100% Digital Leeds, Give a Gift explored opportunities to address barriers to digital inclusion by giving people the digital access they need, and helping them to develop their digital skills and confidence. A grant was secured via UK Shared Prosperity Fund that was used to purchase equipment to transform a space in Give a Gift’s office into a community digital suite, where sessions could be delivered and people could gain the digital access they need in a safe and trusted community setting. Laptops were chosen for their portability, ensuring they can be used across the service on an ad-hoc basis when needed. This provision was embedded across different services, such as the Cultural Food Hub and community engagement and outreach work.

“We wanted to focus on digital inclusion so that we could support people with sorting out issues affecting them, then in the future, hopefully getting into work. This gives them the confidence to progress in that direction. People will only come to somewhere where they feel comfortable, and trust is the biggest thing, so we wanted to do it in-house with people who understand their situations.”

Director, Give a Gift

With further support from 100% Digital Leeds, Give a Gift enhanced their digital inclusion offer by securing Quickline’s QFutures funding in partnership with Leeds Community Foundation. This fund aims to support community organisations that work with children, young people, and families to develop digital skills and enhance employability. It enabled Give a Gift to finance increased hours for their Project Coordinator to deliver more comprehensive sessions that support digital literacy, including how to use basic applications, manage emails, and search online for information.

Give a Gift has maintained their grassroots-led approach when it comes to their work to increase access and skills across the community, by listening to people and focusing on their needs, aspirations, and preferences.

“Everything we do is service user-led… We don’t treat everybody who comes to us in the same way. You’ve got to work very differently based on need. We’ve put on sessions for women who are Kurdish speakers, with an interpreter from the community, because that’s what works best to help them improve their skills and understanding, and puts them at ease. We’re also making sure it’s what they want to learn, to help them overcome challenges they face, and at their pace as well.”

Project Coordinator, Give a Gift

Increasing digital access

Barriers around affordability and sustained digital access were addressed by 100% Digital Leeds introducing Give a Gift to national digital inclusion partnerships and initiatives such as Good Things Foundation’s National Digital Inclusion Network, Hubbub and Virgin Media O2’s Community Calling scheme, and Jangala’s Get Box initiative.

“We are also part of the National Databank where we give out SIM cards with data, and we also benefited from Jangala’s support to distribute Get Boxes with 25GB of monthly data to members of the community, as many of our users simply cannot afford internet connections.”

Director, Give a Gift

As part of the national Community Calling scheme, Give a Gift also received smartphones to gift to people in need, along with 12 months’ free mobile data, minutes and texts via the National Databank, to help recipients get online.

For Give a Gift, gifting smartphones has helped staff to communicate more reliably with service users, resulting in fewer missed appointments and more consistent engagement. Improved digital access has allowed the organisation to run their training programmes more effectively and reach individuals who previously struggled to participate. They spend less time on repeated outreach attempts, freeing staff capacity and allowing teams to focus on delivering higher-quality support. Access to smartphones has enabled smoother coordination, quicker updates, and improved data sharing where appropriate.

“One client is a failed asylum seeker and has been living in the UK for over 20 years. His case is being reviewed by PAFRAS. The elderly client currently has a small old phone which is not a smartphone. He is living in a house with a family who have taken pity on him. His wife and children live in India, and he has very little contact with them. On occasion he is allowed to use one of the smartphones from one of the members of the family to WhatsApp video call his family. When he was given the smartphone, he was very emotional and was so grateful for the help. This lifted his spirits and we saw a smile on his face. He is now teaching himself to use the different features on the phone. We have offered him some support to assist.”

Director, Give a Gift

“A domestic violence client fled from an abusive marriage from Birmingham to Leeds. She was rescued by her sister who is married with family in Leeds. She literally came with nothing and was kept like a prisoner in her marital home, looking after her in-laws and her husband and not being able to leave the house. She was desperate to have contact with her mum and dad in Pakistan. The phone was a lifeline for her to finally have some contact with her parents as she had not been allowed to communicate with them. Her mental health was very low, and she had to start to build her life. We managed to get her a domestic abuse concession for three months which allowed her to have access to public benefits, and we eventually found a women’s refuge in Bradford who would help and support her to become independent.”

Director, Give a Gift

Employability and volunteering

As a direct result of the partnerships formed through the Community Listening Exercise, the Employment and Skills team delivered a structured employability programme at Give a Gift, something that was previously not possible due to limited digital resources. Participants were supported to develop CVs, complete online job applications, and carry out independent job searches using the laptops, increasing both engagement and confidence in using digital tools, as well as learning about staying safe online and avoiding scam job adverts.

The programme addressed barriers identified during the listening exercise with diverse communities, particularly around digital access, and understanding the employability process. By offering a clear, step-by-step guide to employment pathways, the programme improved participants’ skills, knowledge, and readiness for work, leading to stronger outcomes for the community.

“Continued collaboration between Give a Gift, 100% Digital Leeds, and Employment and Skills has significantly improved the learning environment for participants by providing access to essential digital equipment, which includes individual laptops and a large presentation screen. This enhanced setup has enabled an inclusive, comfortable, and effective space for learning the skills needed to move closer to employment.”

Employment and Skills Advisor, Leeds City Council

One participant reported increased confidence in identifying fraudulent job opportunities and now understands how to report them appropriately. Previously, they stated they would have struggled to recognise fake job adverts or would have needed to rely on friends for support.

“I have attended every single session from September to October 2025, and now I have a CV. I feel more confident about using the laptop to find a job. I didn’t know how to do any of this before, but now I understand things better and have improved my learning because of these sessions.”

Course participant, Give a Gift

The Employment and Skills Adult Learning Team also delivered a Step into Volunteering course as part of this work. Learners received a digital badge upon completion and were provided with information, advice, and guidance on next steps. One learner who had previously attended the employability course also attended this session and reported that it had further improved their confidence.

“This highlights the value of sustained partnership working in supporting people within the community to progress towards employment through increased digital skills, confidence, and independence.”

Employment and Skills Advisor, Leeds City Council

Next steps

After recently moving to a new office, Give a Gift has also moved its digital suite and continues to develop and deliver sessions based on community need. They have recently been offered a second year of funding from QFutures and Leeds Community Foundation after a successful visit to see their work in action.

“Give a Gift do so much with communities, always making sure communities are at the heart of their work and their partnerships across the city, like the one with 100% Digital Leeds. Their work is really impressive, and the project has helped people in the community, with plenty of potential for the future.”

Leeds Community Foundation

Give a Gift is also set to begin exploring partnership opportunities with other local community organisations, such as AME for Roma, Hamwattan, and Feel Good Factor, where staff will soon start delivering sessions to people they identify as needing digital inclusion support.

“You need to sell it to them: how is it going to benefit them? When people speak to me at the food hub about their situation, I’ll say, ‘If you come here on Tuesday or Thursday, I’ll be sitting there with you, and I can talk it through with you.’

My colleague is a community engagement worker. She works with people on more of a one-to-one basis, so she’ll find out what sort of support they need, and she’ll say to me ‘I think this person might need digital support’, and I give them a call. We’ve got other projects running and can embed digital inclusion across them all.

It’s all about tailoring your sessions. We listen to what people tell us and base our work around the needs of service users.”

Project Coordinator, Give a Gift

Carers Leeds Digital Befriending Service

Carers Leeds is a charity that provides advice, support and information to unpaid adult and parent carers across Leeds. They inform carers about their rights, offer opportunities for carers to receive support and attend wellbeing activities, and signpost to relevant services.

Since 2020, 100% Digital Leeds has supported Carers Leeds to develop their digital support service, ensuring all carers can confidently access online resources essential to their caring role as well as their own wellbeing. Case studies demonstrating the impact of the organisation’s digital offer are available on the Carers Leeds website, such as How Digital Support Helped Tristan Reconnect and Relax.

Most recently Carers Leeds have expanded their digital inclusion support to include a Digital Befriending service, with funding from Good Things Foundation. The service is staffed by volunteers, based on their successful Befriending Service model.

“As a service, we want to improve the outcomes of carers and offer as much support as we can. Digital Befriending is two things in one. Digital Befrienders will look at everything and get a really clear idea of what support the carer needs. By the end of the befriending session, the carer has got so much more from the experience than they initially anticipated. They’re more confident in tech, but they’ve also had that personal connection that leads to real high-quality support. If carers get that, they’re much more likely to continue. Firstly, with the digital things that they’ve learned about, but they might also try going out a little bit more or connecting with others a bit more.”

Digital Carer Support Worker, Carers Leeds

How the Digital Befriending service the meets needs of Carers Leeds and carers

Carers Leeds’s digital support service initially offered both one-to-one and drop-in digital sessions. The drop-in sessions were designed to be group sessions, allowing carers to bring their digital questions and receive support from Carers Leeds staff. These sessions were sometimes difficult to access for their members, who found that they were unable to attend due to their caring commitments.

The service’s one-to-one provision was very popular because sessions could be held at a time and place chosen by the carer and could take place over a period of weeks. As they were being run solely by the Digital Inclusion Worker the number of sessions that could take place was limited, and the organisation struggled to meet demand. Carers Leeds identified that they needed to expand and tailor their service to be able to provide more opportunities for one-to-one digital support.

“Travelling around Leeds all the time made it difficult for me to support all the carers to the same kind of quality and standard as I would have hoped. The high demand for one-to-one sessions in the carer’s home or local community meant carers were having to wait longer between sessions, which was breaking up continuity, making it difficult for carers to make any progress with their digital skills and confidence. From that point, we started to have discussions about how a Digital Befriending Project might work.”

Digital Carer Support Worker, Carers Leeds

Carers Leeds’s Digital Befriending service is a more informal offer than the service’s traditional digital skills support service. Digital Befriending is more about social contact and looks at a person’s needs more holistically than a digital drop-in, meaning support can more easily be tailored to the needs of the individual. Over the course of the sessions the Befrienders ask about the carer’s day and how they are emotionally, including helping them with whatever digital support they might need at that time. With the greater the number of sessions, and the increased focus on holistic needs, it means Digital Befrienders and carers have the time to develop a trusted relationship, leading to improved outcomes.

“Carers can have more sessions with a Digital Befriender than they can with a member of staff. We can personalise the match, which means carers respond better. We try to match carers with a Digital Befriender who has similar interests, for example, if both are interested in gardening. It’s just a bit more personal, and I think people respond better when there’s a good relationship in place, rather than it just being a troubleshooting thing.

Digital Carer Support Worker, Carers Leeds

Recruiting, training, and supporting Digital Befrienders

To develop their Digital Befriending service, Carers Leeds built upon the learning and best practice from their existing Befriending service, embedding digital inclusion into the existing Befriending training programme and infrastructure.

