The Inclusive Digital Economy Network (INCLUDE+) is a five-year project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The network is building a knowledge community comprising industry, academia, the public and third sectors focusing on inequalities in digital society. They commission specific research projects to explore how social and digital environments can be built, shaped, and sustained to enable all people to thrive.
In 2022, 100% Digital Leeds started working with colleagues at The University of Leeds on different strands of the INCLUDE+ project. Most recently, this has resulted in funding from INCLUDE+ for two digital inclusion research projects in Leeds:
- Horsforth Town of Sanctuary received a grant to examine and evaluate the process of gifting devices to people seeking asylum who are temporarily accommodated at a hotel in Leeds.
- Voluntary Action Leeds received a grant a grant for a Fellowship to explore how the tech industry, the VCSE sector, and statutory bodies can work together to create more effective and inclusive digital volunteering partnerships.
Horsforth Town of Sanctuary
Horsforth Town of Sanctuary, a part of Horsforth Chaplaincy Project, is a community project that has been running for the last three years. It has around 30 volunteers and a part-time Refugee Support Worker. The project supports people seeking asylum who are temporarily accommodated at a hotel in Leeds.
100% Digital Leeds has worked with Horsforth Town of Sanctuary for two years, helping them to provide smartphones and SIM cards with free data, texts, and calls to people seeking asylum. They gift SIM cards through their weekly conversation club and drop-in sessions. The SIM cards are pre-activated by the volunteers before the session to speed up the gifting process. Due to the high demand, Horsforth Town of Sanctuary also use Vodafone Charities Connected to access free Vodafone SIM cards with data, texts, and calls that last for six months.
Horsforth Town of Sanctuary are part of the Leeds Databank User Group, co-facilitated by 100% Digital Leeds and Good Things Foundation, where they share best practice, tips, and feedback with other community delivery partners.
“Each new person will have contact with one of our volunteers and can receive a SIM card when they first arrive at the hotel. We’ve trained three volunteers who have become more confident in SIM gifting on a weekly basis.”
Laura Schubert, Refugee Support Worker, Horsforth Town of Sanctuary
The research project funded by INCLUDE+ is exploring fair and respectful ways for volunteers who support people accommodated at the hotel to establish whether somebody needs a smartphone. It is also evaluating ways to create a good and fair process for volunteers to gift the phone and give related digital support to someone seeking asylum. Horsforth Town of Sanctuary will explore ways to create feelings of safety for the volunteer and the person seeking asylum when volunteers gift a smartphone, and how best to celebrate and induct that person alongside gifting the phone.
“Having a phone helps people communicate freely with their family and friends, and volunteer charities. Connection to families is really important for people. It helps them to access essential information to support their asylum claim and improve their English. It also makes them feel more confident that the Home Office and their solicitors can contact them. It helps people seeking asylum to prepare and get familiar with life in this country.”
Ian Kemp, Volunteer, Horsforth Town of Sanctuary
Research findings
Gifting was done during the weekly drop-in and conversation club. These sessions are always busy, and people come to the sessions for support with multiple issues in a short space of time.
Volunteers reported that adding smartphone distribution into these sessions affected the levels of trust and relationships with the residents. Access to a phone with data is of great importance to the people who are eligible, but there was a limited number of devices. The inevitable disappointment from residents who did not receive a phone reinforced the need to manage expectations and to be even more explicit about eligibility criteria.
The research found that offering device gifting in that setting had the potential to cause anxiety and tension. This distracted from the key aim of the group, which was to make people feel welcome in a new home, to learn English, and to foster a sense of community.
“Giving phones is really important. But the distribution process is difficult to get right. For our project, it had a particular impact when we tried to do it as part of the main session. We have been thinking about more effective ways of getting phones to people who need one.”
Laura Schubert, Refugee Support Worker, Horsforth Town of Sanctuary
Voluntary Action Leeds Digital Fellowship
Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership (LDVP) is made up of representatives from 100% Digital Leeds, Leeds Community Foundation, Voluntary Action Leeds, Forum Central, and Leeds City Council. The partnership was formed in Summer 2023 after the success of the Leeds Digital Ball and Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund highlighted further opportunities for the tech sector to support the third sector other than financially.
LDVP fosters cross-sector partnerships that help the city’s third sector organisations benefit from the digital skills and capacity of the tech sector and enable tech businesses and their employees to gain new skills, experience, and a sense of community through work with not-for-profit organisations. Feedback from digital businesses and third sector organisations is that it is difficult to ‘find each other’ and form meaningful, mutually beneficial, lasting relationships.
LDVP proposed to formalise this feedback and to address this challenge through a robust research piece funded by INCLUDE+. 100% Digital Leeds worked closely with Voluntary Action Leeds and LDVP colleagues to secure funding for a Fellowship to research this issue in more depth.
INCLUDE+ funded a Fellowship to explore how the tech industry, the VCSE sector, and statutory bodies can work together to create more effective and inclusive digital volunteering partnerships. The Digital Capacity Officer at Voluntary Action Leeds worked on the Fellowship for six months and their final report was published in August 2025. Their research included individual interviews with many of the charities and tech sector businesses that work with 100% Digital Leeds, focus groups, desk research, and discussions with attendees at the Leeds Digital Matchmaking event organised by 100% Digital Leeds.
Research findings
The report proposes four strategic interventions to support impactful and effective partnerships:
- Relationship Method, a practical framework for building trust-based, long-term collaborations between tech and VCSE organisations.
- Social Value Quality Mark, a standard to recognise and promote high quality digital volunteering contributions.
- Social Value Champions Network, a peer network to support cross-sector learning, leadership, and visibility.
- Matchmaking and resource hub website, an online platform to connect organisations, share resources, and support collaboration.
The research has helped to focus attention on this issue and deepen understanding across sectors. It is a step towards developing the necessary infrastructure and resources to help the right interactions happen in the right way going forward. Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership will continue to work towards empowering businesses and people that want to give their time to meet the needs of communities.
“These were incredibly important research projects for INCLUDE+, exploring issues of digital equity. The findings cement the importance of cross-sectional research not only in terms of identifying issues, but also in building real solutions.”
Helen Thornham, Principal Investigator INCLUDE+, School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Next steps
Lessons learned from the Horsforth Town of Sanctuary research will be taken into future device gifting schemes. Findings from the research will be shared with Leeds Migration Partnership, including top tips, a guide to gifting, and good practice principles for effectively gifting devices to those in need.
100% Digital Leeds is working with Hubbub on their Community Calling programme. This will enable more third sector organisations to gift smartphones to their service users who cannot afford their own device.
Voluntary Action Leeds will work with 100% Digital Leeds, the Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership, and INCLUDE+ to implement the recommendations from the Digital Fellowship Research Project.
100% Digital Leeds will continue to work with INCLUDE+ to identify funding and research opportunities for VCSE organisations in Leeds.