“One of the positives of running Digital Befrienders is that we could merge the inductions that form part of our traditional Befriending project and the digital project. A lot of the skills that are needed for traditional befriending support, such as lone working and meeting carers in a home or community setting, are the same as those which would be needed from a Digital Befriender. For example, part of the training includes safeguarding, learning about empathy and how to respond when a carer gets upset or is distressed, as well as other things like data protection, lone working, and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). So, blending the services together worked well.”

Digital Carer Support Worker, Carers Leeds

The Digital Befriending Service is staffed by volunteers and managed by the Carer Befriender Coordinator, To find volunteers for the service Carers Leeds advertise the opportunity on their website and social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as the Doing Good Leeds volunteer recruitment page, Be Collective.

Potential volunteers are invited to have a chat with the digital Inclusion Worker to assess both their interpersonal and digital skills. Potential volunteers are asked about their digital skills, for example: their familiarity with Apple and Android systems, whether they know how to use laptops, and the apps they use or have some knowledge of. The Carer Befriender Coordinator also checks that the potential volunteer has the general holistic skills required to be a Befriender, such as whether they’re easy to talk to.

“In a way it is far more important to be able to relate to a carer and know how much reinforcement that person needs and the right speed to go at, than having loads and loads of knowledge about all sorts of operating systems that they may never use for example.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

Befrienders receive ten hours of training, including learning about appropriate boundaries, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and confidentiality. They learn about active listening and empathy, what the limits of befriending are, and the boundaries around maintaining a professional relationship. All Befrienders receive a phone and a SIM card from Carers Leeds for use during Befriending calls.

Befrienders receive regular supervision from the Carer Befriender Coordinator. Carers Leeds also run a peer support group for all the Befrienders, meeting every three months, where Befrienders can talk about good practice and share information. The organisation also runs social events like an annual picnic for staff and Befrienders. At the end of their volunteering period Carers Leeds have a final one-to-one with the Digital Befriender to see what they thought went well and how the Digital Befriending experience may be improved.

Engaging and supporting carers with Digital Befriending

The initial point of contact between Carers Leeds and carers accessing the service for the first time is often via the Carers Leeds Support Line. When they contact the support line, carers are taken through a set of triaging questions to identify the right support needed. Though Carers Leeds consider the digital inclusion needs of carers from the first interaction, and digital support is offered at this point, carers may not take up this support, prioritising the resolution of more immediate issues before tackling digital skills and confidence.

“Some carers get referred straight into me and others will call back when it works for them. We’ve found that it has to be the right time for digital stuff. A lot of the time when someone calls the Carers Leeds Support Line, they’ve got lots of fires to fight and digital is not a priority.”

Digital Inclusion Worker, Carers Leeds

At the point of requesting digital support, carers are referred to the Digital Inclusion Worker who complete a Digital Support Assessment with the carer. This helps the service to understand the barriers each carer faces, the level of support required, and what will motivate the carer to engage with digital. The carer is asked questions about their access to equipment and connectivity, their digital support needs and concerns, and how confident they feel with various online activities like staying safe or managing finances. Carers then choose their support preferences, including when and where they would like to have their one-to-one sessions.

Carers are partnered with Digital Befrienders based on who the organisation feels would be a good fit for each individual, based on personalities, personal interests, and learning styles. Digital Befrienders meet carers in their homes or in a public space such a library or a café, which is local to the carer and somewhere they feel relaxed and comfortable.

“Libraries are ideal places to meet. They’re warm and they have free drinks available when they are designated Welcome Spaces. Carers are often so isolated so it’s really nice to be able to go to a Library or a Community Hub or another community setting where carers can see that there are other things going on that they may want to get involved in.”

Digital Inclusion Worker, Carers Leeds

Carers are offered three sessions in the first instance, with the option to receive a maximum of 12 sessions. The number of sessions provided is tailored to the carer, with most requiring between four and eight sessions. The first session is with both the Digital Inclusion Worker and the volunteer Digital Befriender. As the carer will already have had some contact with Digital Inclusion worker this means that the first session is taking place both in a space that feels familiar and safe to the carer, and with a familiar person who can make that introduction to the volunteer.

“Having the first meeting together is valuable for all three of us in different ways. Because the carer has already had some contact from the Digital Inclusion Worker, the carer trusts them. The Digital Inclusion Worker can make a warm introduction to the Digital Befriender and can see the sort of interactions that are going on. She will leave the session at some point, which is usually fairly soon, when she’s reassured that both the carer and the Digital Befriender are happy and she’s comfortable theirs is going to be a good match.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

Digital Befriending sessions are run in a person-centred way. Digital Befrienders consider how the carer is feeling in that moment first and foremost, then they think about how to support them with digital in a way that works for them.

“I think in every single case, every person I have supported, it’s never been just about their digital skills and confidence. It almost can’t be, because I know when somebody arrives, I can see how their mindset is, and if they’ve had a really difficult time with their caring role that week. They have the space if they choose to offload some of that. At that point, the carer may need somebody to give them some positive validation instead of jumping straight into the digital support.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

Because Digital Befrienders really get to know carers and their circumstances, digital support can be offered in the context of overcoming carers’ day-to-day challenges. Tasks have included setting up online accounts, being systematic and secure in the use of passwords, use of email, social media, video conferencing, and online banking.

“A few weeks in carers can come and say ‘this thing happened this week and I don’t know how to deal with it. Can we deal with it?’ and I can offer practical help. It might be something like, ‘how do I track this parcel delivery?’ Or it might be ‘I can’t sleep and I’ve heard this advert for a sleep app, but I don’t know how to get the app’. It’s really nice to talk to the carer about that something that has popped up for them and have them realise, ‘yeah, that’s what I want to learn about today.’”

Digital Inclusion Worker, Carers Leeds

Because sessions are delivered one-to-one over a maximum period of up to 12 weeks, Digital Befrienders can support carers to develop their digital skills at their own pace, taking into account each carer’s confidence levels.

“It’s about trying to make it fun and not too overwhelming. Support is very much person-centred so that you can see the pace the carer needs to go at, and how much reinforcement they need with a new digital skill or tool before they’re ready to move onto the next thing.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

“I try to be extra warm, without being patronising, and say, ‘tell me if you’ve got any concerns.’ You want them to be as relaxed as possible so that they can say, look, I’m terrified of this. I can remember one person I supported at the end of the first session, she said, ‘I came in a millimetre tall, and I feel I’ve gone out a six-footer.’ Her increase in confidence had that effect.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

After a carer has finished working with their Digital Befriender they are asked to complete an evaluation about their experience. They are asked about the support they have received from their Digital Befriender and what skills they have learned. Within the evaluation the carer is asked to look back at the Digital Support Assessment questions they were asked before they received digital support, and to reflect on how their digital skills and confidence have improved.

“I’ll always remember something one of the carers I was supporting said to me. I had shown her how to do something on her phone and then she tried it without my help and she kept saying, ‘oh, is that all it is?’ It was just so empowering and demystifying for her. She said she had always felt like she was a lesser person because she lacked digital skills and confidence. It’s wonderful for me to be able to see their progress.”

Volunteer Digital Befriender, Carers Leeds

Points to consider when designing your Digital Befriending programme.

  • Building on existing infrastructure: Does your organisation already have a befriending service that could be built upon to develop a Digital Befriending service? What systems will you need to have in place before you can start to advertise the role?
  • Recruitment: How will you find your Digital Befrienders? Will you advertise on your own website and social media? Will you advertise through your local volunteer infrastructure charity, e.g., Voluntary Action Leeds? Will you attend local volunteer recruitment fairs?
  • Assessing the suitability of volunteers: How will you ensure that prospective volunteers are digitally confident and suitable for the role? What broader values, skills and experience will you require from your volunteers?
  • Training and supervision: What training and support will Digital Befrienders need? Will you organise regular check-ins? Would peer support groups be useful spaces for your volunteers to discuss their work?
  • Safeguarding: How will you ensure that professional barriers are maintained?
  • Digital needs assessments: How will you identify service users that might benefit from a Digital Befriender? How will you assess each service user’s digital support needs?
  • Pairing Befrienders with service users: How will you ensure a good fit between Digital Befriender and service user?
  • Location: Where will volunteers meet with service users? Local cafes and libraries are warm, familiar and neutral spaces, but some service users may prefer home visits – is this something you might be able to offer?
  • Timescales: How long will the Digital Befriending period last for each individual service user? Will this be a set length of time, or will it depend on need and capacity? What will happen once the Digital Befriending period comes to an end?
  • Evaluation and reflection: How will you evaluate the programme to make sure each Digital Befriending experience has been useful for both the service user and your organisation?

Community Calling 2025

Community Calling is a national scheme created by the environmental charity Hubbub and Virgin Media O2. Hubbub works with community organisations and local councils to give unwanted smartphones to people who need them, along with up to 12 months’ free mobile data, minutes, and texts via the National Databank to help recipients get online.

100% Digital Leeds worked with Hubbub and Virgin Media O2 on the first Community Calling scheme in 2021. More recently, Community Calling has expanded, working with a large network of both national and local charities. As part of this, in 2025 Community Calling has again supported a variety of local groups across Leeds, working with 100% Digital Leeds to do so.

Coordinating the offer across Leeds

100% Digital Leeds worked with Community Calling to manage and coordinate the distribution of over 1,000 smartphones to some of 100% Digital Leeds’s delivery partners. 11 community organisations each distributed 50+ phones to their most digitally excluded service users, and they received their deliveries directly from Community Calling. For organisations that wanted to take and distribute a smaller number of phones, 100% Digital Leeds agreed a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model with Community Calling. In this model, 100% Digital Leeds took delivery of 200 phones and delivered them in smaller quantities to 15 community organisations.

We also worked with colleagues in the library service to ensure that some Libraries and Community Hubs could take part in the scheme. The library service received over 150 phones and distributed them through the Jobshops in six Community Hubs and Libraries.

The aim of the Community Calling project was not to distribute smartphones indiscriminately. 100% Digital Leeds wanted to make sure the smartphones would be given to people who needed them, via VCSE organisations that were already working with those people, who knew their individual circumstances, and could offer wider support alongside the gifting of the phone.

Measuring impact

The case studies and testimonials below were collected by 100% Digital Leeds as part of the Community Calling project. They illustrate the breadth and depth of the impact that increasing digital inclusion has on people who are facing multiple challenges in their lives. The case studies and testimonials from some of the organisations that took part in the Community Calling scheme demonstrate the different ways in which digital inclusion is an enabler to achieving wider personal and societal outcomes.

Building from this initial impact, 100% Digital Leeds is working to secure a more sustainable solution to accessing smartphones that will enable each organisation to embed smartphone gifting into their permanent practice.

All Community Connect

All Community Connect is a Community Interest Company established in 2022 and based in Richmond Hill. They provide a foodbank and warm space, and regular community sessions. Across their two centres they support around 150 people each month.

After support from 100% Digital Leeds, digital inclusion support is now a routine part of All Community Connect’s work, with individuals regularly being supported to access emails, complete online forms, book appointments, and use smartphones confidently. By embedding digital support, including smartphone gifting, into their existing activities, the organisation has already seen improvements in confidence and independence. People who previously relied entirely on staff now attempt tasks themselves, ask more specific questions, and engage more fully in other programmes such as arts and crafts and healthy living sessions.

“An individual who regularly attends our sessions did not have access to a working smartphone and relied on staff to manage appointments and benefit updates. Since receiving a phone, they have been able to book GP appointments, access their Universal Credit account, and stay in contact with family independently. This has reduced their reliance on staff and increased their confidence in managing everyday tasks. The beneficiary said “Having my own phone means I don’t have to wait for someone to help me. I can sort things out myself and feel more in control.””

Smartphone beneficiary at All Community Connect

“An older woman who regularly attends our arts and crafts sessions every Wednesday enjoys being creative but often struggles with boredom at home outside these sessions. She wanted to learn new art styles and try more modern, creative ideas, especially to make meaningful Christmas gifts for her grandchildren that they would actually enjoy and use. With access to a smartphone and digital support, she has been able to explore new art trends online, watch tutorials, and get inspiration for creative projects. This has helped her stay mentally active, reduce boredom, and feel more confident creating personalised gifts for her grandchildren.”

Smartphone beneficiary at All Community Connect

Asha Neighbourhood Project

Asha Neighbourhood Project is a charity established in 1985 in Beeston. The organisation aims to improve the lives of women and children living in South Leeds. They support their service users to access services in order for them to live a healthier, happier and more productive life. Asha work to advance education, employment and health. This involves tackling barriers to progression, underachievement and the effects of discrimination and poverty. They do this using a holistic, person-centred approach that brings lots of services together in one inclusive, safe and welcoming setting.

Asha’s IT classes offer support with CV writing, job searches, completing application forms, and researching education and career pathways. Asha were able to provide phones to disabled people and their carers to give them independence, manage their health, find better social connection, and get increased access to essential services and opportunities. Access to technology allowed the beneficiaries to perform daily tasks like online shopping, banking, and managing appointments, reducing their reliance on services, family and friends. They can now access online health information, book GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions, and use apps to manage long-term conditions. It has also helped them to engage with remote consultations, saving on travel time and costs. Carers said the mobiles helped them find general information related to health conditions, access peer WhatsApp support group, and manage tasks like ordering medication, arranging deliveries, and research local services online. Carers report this has helped them feel more informed, saved significant time, and helped them to feel less stressed.

“FB arrived in the UK from Europe few years ago. Recent domestic events led to a breakup in the home, which meant FB became a single mum. Her mobile was old and she couldn’t afford to upgrade, so she struggled going online. We gave her support through the Household Support Fund and a mobile through Community Calling. After gifting FB with a smartphone we were able to support her to apply for everything to be in her name, which covered council tax, benefits, utilities, and transferring the joint tenancy to a sole tenancy. She was also supported to access domestic violence support services. After years of struggling, FB found employment with Leeds City Council as a cleaner. Having a better mobile helped her go online to apply for jobs and register with employment agencies, which would otherwise be inaccessible to her due to poverty.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Asha Neighbourhood Project

AVSED

AVSED is a charity working with older people in the Aireborough area. They work to prevent social isolation and loneliness by supporting happy, healthy and independent living. Many of their members don’t have family nearby so are very isolated.

AVSED have a Digital Befriender who runs a weekly Digital Cafe, as well as visiting members in their home. Through these services members can access support with how to get the most out of their digital device. This includes support with setting up devices, using digital tools to manage health and wellbeing, accessing digital services such as applying for blue badges, and staying in touch with family and friends using digital tools such as Facebook and WhatsApp. AVSED report that gifting smartphones has allowed the organisation to better stay in touch with members, and has supported more members to develop digital skills and confidence.

“AM came to AVSED once or twice a week for support with various elements of life. We offered them a phone to enable them to participate in our digital befriending. They were reluctant at first due to costs, but the chance to try it for free has enlightened them to the possibilities of using digital. They had four sessions with a digital helper to learn how to use the phone. They set up an email and Facebook account, learnt to use Google and find things online, and a session on health and how to book an appointment online with the GP. I have just checked in with them after the break and they told me, ‘It’s great! My sister called me on Boxing Day. I don’t usually speak to anyone!'”

Smartphone beneficiary at AVSED

Carers Leeds

Carers Leeds is an independent charity working city-wide, offering specialist and tailored support, advice, and information to unpaid carers over the age of 16.

The organisation’s digital inclusion aims are to reduce social isolation and loneliness by ensuring all carers can confidently access online resources essential to their caring role and their own wellbeing. Unpaid caring and digital exclusion are both risk factors for loneliness and isolation, so it is important to Carers Leeds that their service users are supported to engage with online activities, support groups, and online services, to prevent poor outcomes and increased isolation from society. Carers Leeds have a Digital Inclusion Coordinator working to integrate digital inclusion support throughout their organisation to ensure staff are confident in having positive conversations about going online, can identify carers with digital inclusion needs, and can support those needs. Gifting smartphones has meant Carers Leeds are more easily able to stay in touch with carers, and carers can be signposted to other organisations who can support them.

“J, aged 54, was relying on a very basic mobile phone and had no internet access at home, which created significant barriers when trying to split a joint Universal Credit claim into a single claim after a bereavement. Being provided with a smartphone has been life changing. It has enabled him to independently access his Universal Credit account, check his journal, and attend appointments, helping to reinstate his claim after several months of little or no income. Following the bereavement, J has also struggled with his mental health, and having the phone has meant he can contact his GP, access mental health support, and stay connected with friends, reducing his isolation and increasing his confidence, independence, and overall wellbeing.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Carers Leeds

Forward Leeds

Forward Leeds offer free confidential alcohol and drug support for people in Leeds. Support includes one-to-one support with a dedicated worker, structured group sessions covering a range of supportive topics, and support for family members and loved ones. Forward Leeds’s Individual Placement and Support Team supports clients who are ready to find paid employment.

Forward Leeds report that gifting smartphones means it is easier for the organisation to stay in touch with service users, and they see improved outcomes as service users experience fewer barriers to accessing support.

“A female service user, aged between 25 and 35, was prohibited from having her own phone by her domestic abuse perpetrator. This created a huge barrier to any engagement with support services. We provided her with a phone to contact Domestic Violence services, police, Forward Leeds, and her family who are also living outside of Leeds. Engagement and access to support has improved substantially and the service user is now able to contact her workers and any relevant services, including emergency services if in need.”    

Smartphone beneficiary at Forward Leeds

“A female service user, aged between 30 and 40, needed a smartphone for video call contact with her children who are both in local authority care and live outside of Leeds. Not having a phone with this facility was massively affecting her and her children’s mental health. The phone also makes it much easier to engage with Forward Leeds and other services.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Forward Leeds

“A service user was given a phone after realising their current phone was not accepting incoming calls and they were missing out on job opportunities. Now the individual has a working phone, they can update their contacts and CV with their new number and can accept calls from prospective employers. This has enhanced their engagement and motivation to find opportunities for work to improve their outcomes and reduce their substance misuse.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Forward Leeds

Give a Gift

Give A Gift is a grassroots charity that aims to provide the support needed to relieve need among refugees, asylum seekers, the destitute, BAME and other disadvantaged communities.

For Give a Gift, gifting smartphones has helped staff to communicate more reliably with service users, resulting in fewer missed appointments and more consistent engagement. Improved digital access has allowed the organisation to run their training programmes more effectively and reach individuals who previously struggled to participate. They spend less time on repeated outreach attempts, freeing staff capacity and allowing teams to focus on delivering higher-quality support. Access to smartphones has enabled smoother coordination, quicker updates, and improved data sharing where appropriate.

“One client is a failed asylum seeker and has been living in the UK for over 20 years. His case is being reviewed by PAFRAS. The elderly client currently has a small old phone which is not a smartphone. He is living in a house with a family who have taken pity on him. His wife and children live in India, and he has very little contact with them. On occasion he is allowed to use one of the smartphones from one of the members of the family to WhatsApp video call his family. When he was given the smart phone, he was very emotional and was so grateful for the help. This lifted his spirits and we saw a smile on his face. He is now teaching himself to use the different features on the phone. We have offered him some support to assist.”

Director, Give a Gift

“A domestic violence client fled from an abusive marriage from Birmingham to Leeds. She was rescued by her sister who is married with family in Leeds. She literally came with nothing and was kept like a prisoner in her marital home, looking after her in-laws and her husband and not being able to leave the house. She was desperate to have contact with her mum and dad in Pakistan. The phone was a lifeline for her to finally have some contact with her parents as she had not been allowed to communicate with them. Her mental health was very low and she had to start to build her life. We managed to get her DV concession for three months which allowed her to have access to public benefits and we eventually found a women’s refuge in Bradford who would help and support her to become independent.”

Director, Give a Gift

Hamwattan Centre

Hamwattan Centre is a registered charity based in Harehills. They are dedicated to providing support to the elderly community in Leeds, and their service users are primarily of Pakistani and Kashmiri origin. They aim to enable older people to live independently and pro-actively participate within their own communities by providing services which reduce social isolation, relieve financial hardship, and improve health and wellbeing.

Gifting smartphones has had a massive impact on the organisation, increasing their capacity to help service users with their learning in weekly digital skills sessions. They have been able to give the smartphones to people who need them most, and use digital skills sessions as a space for beneficiaries to learn how to use their new smartphones. Hamwattan have used the smartphones to support service users to register for the NHS app and request or manage prescriptions, use Google Translate, and to find trustworthy information online. All of these things benefit the service users in terms of empowering them to take control of their own health and wellbeing, and in turn support Hamwattan by reducing the level of one-to-one support required for basic digital tasks.

“A, aged 72, has been attending our digital skills sessions for some time and has been learning how to use a tablet to increase his digital literacy and make it easier for him to access services and gain independence. He previously had a basic phone which he used only to make phone calls. However, since receiving a smartphone he has been able to learn how to use various apps, including Google Translate, YouTube, and access a number of online services. This has greatly improved his confidence and sense of independence as he is increasingly able to navigate the online world through his smartphone and can now do much more than simply make phone calls.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Hamwattan

Holbeck Together

Holbeck Together is a charity based in Holbeck, providing services to the local community, supporting people to stay socially and physically active, empowering them to make more informed choices and live longer. Holbeck is one of the 0.2% poorest areas in England and is challenged by deprivations in income, employment, education, health, housing, environment, and high crime rates. Holbeck Together provide lunch clubs, walking groups, bingo, friendship groups, parent and baby groups, as well as out-of-hours meal services, a community café, charity shop, food bank, and social supermarket.

Holbeck Together’s digital skills support service includes a range of group and one-to-one sessions at St Matthews Community Centre, and digital skills support in the wider community of Holbeck. Being part of the Community Calling project has allowed Holbeck Together to gift smartphones to vulnerable service users who would otherwise have been unable to afford a digital device.

“S was fleeing domestic abuse and was relocated to Leeds. Her old phone had been destroyed by her partner, and she arrived with no means to communicate with anyone and unable to access any services. She came to the digital hub at Holbeck Together and we were able to gift her with a device and also provide credit and data for her to use. She has now been able to register and bid with Housing and get into contact with other services who can support her. It has also allowed her to contact family members who she had been separated from. This has had a huge positive impact on her wellbeing and has greatly improved her living situation.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Holbeck Together

“E was referred to the digital hub via their support worker as their phone had broken. She had children with complex needs, no money, and no way to contact anybody. With the phone that we gave her she was able to resolve her current situation and get the help she required. She could not afford to replace the broken device and was very happy to get support from us.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Holbeck Together

Joanna Project

Joanna Project is a small charity working with the most vulnerable women in society, often experiencing street homelessness, addiction, mental health, domestic abuse, discrimination, exploitation and isolation. The women they support have chaotic lifestyles and struggle to maintain engagement with services where they have no fixed abode or means of contact with support workers.

Gifting smartphones has helped Joanna Project to maintain contact with service users and ensure continued engagement with available support. This has meant some of the organisation’s most vulnerable service users have been able to access emergency accommodation from the local authority and continue engaging with services and support workers.

“E, aged 25 to 34, is a young female street homeless sex worker with substance addiction and mental health issues. She has been attending Joanna House for support to combat addiction, move away from street sex work, engage with healthcare services and access facilities. She had no phone and family or friend support networks. She is regularly a victim of domestic abuse and crimes as she is extremely vulnerable. She was unable to make and maintain contact with services for interventions due to her chaotic lifestyle, having no fixed abode, and no phone. Since receiving the smart phone and SIM card, she has maintained contact with services, managed to secure emergency accommodation through the council, and is engaging with organisations to access support for substance misuse. She was also attacked whilst working and was able to contact the police. She now has means to contact emergency services or support workers if she needs help, support or advice.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Joanna Project

St George’s Crypt

St George’s Crypt is a 95-year-old charity based in Leeds, working with the homeless, the vulnerable and those living with addiction. The organisation offers immediate practical support in terms of getting fed, cleaned up and clothed. They provide beds via their residential projects and emergency bedrooms, support and counselling, and opportunities to gain skills, self-confidence and a sense of achievement.

St George’s Crypt are still at the start of their digital inclusion journey. Staff have said that seeing the empowerment of the service users to independently re-connect with family and friends after being gifted a smartphone has been very motivating for them, especially around Christmas time. It has given the recipients, and in turn the staff, a real morale boost.

“J, aged 44, resides at our residential temporary accommodation. He has been in and out of temporary accommodation and rough sleeping for years but has taken a step towards more independent living at our temporary accommodation in Chapel Allerton. The phone means he can research subjects he is passionate about such as history. He has been able to contact family members and professionals in his life without relying on our office phone. He can also log into his email and see when his PES vouchers from Universal Credit come in.”

Smartphone beneficiary at St George’s Crypt

“Another service user had no device or money when entering our residential rehabilitation programme. Since receiving the phone, they have been Facetiming their daughter and using the internet in their spare time. They have joined our Growing Rooms WhatsApp group, enabling them to feel more connected to their recovery process. Having a smartphone has improved their connection to both their recovery family and their immediate family.”

Smartphone beneficiary at St George’s Crypt

Unity Housing

Unity Housing Association is an organisation committed to building strong sustainable neighbourhoods through the provision of high quality housing and social and employment opportunities. Unity was formed in 1987 with the aim of building a strong, BME, community housing association to meet the housing needs of black and minority ethnic communities throughout Leeds. They work in the Chapeltown, Harehills, and Beeston areas of Leeds.

Unity Housing’s Employment Team offer a free tailor-made employment service to suit the needs of individuals. They help residents with practical skills such as CV writing and preparing for job interviews, as well as pointing people in the right direction of where to find work. The team run weekly IT skills sessions supporting residents with getting online and using the internet, staying safe online, using email and Office programmes, managing money and health online, and using the internet to find and secure employment. Gifting smartphones has helped Unity Housing to run their digital inclusion courses and job clubs. Learners can access online modules and apply for jobs when they aren’t able to come to one of the sessions in Unity Housing’s Hub. Some residents are unable to attend sessions in person due to issues such as caring responsibilities, but now they can access Unity’s courses from home using their phones.

“D, aged 47, has recently been made redundant. He is looking for work, but he had no phone. He couldn’t access his emails so he was going to the local library, but he was only able to stay a few hours a day. He reached out to the team through the Job Club and was given a phone so he could continue his work search.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Unity Housing

“L, age 32, had recently had her phone stolen. She has a young baby and is a single parent. She didn’t have any means to purchase a new one, her baby was due their injections, and she had no way of contacting her local GP or health visitor. She had previously accessed our services and was learning digital skills whilst pregnant. When she contacted the team she was literally at rock bottom. She had walked five miles so she could use our phones to contact her health visitor as her GP surgery was closed. She can now continue to learn new skills on her Learn my Way account and can keep in regular contact with her GP and health visitor.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Unity Housing

“I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without this phone. My little girl is due all her immunisations and I couldn’t get hold of my health visitor to ask her the time and date of such appointments. I am still learning IT skills, so this has helped massively. Thank you so much.”

Smartphone beneficiary at Unity Housing

Women’s Health Matters

Women’s Health Matters is a charity that supports disadvantaged and marginalised women and girls across Leeds and surrounding areas through a range of trauma-informed, women-centred services.

Women’s Health Matters’ DigitALL Women Project helps women build confidence and skills to use technology safely and independently. The project provides support to help get women online, stay safe, and make the most of digital tools in everyday life. The project includes a four week digital skills course, building digital confidence by exploring the basics, with particular focus on Google Workspace, staying safe online, including recognising scams and managing privacy settings, and using technology to support wellbeing and employability. The organisation offers one-to-one support for women who would like more individual help, focussing on basic skills, such as setting up email accounts or connecting devices to wifi, and online safety and security, particularly for women experiencing digital abuse. The project also provides access to Chromebooks, tablets, and other devices through a loan bank, helping women gain confidence using devices at home.

Gifting smartphones has had a positive impact on the organisation by improving the continuity of contact with the women they support. Before smartphones were available to issue, if a woman’s phone was broken, taken, or controlled by an abusive partner, Women’s Health Matters were often unable to contact her at all. Many women rely on contact by phone from their service to confirm attendance at group sessions and to arrange transport in order to attend. When contact is lost because of a damaged or controlled phone, there are instances where the organisation can go weeks without speaking to someone, with no indication of why this is. Often, they only become aware of the issues once a woman has been able to replace her phone herself or has attended a group in person to inform staff. Historically, Women’s Health Matters had no way of supporting women to replace their phones, meaning they could not receive service updates or reminders until they were able to replace these phones themselves. Having smartphones available for gifting has allowed the organisation to issue a replacement as soon as they become aware of the problem. This ensures women can remain in contact with services and continue to receive support with minimal interruption during what is often a critical period. The devices have also improved the organisation’s ability to support women who need to flee abusive situations and require a new phone and number to remain safe. Previously, this was not something they could directly assist with. For the women they support who are seeking asylum, access to phones has reduced reliance on intermediaries such as other support workers’ phones. Being able to issue devices directly to women has enabled quicker, clearer communication and fast access to group support. More broadly, access to smartphones has reduced staff time spent attempting to re-establish contact, improved engagement with the women they support and allowed women to contact the organisation between sessions when they need support.

“A woman seeking asylum who attended one of our groups did not have a phone of her own and relied on access to friends’ or support workers’ devices to communicate. This meant she could only make calls or receive messages when she was with a friend or support worker who were able to lend her their phone. As a result, she often missed group sessions because she could not receive updates or reminders directly and instead depended on other group members to pass on information. She also had medical needs and required contact with her GP. Without her own phone, she could only make appointments when she had access to someone else’s device, and she was unable to receive appointment reminders or follow-up information. In some instances, she chose to have her support worker there during calls to ensure she fully understood the conversation, as English is not her first language. When this became apparent, we were able to give her a smartphone and provide support to set it up. She was able to share her new number with her support worker and begin contacting medical services independently, while still accessing support when needed. Having her own phone enabled her to receive appointment reminders, attend group sessions more consistently, and access healthcare more easily.” 

Smartphone beneficiary at Women’s Health Matters

Partner Profile: Purple Patch Arts

Purple Patch Arts is a charity established in 2009 and based in Beeston. Their mission is to provide opportunities for learning-disabled people across Yorkshire to thrive through engagement with innovative, creative lifelong learning.

Purple Patch’s inclusive, person-centred approach focusses on arts and creativity, allowing people of all ages and levels of support needs to access the organisation’s programme in their own way, empowering people to learn in the way that suits them best. This approach makes the organisation particularly well placed to support digital inclusion for its members:

“Digital inclusion is linked in with our definition of learning, engaging with the world. It’s even more relevant now that so much is online and such a big part of people’s lives.”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Purple Patch has supported the digital inclusion of people with learning disabilities for over a decade, working closely with 100% Digital Leeds since the programme’s launch. Purple Patch were active members of the ALaDDIN network, where they have both shared their best practice and learned from the good practice of other organisations in the sector.

In 2024 Purple Patch received a £10,000 grant via the Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund. The funds supported the embedding of creative digital inclusion interventions across the organisation’s Lifelong Learning Programme for learning disabled people, through staff training, and improved access to digital equipment and resources.

“We’ve got two prongs to our digital inclusion offer. We’re supporting our participants on how to stay safe online and then also using more digital apps and tools in order to make our programmes better and more accessible as well.”  

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Most recently, Purple Patch shared their experience of using arts and culture as a motivator for improved digital skills and confidence with 100% Digital Leeds and The University of Sheffield, supporting the development of the Arts Council England funded Arts, Culture and Older People: Research Project and 100% Digital Leeds Toolkit.

The organisation’s upcoming plans include a focus on staying safe online.

The Purple Patch Approach

Purple Patch use creative activities, inclusive learning methods, and environments that involve and inspire learning-disabled people to engage with learning in a positive and impactful way. This ‘Purple Patch Approach’ supports people to explore ideas, themes and topics in ways which are accessible, imaginative, and joyful. 

All of Purple Patch’s work is delivered using arts-based methods, including music, drama, visual art, movement, and literature. Sessions include elements of group working, multi-sensory activity, gamification, and imaginative discovery. They have found that using the arts and creativity to facilitate learning supports engagement, improves motivation, and helps people to develop analytical and interpretive skills.

Using this approach, Purple Patch can be ambitious in the subjects they cover:

“We don’t see any reason why a person with even the most complex needs can’t engage with any subject, and we see it as our job to bring them to life creatively. In all our work, we enable our participants to be positively challenged and inspired by learning about, and engaging with, the world around them.”

Purple Patch Arts

Learning-disabled people face multiple barriers to digital inclusion. During the Covid pandemic Purple Patch saw 56% of their participants accessing the Zoom sessions that they ran in place of face-to-face delivery. However, they witnessed first-hand the barriers that people faced in accessing an online offer, not least a lack of internet access, digital skills, and equipment. In addition, they saw that a lack of participant and support-network awareness, experience, and confidence in using technology, excluded many participants from their offer. They found that some families and carers were reluctant to believe that digital services were accessible to learning-disabled participants, especially older participants and those with greater access needs.

Developing engaging and accessible digital skills sessions

Purple Patch has supported the digital inclusion of people with learning disabilities for over a decade.

In 2019 Purple Patch was awarded a grant from the Future Digital Inclusion Fund, a five-year programme funded by the Department for Education and managed by Good Things Foundation. The aim of the programme was to help people to improve their digital skills, particularly unemployed and/or low skilled people, as well as people with disabilities and/or learning difficulties.

The funding supported Purple Patch to design and deliver creative, interactive digital skills sessions focussing on what the internet can be used for, how to stay safe online, and being aware of what we’re sharing on social media. Purple Patch used the funding to design fun sessions including creating multi-sensory ‘world-wide webs’ and playing fishing games to learn about phishing. The sessions supported over 250 learning-disabled people to develop the skills needed to more safely engage with the online world.

Evaluation of The Future Digital Inclusion Fund highlights that the fund worked well for many participants because it allowed organisations like Purple Patch to provide person-centred support. Organisations were encouraged to design digital inclusion interventions around individual participants’ needs and personal circumstances, helping participants to develop the motivation needed to become long-term, independent users of digital technology.

Following the end of the funded project Purple Patch continued to strongly encourage their teams to embed digital work within sessions, but varying levels of digital experience and skills across the organisation’s workforce meant this wasn’t consistent. Purple Patch also found that their aging digital equipment meant staff were limited in how much digital they could embed into session delivery.

“We were using digital more, but we didn’t have the tools to do what we wanted. Our iPads were really out of date, so we couldn’t use certain apps that might engage people. In our sessions we have people who don’t have access to online at home, so it was important to get apps that are accessible. We wanted those tools and digital experiences that allow those participants to engage just as much as someone who does understand that world or does have the internet at home.”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Embedding digital inclusion support into the Lifelong Learning Programme

In 2024 Purple Patch were awarded a grant via the Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund to help them embed digital inclusion support across the organisation’s Lifelong Learning Programme. The grant allowed Purple Patch to maximise its focus on digital inclusion by embedding creative digital inclusion interventions in a strategic and sustainable way through staff training, and improved access to digital equipment and resources.

Purple Patch’s Lifelong Learning Programme supports learning-disabled adults to explore a wide range of different topics based on a yearly theme. Staff use creative methods such as art, drama, music, movement, and multi-sensory activity to make learning fun and accessible. The programme supports participants to develop their confidence, independence, communication, and social skills to improve their wellbeing and to challenge themselves.

Purple Patch see the impact of the sessions in the increased wellbeing, confidence, independence, and life skills of their participants:

  • 86% of Lifelong Learning participants feel more able to try things on their own
  • 95% of Lifelong Learning participants reported learning new skills and things about the world
  • 97% agree that Purple Patch makes them feel more independent

“I feel more confident at Purple Patch because I’ve learned stuff I haven’t before and you encourage me to join in.”

“Coming to Purple Patch makes me feel confident.”

“We learn real life subjects that goes on in the world.”

Participants at Purple Patch Arts

The increased focus on digital inclusion came after consultation with 140 participants of Purple Patch’s Lifelong Learning Programmes. A key theme that emerged was the desire to improve their digital skills. This was taken to the organisation’s Purple Steering Group, a dedicated team of learning-disabled people who act as a bridge between participants of their Lifelong Learning Programmes and their Board of Trustees. The Purple Steering Group use their experiences, skills, and knowledge to help make decisions, give feedback, and advise on best practice. They agreed that digital skills development was a priority, saying that they were at risk of being left behind as more and more services rely on people having digital skills to access them.

“We think it’s really important to incorporate digital in our Lifelong Learning Programmes, as so much of our daily life uses digital. As one of our participants said, ‘I think we should carry on using interactive things [apps], it’s important because the world’s changing and we have to change with it.’”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch Arts

Purple Patch’s Lifelong Learning Programmes are run by staff members from a wide range of creative disciplines. Staff were supported to improve their own digital skills through skills share activities and peer support, empowering them to feel confident in enabling participants to benefit from being digitally engaged.

The skills share was facilitated by Purple Patch’s Projects team, who are more experienced in embedding digital skills in their project work having previously designed and delivered the Future Digital Inclusion Fund digital skills sessions. The Projects team created resources and an activity bank for the skills share and continue to support Purple Patch’s wider staff teams as they embed digital in their work. This includes offering feedback on session plans and delivery, and working with staff to further develop their skills as needed. The funding means Purple Patch now have a digital training model that they can use for new staff starters, as well as to refresh existing staff skills and confidence.

Since delivering the above, Purple Patch have observed an increase in the digital activities in their programmes. Staff have used digital equipment to enhance learning activities, for example, using the GarageBand app to create train-inspired soundscapes and the Makey Makey to do exciting scientific experiments. Staff have supported participants to explore technology that can help them call 999, use Google Maps to plan journeys, and understand how to be safe when messaging people online.

As a result, staff and participants have reported an increase in digital confidence:

  • 84% of participants agreed that Purple Patch helps them to feel more confident using digital resources and going online
  • Staff have commented that they had more ideas, felt that they could “give it go!” and that the approach to using technology was “more fun”

Additionally, Purple Patch have learnt that participants want to explore more digital skills, such as creating music and films, learning how to use Zoom, look at recipes online, and learn more about online safety. They feel confident that due to their staff’s increased digital skills and confidence, participants’ digital goals will continue to be supported in their Programmes.

“Embedding digital activity into our approach supports us to challenge common misconceptions about how learning-disabled people can engage with digital technology and the online world. Regularly including digital activity and exploring topics through a digital lens means that we are demonstrating, through our delivery (which may be seen within a session or on social media), that we can empower learning-disabled people to be knowledgeable about the digital world, to navigate it safely, and be digitally confident, rather than being continually digitally excluded due to fear, misconceptions, or externally placed limitations.”

Purple Patch Arts

Supporting people to stay safe online, tackling misinformation and disinformation

Most recently Purple Patch Arts have worked to further embed online safety into their Lifelong Learning Programmes to ensure that learning-disabled people are digitally included and help them gain skills around online safety. They have observed that some participants have experienced negativity online, and that overuse of phones can be damaging to overall wellbeing. Tackling these issues, along with many others, empowers learning-disabled people to understand their rights and choices.

Purple Patch began to tackle misinformation and disinformation through their programming, supporting participants to feel more confident in safely accessing news.

“Research by the BBC found that three quarters of people with a learning disability watch the television, but many found it difficult to follow and nearly half of them said it used too many unfamiliar words. A third said it moved too fast. Others said it contained too much information and jumped between stories without context or was emotionally distressing. It’s really important for us that we can support our participants to know a bit more about the news or feel a bit more confident about accessing the news. So, this year we’ve been trying to bring in more relevant news and information into the topics.”  

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Examples of Purple Patch’s creative approach to supporting online safety and tackling misinformation and disinformation in an engaging and accessible way include:

  • Exploring safe messaging using messages on a slideshow and deciding how and if participants would reply to them.
  • A game exploring what to keep private online and what is okay to share, using padlocks.
  • A game to spot which messages are spam or not, using a tin of spam as a prop.
  • Hosting a ‘Fake News’ TV show, including acting out and presenting different news stories, with the group voting on if they think the story is real or fake.
  • Having a ‘Fake News’ quiz, showing different news images and asking participants to guess if they are real or fake, then supporting participants to use an AI image generator to create their own fake image.

Purple Patch plan to continue this learning in future programming.

“We’re soon to be delivering our Connecting to Robots topic which will be all about technology, and staying safe online. This has been developed after having a lot more younger participants join our programmes and just seeing how they’re more on their phones and maybe need more support with how to stay safe online. So we’ll be tackling more about misinformation and disinformation as well in the robots weeks. And again, we’ll be using the Purple Patch approach to do that. So that means everyone in this space will be able to engage with the kind of learning that’s happening.”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator at Purple Patch, explains how the team practically approach tailoring sessions on such a difficult topic to meet the needs of different groups and individual participants:

“We’ll write the scheme of work with all of the activity ideas and topics within the Connecting to Robots theme. We have four delivery staff teams who run our Lifelong Learning Programmes. Each team picks from the scheme of work which specific topics and activities they want to cover in their sessions so they can tailor it to their groups. The group that has quite a lot of younger participants who are on their phones, they might focus more on phone safety and how to have a good relationship with their phone. We want to make it participant focused and make it meaningful for the group that they’re working with. If someone has experienced an issue with online safety, we can work one-on-one with them in terms of giving them resources and things to signpost to as well. We’re not going to touch on a subject that’s difficult for someone, but we might talk to that person rather than do it to the whole group. We can tailor it because the staff teams know the participants in their groups so well, so they’ll know what’s appropriate to cover.”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Digital support for families and carers

As Purple Patch embed digital inclusion support for participants into their Lifelong Learning Programmes, they also wanted to provide their participants’ families and carers with some additional information, signposting, and ways to continue the digital work covered in the learning sessions. This is especially important since Purple Patch have found that some families and carers can be reluctant to believe that digital services can be accessible to learning-disabled participants, especially older participants and those with greater access needs.

“We also get to know families and carers really well. We offer a holistic approach and with some of our themes we’ve started doing an information sheet that can be sent out to participants and their families and carers. That has resources on it that link to the theme. So when we do Connecting to Robots, we’ll hand out a sheet with online safety resources and activities that participants can do at home with their families and carers as well.”

Róisín Reynolds, Project Coordinator, Purple Patch

Purple Patch also include Digital Support for Families and Carers on their website. This includes information around:

  • Connectivity: Purple Patch is able provide SIMs via the National Databank, and tablets available for loan.
  • Skills: signposting to skills support available via Carers Leeds, Learn My Way, Lloyds digital helpline.
  • Safety: tips for digital privacy and staying safe online.
  • Confidence and motivation: ideas for improving digital confidence by taking small steps to include digital elements in your day-to-day life; an overview of digital tools commonly used in Purple Patch sessions, with examples of how they could be used at home.

Sharing learning and best practice

Purple Patch shared their learning and experience by feeding into  ‘Arts, Culture and Older People: Research Project and Toolkit’, an Arts Council England funded project led by 100% Digital Leeds and the University of Sheffield.

The aim of the research, led by the University of Sheffield, was to explore 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. The study found that engaging in creative activities can build confidence and motivation to help older people engage in essential digital services and stay connected with loved ones. Community-based organisations such as Purple Patch are identified as the most effective partners for digital inclusion due to their local trust

Alongside the research, 100% Digital Leeds has developed a new toolkit to encourage and support greater involvement of arts and culture within digital inclusion programmes. The toolkit is designed to shape and inform the work of organisations in the arts and culture sector, VCSE sector, or digital inclusion sector, helping them to embed digital elements into creative activities, increasing motivation, confidence, and digital inclusion for everyone.

“There’s a massive value in using the arts to support with digital. At Purple Patch we use the arts to learn about ourselves and the world. Because so much of the world now is online, doing an activity and then enhancing it with using a digital app is such an easy way to transition into using digital. If you say ‘now we’re going to do digital’ it might make our members put up some barriers. If you lead it in through doing the arts, then in their own life they’re going to feel more confident about it. ‘OK, so I’ve used that app before so I can use it again or I maybe I can try a new app’.

Purple Patch Arts

Connecting and Protecting Communities: delivering the project

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:

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.

Work and Health Trailblazer: Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives 

The Department for Work and Pensions Work and Health Trailblazer Programme was targeted at areas of the country with the highest levels of economic inactivity, enabling local leaders to give those furthest from employment the tools to get into work. West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) awarded over £800,000 to Leeds City Council to deliver pre-employment support to people who are economically inactive for health reasons. This funding was managed by the council’s Employment and Skills team.  

Employment and Skills awarded grant funding of over £700,000 to 17 Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations to support residents progressing towards employment, by providing integrated health support alongside employment support.  

For some of the people who were taking part in the Trailblazer, digital exclusion was identified as an extra barrier to them succeeding on the programme. WYCA worked with 100% Digital Leeds to design a ‘Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives’ initiative to offer additional support to those people. Six organisations in Leeds delivered the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative, supporting 80 people who were already part of the Trailblazer programme.

“I think we’re really missing something in terms of general equity if we don’t consider digital inclusion as part of the Trailblazer. This is a core element of how we’re going to see impact going forwards.”

Ethan Foster, Services Manager – Economic Inclusion, Leeds Mind 

Background to the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative 

As more services move online, it becomes harder for people who are digitally excluded to manage their health conditions and apply for work. WYCA worked with 100% Digital Leeds to design a ‘Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives’ initiative to offer additional support to those people.

100% Digital Leeds used the principles of the successful Multiply project, which we also delivered in partnership with Employment and Skills, as the basis of the Personal Incentives initiative. Multiply enabled 100% Digital Leeds to award funding to 19 of our VCSE delivery partners so that they could design and deliver personalised digital inclusion interventions for the people they work with. This included gifting a digital device with connectivity to all of the project participants, to increase their digital inclusion and make it easier for them to continue their learning after the project ended.  

The overarching objective of the Personal Incentives initiative was to learn from people with lived experience and system partners to co-design an approach to employment support that responds to an individual’s needs and circumstances.  

The Digital Inclusion strand of the Personal Incentives initiative aimed to: 

  • Remove digital barriers to employment and skills provision by providing internet connectivity and free devices, such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets, where a VCSE organisation has identified a need among the people they support. 
  • Build digital confidence through digital skills training.  
  • Enable residents to access online health provision and other resources as they make progress towards and into good work.  
  • Test innovative approaches to digital inclusion support that can be scaled and replicated across West Yorkshire.  
  • Generate evidence of the effectiveness of digital inclusion support in facilitating transitions to employment.  
  • Co-design solutions with residents and local authorities to ensure interventions are locally relevant and responsive.  

Intended outcomes for the initiative included:  

  • More people with improved health and wellbeing  
  • More people with an increased awareness of adult education, skills training, employment support programmes or work  
  • More people with digital access  
  • More people with increased confidence in using digital technology 

Tracy Brabin, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, launched the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative with £250,000 of funding to increase digital inclusion across West Yorkshire. In partnership with GIPSIL, 100% Digital Leeds arranged the launch at The Old Fire Station in Gipton. GIPSIL also arranged for some of their service users to speak to the Mayor to explain the positive impact of digital inclusion on their employment prospects and their health and wellbeing.  

“Too many people in West Yorkshire are locked out of opportunity because they can’t get online or don’t have the skills they need to confidently use the internet. That isn’t fair on people and isn’t healthy for our economy. Today’s funding means more people will get a device and hands-on support to build their confidence – so they can find good jobs, access training, manage their health, and connect with the essential online services that make everyday life easier.” 

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire 

Designing the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative  

The Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives strand of the Trailblazer proposed a digital inclusion fund for VCSE organisations across West Yorkshire to provide digital inclusion support to residents who are furthest away from the labour market. This West Yorkshire-wide offer was designed and delivered in collaboration with the Digital Inclusion West Yorkshire programme. It was agreed that 100% Digital Leeds would take the lead on this work, sharing our experience and expertise with the other councils in the region.  

The agreement with WYCA stated that 100% Digital Leeds would “identify a small number of delivery organisations in their area who are already reaching people from the target audience (i.e. evidenced as having the greatest levels of digital exclusion and economic inactivity), and who can respond rapidly and effectively to this funding opportunity”.  

100% Digital Leeds worked with six of the VCSE organisations that were already delivering the wider Trailblazer programme. For the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative, it was important that the organisations already had a strong digital inclusion offer in place so that they could respond quickly to meet the funding requirements.  

“We did a home visit to one of the people we were working with. They’ve barely been in school since Year 9 and they don’t have much money – they didn’t even have the central heating on at this time of year. But they’ve got quite a clear goal of wanting to go into midwifery and working towards that with college courses and things. Obviously, they couldn’t afford a computer or anything like that. So the laptop they were given through this project is going to really help them.”

Bill Owen, Operations Director, Employability and Community Health, Barca 

VCSE organisations were required to:  

  • Buy and gift each learner a digital device (phone, tablet or laptop) with 12 months of unlimited data to continue their learning and increase their digital inclusion. 
  • Design and deliver a minimum of five hours of personalised learning and digital inclusion support to each individual in receipt of equipment. Delivery organisations had to work with individuals from priority groups to understand what their personal barriers are, and work with them on an individual basis, tailoring support to their needs.   
  • Complete and return all evidence required by WYCA. 
  • Provide case studies to illustrate the impact of the initiative. 

Importantly, the funding was also intended to build capacity and increase provision at community organisations who are not traditional learning providers.  

Delivering the initiative 

Six organisations in Leeds delivered the Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative, supporting 80 people who were already part of the Trailblazer programme. The organisations were:  

Each organisation designed their digital inclusion offer to meet the needs of the people they were supporting. The digital equipment that the organisations bought and gifted to their participants was also tailored to meet individual need.  

“Every participant is matched with a volunteer and that volunteer will meet with them on a weekly basis to support them. Quite a few of the people we’re working with have very, very limited English, so one of our strands has been English teaching. Then we’re working with other people who are maybe a little bit closer towards looking for work. For some of them, we’ve been working on CV writing workshops or looking at using LinkedIn and different things like that. One of the gentlemen we’re supporting is registered blind, so we’re taking a bit longer to make sure we get the right equipment for him.”

David Skivington, Senior Project Manager, Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network 

“One of the women we’re working with has been out of work for over 15 years due to her disabilities. She’s got learning disabilities so reading’s quite difficult for her. The digital equipment we got for her has the right software to help her with that. Now she’s managed to complete a safeguarding course and food safety training with our support, and she’s just gone on to be one of the volunteers for our food pantry.”

Eve Maloba, Project Lead, Complete Woman  

The Digital Inclusion Personal Incentives initiative runs to the end of March 2026. The VCSE organisations that are delivering the initiative are already seeing the positive impact on the health and wellbeing and employment prospects of the people they support.  

“This has been instrumental in supporting people’s employment goals. One individual was borrowing a laptop, and the equipment was just really poor. They found it to be a massive barrier to entry into what they’re able to do. So having equipment that actually works and is theirs has been instrumental with employment goals. It’s been really, really impactful so far.”

Ethan Foster, Services Manager – Economic Inclusion, Leeds Mind 

“This has put smiles on people’s faces. They don’t expect this equipment. A lot of the people that we support have been given a rough deal, and the equipment that we’re giving them is massive for us as an organisation. It shows our commitment and our support for them, and then the engagement we get back from that is amazing. It’s been fantastic to give someone that level of investment.”

Louise Forrest, Director of Partnerships & Development, GIPSIL 

Connecting and Protecting Communities: coproducing a toolkit for tackling misinformation and disinformation

100% Digital Leeds has launched a new project that will see the coproduction of a bank of resources that organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.

Financed by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Connecting and Protecting Communities aims to give organisations the tools they need to support people and communities to develop the transferable skills needed to spot and be critical of misinformation and disinformation in all contexts, including:

  • Minority beliefs: disinformation created with the intent to cause harm or to stir up hatred against a person or group.
  • Misinformation and disinformation in health: misleading health advice on topics such as vaccines, reproductive health, and disease outbreaks.
  • Scams: examples include charity donation fraud, romance scams, tech support scams, prize scams, and WhatsApp impersonation.

The development of a toolkit builds upon learning and best practice from 100% Digital Leeds’s work on the Be Online Stay Safe project led by Leeds Older People’s Forum, and Multiply, delivered in partnership with Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills service. The Connecting and Protecting Communities toolkit will focus on the principles of tailoring learning for improved online safety, media literacy, and tackling misinformation and disinformation to meet the needs of different communities. The toolkit will be a guide for organisations, increasing their confidence to discuss misinformation and disinformation with their service users in a way that is meaningful and effective.

Coproduction with local third sector partners

100% Digital Leeds has partnered with five community organisations to understand how they tailor media literacy messaging and learning delivery to resonate with, and be accessible and engaging for, particular communities.

Each of the chosen partner organisations support different communities of interest, including low-income families, people with learning disabilities, older people, and migrants.

Each partner organisation has designed a bespoke course to be delivered to 10 of their service users. 100% Digital Leeds is observing course delivery to gather learning and insights to feed into the development of a toolkit. The courses are already seeing people develop awareness of misinformation and disinformation, and the skills and confidence to be more critical.

“I’m a very impatient person, life is crazy as a busy mum, we see things, we act quick because time is of the essence in life generally. My brain tells me something is true or I have an impulse to share it immediately with someone, I struggle to stop and think before I act. This course has taught me to stop, pause, think, check with someone else, slow down, not act quick and be more patient”.

Learner at Afrikindness

Project background

100% Digital Leeds reports to the Leeds City Council Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth Scrutiny Board on an annual basis to update on the progress of the digital inclusion programme. In the previous meeting the chair of the board asked the team to return with an enhanced focus on the role of online misinformation and disinformation in light of the riots of 2024 and the increased polarisation and radicalisation of elements of society via online platforms and tools.

Ofcom’s 2024 report Understanding misinformation: an exploration of UK adults’  behaviour and attitudes provides evidence of how UK adults think and feel about “false or misleading” information: where they see it, why they think it’s false or misleading, and what they do and feel as a consequence. 

  • 49% of social media users have seen a deliberately misleading news story in the last 12 months.
  • 45% of UK adults felt confident judging the truthfulness of online sources.
  • 33% of UK adults are not confident judging whether an image, audio or video has been created by AI.
  • 90% of those who encounter misinformation say they are concerned about its societal impact.

100% Digital Leeds has received feedback from partner organisations working in communities across the city that financial scams and romance scams, for instance, are more prevalent and sophisticated. Many people lack the digital skills and confidence to recognise such scams, with some falling victim to them. As well as negatively impacting on the individuals, this impacts on partner organisations who then have to  support people through crises, often requiring intensive work to redress the situation.

Next steps

Delivery is underway, with 100% Digital Leeds in attendance to gather learning and insights to feed into the development of a toolkit. 100% Digital Leeds will continue to share blog updates as the project progresses. The finished toolkit is expected to be published by early summer 2026.

Connecting and Protecting Communities: delivering the project – 100% Digital Leeds

Partner Profile: Anshlah and Happiness Clinic

Anshlah is a grassroots organisation supporting migrant women with young children. Based in SHINE in Harehills, Anshlah work to raise aspirations and provide opportunities to the women they support. Anshlah’s members experience a range of barriers that make accessing services and support more difficult. These include digital exclusion, English as an additional language, literacy needs, cultural considerations, social isolation, poverty, and lack of access to childcare. The constituted group is run by volunteers, who as migrant women and mothers themselves, experience the same barriers as the group’s members.

100% Digital Leeds has supported Anshlah to form a partnership with Happiness Clinic, a Community Interest Company based in Bramley, working with women and children, with expertise in both early years childcare and digital skills delivery.

With funding and support from Leeds-based digital delivery consultancy business Axiologik, the partnership saw Anshlah and Happiness Clinic working together on a pilot project aimed at providing digital skills support alongside childcare.

“I’m now confident about being online, I can recognise scams better and I can check what numbers are calling me so I know if they are potential scams or not. I can protect my personal information and my money better. The childcare is so important, while my daughter is supervised and supported I can do the sessions.”

Anshlah member

Embedding digital inclusion support into Anshlah’s existing offer

Anshlah’s volunteers and members are keen to develop their digital skills and confidence so they can more easily access statutory services, navigate online health support, access opportunities for education and learning, and find employment once their children are at school. Connectivity is also a factor, as both volunteers and members struggle to afford access to digital equipment such as smartphones, and reliable connectivity.

100% Digital Leeds worked with Anshlah to identify a range of national and local partners who could support their digital inclusion offer. Anshlah were supported to register with Good Things Foundation’s National Digital inclusion Network through which they were able to join the National Databank, allowing them to gift SIM cards with free 4G data, calls, and texts to their members with smartphones. 100% Digital Leeds signposted the group to Leeds Libraries’ Tablet Lending Scheme where they could borrow iPads to use with members in their sessions, alongside digital learning resources developed by Leeds Older People’s Forum’s Be Online Stay Safe project.

Anshlah’s volunteers struggled to offer members digital skills support due to their own low digital skills and confidence. 100% Digital arranged for a UKSPF-funded Digital Inclusion Officer from Voluntary Action Leeds to deliver digital skills support during Anshlah’s regular sessions. The Officer trialled offering digital skills support as part of the group’s existing weekly sewing sessions. This had limited success because, although their members were expressing a need for continued support with their digital skills, almost every attendee came with one or more pre-school aged child, and members were unable to properly engage with learning whilst also looking after their children. Attempting to delivering digital learning in this way demonstrated the need for a different setting for the digital sessions, and more support for childcare.

“The support for the kids has helped the ladies a lot. Without the childcare it’s impossible for the ladies to attend the session because the children stop them from doing their work. They always need childcare but most of them aren’t eligible. They need support to do anything because with their children they can do nothing.”

Anshlah volunteer

Working in partnership with Happiness Clinic

Happiness Clinic is a Community Interest Company based in Bramley that works with women and children offering playgroups and volunteer opportunities, with expertise in early years childcare and an interest in supporting women and families. The organisation has a background in digital inclusion, having previously provided digital support for people accessing HM Courts & Tribunals Service – criminal, civil and family courts. Happiness Clinic is keen to develop their offer to support women with pre-school aged children into employment in a way that works for them alongside their family responsibilities.  

100% Digital Leeds introduced Anshlah to Happiness Clinic to see how they might work in partnership, bringing their own expertise to support and enable each other’s priorities. This saw Happiness Clinic providing their childcare expertise, knowledge of early years teaching, and experience of delivering digital skills support, and Anshlah bringing their knowledge and understanding of, and trusted relationship with, their members. Both organisations share similar values and priorities for their communities, are passionate about supporting women and families to develop their skills and thrive, and have an interest in supporting digital inclusion.

As Happiness Clinic are a Community Interest Company, they are eligible for a wider range of funding opportunities than Anshlah. The nature of Anshlah’s legal set up and constitution means the organisation is unable to access the majority of available funding opportunities, which require organisations to be charities or registered groups. Happiness Clinic can also hold a larger amount of funding within their accounts as they don’t have the same annual limits on their income as Anshlah. A partnership between the two organisations means that they would be eligible to apply for a broader range of funding opportunities.

Social value support from Axiologik

Axiologik is a Leeds-based digital delivery consultancy business, delivering digital transformation for organisations including the NHS and the Home Office. The business approached 100% Digital Leeds with an offer of social value support for VCSEs delivering digital inclusion initiatives, with a particular interest in supporting women. Axiologik offered to support two VCSE organisations with a small grant, as well as skills and capacity via the business’s Employer Supported Volunteering scheme.

“At Axiologik, we believe that digital confidence is a foundation for opportunity, and it’s essential that no one is left behind. Supporting Anshlah and the Happiness Clinic through this family-focused project has shown the power of creating safe, accessible spaces where women can build skills at their own pace. Seeing participants grow in confidence, while knowing their children were cared for and happy, has been incredibly rewarding for our team. We’re proud to play a small part in strengthening digital inclusion in our communities and to support organisations who are making a real, lasting difference in people’s lives.”

Axiologik

With financial support from Axiologik, Anshlah and Happiness Clinic worked in partnership to design and deliver a test and learn project exploring how Anshlah’s members could be supported to develop their digital skills and confidence whilst their children were being entertained elsewhere.

A family approach to supporting digital skills and confidence

With support and guidance from 100% Digital Leeds, Happiness Clinic and Anshlah designed a six-week digital skills course based on the needs of Anshlah’s members, identified via a member survey.

Support needs identified included:

  • The NHS platform – online bookings and prescriptions
  • Form filling
  • Making job applications
  • Email writing
  • Online learning
  • Online safety

Leeds Libraries’ Compton Centre Community Hub provided the learning space for free, giving the eight participants access to a bank of computers so that each person could work at their own device. The venue was accessible to all of the participants, within walking distance for school drop off, and was also a friendly space that most of the members and their children had already visited and were familiar with.

Happiness Clinic led on delivery of the digital skills sessions while staff from both organisations shared the work of supporting the digital learners and entertaining the children in the children’s section of the library.

The six sessions consisted of the following topics:

  • Course introduction, basic digital skills, library card application
  • How to set up an email account, send and receive emails, and attach files
  • How to complete online documents and forms
  • How to identify online scams and fraud
  • How to find work online and make a CV
  • How to use the NHS app

Volunteers from Axiologik’s Employee Volunteering Programme attended one of the sessions, delivering a session around CV writing with the participants. The final session was celebratory, with all participants bringing food and reflecting on their progress and what a difference the opportunity had made to their confidence and skills with digital.

Impact for Anshlah’s members

Many of the participants said that while they had a lot of skills, knowledge and qualifications in their home countries they felt like they were starting again from the beginning in the UK. During the job and CV session, members learned about applying for job opportunities and were shown job sites and how to write a CV, increasing their confidence in their own abilities and showing them how to use digital tools to boost their employability.

“Overall the course has been wonderful. It’s so beneficial for me. Most of my peers don’t know how to send an email or make a CV or other digital things and they are missing out. I am looking forward to improving my digital skills and to go on to more advanced IT learning. I want a professional job here in the UK and everything needs digital skills. In the Sudan everything was on paper rather than digital. I want to go into accounting, so I need to improve my skills.”

Anshlah member

Participants spoke about how important it was for them to be able to correctly identify scam phone calls online, where they could check to see if calls were legitimate or not, which gave them peace of mind that they hadn’t missed important information. They also talked about being able to access accurate health and medication information online which gave them the language and confidence to be able to communicate effectively with their GP.

All of the participants wanted the sessions to continue and were disappointed that the course had come to an end.

“I really liked the scammer session. We used a website where you could put the phone number in and it tells you if it’s likely to be a scam. I also really liked the NHS app as normally I would check on Google for symptoms for myself and my children and it often isn’t very accurate. The accurate one is the NHS website. I can also look up more information about medication in the A-Z bit of the website so when I go to the doctor I have more information to tell them about my symptoms and to understand what the medicine will do. It’s important to me to be able to have the information I need because English isn’t my first language, so I struggle with the terminology. It means that I’m more likely to be listened to.”

Anshlah member  

       

Impact for Happiness Clinic and Anshlah and next steps

Both Happiness Clinic and Anshlah gained valuable experience from the project, with both organisations expressing a desire to continue to work together and learn from each other on future digital inclusion projects.

“So much more work went into the sessions than we had anticipated: keeping track of attendees, making evaluation forms, making and maintaining relationships with the participants on an individual basis, and finding out how everything is going for them. The work that Anshlah did communicating with their members is invaluable. They have such a good understanding of their group. We have worked so well together, and I would like to keep that relationship and partnership going.”

Happiness Clinic

The organisations are keen to apply for further funding as a partnership. The digital inclusion project has evidenced the need for digital support which includes an element of childcare for both Anshlah and Happiness Clinic’s community, with many of the participants and volunteers emphasising how essential the childcare element was for them to be able to concentrate on their skills development.

“I would like to do more sessions as it has been so useful. It has been great to have the childcare, this has been the only group that I have been to that has provided childcare. I am learning, I don’t have to worry about my child.”

Anshlah member

Lessons learned from the test and learn project means that future programme applications will take into account the need for a separate space to entertain the children, as the children’s library was too much of an open space which proved to be difficult to keep all of the children safely entertained. 100% Digital Leeds and both organisations are speaking to Leeds Libraries to access appropriate space for future funding bids.

Delivering the project also highlighted the importance of hands-on volunteers to support the learning of the participants and how valuable going forward a relationship with an organisation like Axiologik with their Employee Volunteering Programme is for a digital inclusion programme.

Axiologik will continue their relationship with both organisations and are happy to provide additional support for future digital inclusion projects including volunteers through their Employee Volunteering Programme and materials and resources.

“I’ve not found anything as rewarding as this. The personal impact that I can have on these women one on one and see them learn has made such a difference to me. The first week there were language barriers and Google wasn’t working and it was a mess, but by the third week the ladies were bringing food and really appreciating each other and the learning.”

Happiness Clinic

Partner Profile: New Wortley Community Centre

New Wortley Community Centre is a community-owned and community-led centre located in New Wortley, an inner-city area of West Leeds. A long-standing asset to the community, the centre opened in 1982 and is managed by New Wortley Community Association, a membership group that works to improve the area and the lives of people living in LS12. The centre provides support to residents and offers a range of services, groups and activities to empower them to lead happier and healthier lives.

As members of Leeds Community Anchor Network, New Wortley Community Association worked with Leeds Anchor Network and other partners on several Listening Exercises and focus groups to help deepen understanding of the practical and emotional challenges residents face when looking for work.

With the support of 100% Digital Leeds, the feedback from these sessions directly informed the design of a range of interlinked activities at New Wortley Community Centre, achieved through coproduction and collaboration, with digital inclusion support embedded throughout.

“Working with 100% Digital Leeds has been crucial to the success of the HOPE project at the community centre. Setting up a designated IT suite and the provision of laptops and tablets has enabled us to provide drop-in and one-to-one support for those who need it most.”

Centre Manager, New Wortley Community Centre

Community Listening Exercises

Through their role in Leeds Community Anchor Network on behalf of Armley Community Anchor Network, New Wortley Community Association were involved in feeding into Voluntary Action Leeds’s Good Jobs, Better Health, Fairer Futures report, along with fellow community anchors Give a Gift and LS14 Trust (on behalf of We Are Seacroft).

This feedback on barriers to employment and development opportunities was gathered in 2023 via Listening Exercises involving local people. One of the main barriers was the lack of digital access, skills, and confidence that residents faced.

“In one group, it was stated that 50% of people in the room do not have access to the internet either due to cost or not understanding how to use it, representing multiple barriers that caused digital exclusion for communities. Digital exclusion is a significant barrier to securing good jobs and requires support for community members to gain confidence in navigating the internet and resources in order to regularly access wifi and technology in general.”

Good Jobs, Better Health, Fairer Futures report, June 2023

100% Digital Leeds became involved with Leeds Community Anchor Network after the initial report, meeting with partners to discuss findings in more depth. One of these partners was New Wortley Community Centre, and a further focus group, attended by 100% Digital Leeds and Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills team, was held in August 2024 to unpick the report’s findings and to better understand how to overcome the barriers faced by many community members.

The contributions from people emphasised the systemic disadvantages that cause so much digital exclusion. In addition, the Listening Exercise highlighted a significant barrier to employment for culturally diverse communities in New Wortley. Whilst many individuals could speak English conversationally, they lacked the literacy, numeracy, and digital skills needed to complete job applications and succeed in recruitment processes.

“Diverse communities can speak English very well but can’t necessarily write it or read it as well. So when it comes to applying for a job they don’t really know where to start. They don’t necessarily have the digital tools… but even if you give them the digital tools, they don’t know how to use them.”

New Wortley Community Association

Leeds Ambitions include thriving, strong communities that are more resilient and cohesive. Several partners described the Listening Exercises project as a catalyst for closer collaboration and more joined-up service delivery.

“Working together with 100% Digital Leeds and New Wortley Community Centre has fostered a collaborative environment and helped deliver wraparound support that is improving outcomes for the community in an enhanced way.”

Employment & Skills Advisor, Leeds City Council

Digital inclusion support at New Wortley Community Centre

IT suite

With UK Shared Prosperity Funding secured through the 100% Digital Leeds programme, New Wortley Community Association refurbished its IT suite and acquired laptops and tablets. This aligned well with their goal of improving digital access for residents.

Conversation Club

Initiated by New Wortley Community Association as a direct response to the Listening Exercise and focus group, the Conversation Club provides a safe, women-only space for people to practise English. It has since grown to include two levels, Beginner and Intermediate, and is now a valued, long-running part of New Wortley Community Association’s weekly programme.

Progression support

New Wortley Community Association adapted an existing role into a diverse Communities Support Worker post, enabling one-to-one support with job searches, CV writing, training opportunities and volunteering. This flexible model ensures that people are supported at their own pace.

Weekly jobs advice drop-in

Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills team now delivers a regular Monday drop-in session, having scaled up from a previously underused monthly service. This increase in provision followed the success of early engagement and recognition of local demand.

HOPE (Helping with Opportunities to Prepare for Employment)

New Wortley Community Centre partnered with 100% Digital Leeds and Employment and Skills to design a support offer to be delivered directly within the community. The collaboration brought together digital inclusion expertise, employment guidance, and trusted community spaces to create accessible pathways to opportunity.

The partnership established dedicated weekly sessions at the community centre, offering:

  • Free digital skills training covering everything from basic computer literacy to job application support.
  • One-to-one employment support including CV writing, interview preparation, and career guidance.
  • Device access and connectivity for residents without technology at home.

By locating services within the familiar, trusted community centre environment, the programme eliminated traditional barriers such as travel costs, childcare challenges, and the confidence required to access formal training settings.

“35 residents engaged with the programme, with nine of them securing employment or progressing into further training. One participant, previously long-term unemployed, gained essential digital skills and, with support from an Employment and Skills advisor, secured a position as a Customer Service Assistant with Leeds City Council.

The partnership demonstrates how collaborative, place-based approaches can deliver meaningful outcomes in priority neighbourhoods. Residents now access support that would otherwise remain out of reach, building skills and confidence essential for modern employment markets.

This model proves that investing in community-led digital and employment support creates lasting impact, empowering individuals while strengthening neighbourhood resilience.”

Employment and Skills Advisor, Leeds City Council

Understanding community need, in partnership with Leeds Anchor Network

The overarching aim of the Leeds Community Anchor Network is to ‘help ensure the communities of Leeds thrive’. Under that is a commitment to ‘enable people to get involved in local activity and have a say about local issues and services’. Gaining knowledge of local people’s experiences and insights helps to shape the agenda for community organisations and informs local decision making. This includes how organisations approach digital inclusion based on an understanding of common barriers.

“The Listening Exercise brought insight from people in some of the city’s priority wards who want to move into employment, or better-quality work.

The overall message was that many people want to move into good quality and meaningful work, but face barriers in doing so that can be beyond their control. Often this is about their personal circumstance, such as not having regular access to the internet or a computer, or speaking English as a second language.”

Project Manager, Leeds City Council

Those experiences and insights also help to provide direction to the Leeds Anchor Network, whose members have ‘a shared commitment to listening well to communities, so we can work together better and deliver more for people in Leeds’.

Leeds Anchor Network brings together 14 of the city’s largest employers across local government, health, culture, education and utilities. Anchors come together to focus on areas where they can make a key difference for the people of Leeds: as employers, through their procurement, their environmental impact, their core services, and as civic partners.

New Wortley Community Centre is one of 30 organisations that have signed up as members of the Leeds Community Anchor Network, a citywide network of trusted third and faith sector organisations. The network aims to maintain the connections made during the Covid pandemic which saw many of its members mobilise quickly to provide front-line support to people and communities in their locality. Leeds Community Anchor Network works to support smaller organisations and improve citywide services that provide immediate assistance to communities while also attempting to bring about long-term systemic change. 

“Leeds anchor organisations are among the largest employers in the city, and we have all made a commitment to providing quality employment for local people.

We know that around 30% of our combined workforce who live in Leeds are in the most disadvantaged areas of the city. Providing good work in these communities is a very important element of our work to deliver inclusive economic growth.

This collaboration with Leeds Community Anchor Network has brought lived insight into the barriers many individuals face in accessing the city’s employment opportunities. Our anchor partners have heard these challenges directly, and will continue to work with communities to develop initiatives to support people into good employment.”

Peter Slee, Vice Chancellor of Leeds Beckett University (Convenor for Inclusive Growth Leeds Ambition)

Next steps

Further conversations since the Listening Exercise and the launch of the HOPE IT suite have led to additional developments in service provision.

The HOPE suite has been used to enhance the weekly Conversation Club classes by adding a digital element, and the Centre has recently added ESOL-accredited classes to their programme.

“An ESOL-accredited course is something we have aspired to offer for some time as the next step towards supporting local people into employment.”

Centre Manager, New Wortley Community Centre

It has also been highlighted that there is a need for children and young people to have safe spaces within the community to develop their skills and knowledge away from the school environment. The Centre is exploring the opportunity of developing a Homework Club that would operate from the HOPE Suite after school hours.

“Conversations with young people have also highlighted that many of them do not have access to wifi outside of school and are reliant on using a mobile phone. It is not practical to use a mobile phone to do homework so we are currently exploring what further support we can offer them.”

Centre Manager, New Wortley Community Centre

For those who cannot make it into the Centre due to other commitments or health barriers, they are also hoping to start gifting data via SIM cards and investigating options around loaning devices.

Finally, due to the success of the HOPE Suite, New Wortley Community Centre is looking to share their experiences with other community anchors and partners in the city with a long-term aim of promoting best practice when setting up IT suites in community settings.

“We know from the Listening Exercises that there are many skilled people living in our neighbourhoods, particularly from diverse communities who want to gain meaningful employment. They face multiple barriers to this including access to IT equipment or wifi and the need for a safe, inclusive space to improve their English, Maths, and Digital skills.


Our programme includes weekly structured learning sessions and more informal ad-hoc drop-in support with searching online for jobs and volunteering opportunities, writing applications, and coaching for interviews. For many of the people who are accessing support their journey will take time and initially may focus on building confidence navigating the internet. For others it’s helping them get much nearer to their goal in securing employment. Whatever the need, we are here to support them.”

Centre Manager, New Wortley Community Centre