Trust Leeds is a Leeds-based charity which follows the Self-Reliant Group (SRG) model. Community SRGs build confidence, skills, and emotional wellbeing, and allow people to develop their own small savings to build financial independence. Be Your Own Boss SRGs support unemployed and under-employed people to become self-employed by developing their business plan alongside a cohort of peers and business coaches.
Members of SRGs have gone on to set up successful businesses and community organisations across Leeds, as well as creating lifelong friendships and peer support networks. Trust Leeds also provides ethical microfinance loans to their entrepreneurial members. These provisions serve to improve the financial health and wellbeing of people facing poverty in Leeds.
Trust Leeds work alongside their SRG members, helping them to build financial independence, confidence, and skills in a person-centred way. This person-centred approach closely aligns with the 100% Digital Leeds approach to digital inclusion. Trust Leeds has worked with 100% Digital Leeds to embed digital inclusion and digital skills support into everything they do. They offer a range of support to their members who may have low digital skills or may be experiencing data poverty.
Digital Heart
Trust Leeds has long been aware of the necessity of digital inclusion for their members and have seen the negative impact of digital exclusion for entrepreneurial people who are underserved, living in poverty, or facing other disadvantages. Many of Trust Leeds’ members understand the importance of digital inclusion and digital skills as they move on to set up their own businesses after being a part of a SRG.
Earlier this year, Trust Leeds were offered support from Cognizant as part of the work that 100% Digital Leeds is doing to increase support for digital inclusion from the city’s tech sector, with colleagues from Leeds Community Foundation, Voluntary Action Leeds, and Forum Central. These initiatives aim to increase the capacity of community organisations, and support businesses to implement their Corporate Social Responsibility offers and feel connected to the city. The support from Cognizant helped Trust Leeds to put much-needed digital support in place in a way that best serves their members and their ethos.
Trust Leeds held a gathering of SRGs under the theme of ‘Energising and Enterprising’ which marked the start of their Digital Heart project. The day included inspiring speeches, personalised cybersecurity advice from a Cognizant volunteer, and individual self-employment sessions. Members could scan a QR code to take a digital skills assessment so that Trust Leeds staff and facilitators could gain a better understanding of their individual digital skill levels, and how digital inclusion support from Trust Leeds could be tailored to be most effective. Members were also asked if they struggled to pay for access to the internet and were offered a free SIM card with 4G data, texts, and calls from Good Things Foundation’s National Databank.
Alongside this, Virgin Money delivered a session focusing on online safety, online banking, and basic digital skills support. The digital support from both Cognizant and Virgin Money was very well received and the personalised support was invaluable for the development of SRG members’ digital skills and confidence, helping them to become more independent and continue building their businesses.
Digital Do It
Trust Leeds’ online Digital Do It sessions were inspired by Shut Up & Write – an international writing community that provides the tools and support for writers to get their writing done when they are struggling with motivation or confidence. In a similar style, Digital Do It allows Trust Leeds members and staff to dedicate one hour of their week to conquering a digital challenge. This is often a task they have been putting off due to a lack of time, low confidence, external distractions, or other challenges.
“Everybody has different digital skills development needs and we were finding it difficult to find one training session or one focus for everybody.”
Liza Kellett, CEO, Trust Leeds
Anyone with a digital task to complete can join the Digital Do It group video call. At the start of the session, a facilitator asks each member what their achievable digital goal for the session is, and types it out in the chat to encourage members stay focused. Everyone works to achieve their goals in breakout rooms and comes back to the main room in the last 10 minutes to feed back to the group. The facilitator makes notes and posts them in the chat.
Digital Do It allows members to focus on their own learning whilst providing peer support to those who need it. Helping others allows members to build confidence in their own abilities and helps them to further develop their own skills. Members are put into their own breakout rooms, sometimes with the support of another member if needed, and facilitators check in on all of the breakout rooms to offer additional support where necessary.
The Digital Do It sessions have proven to be a motivating, friendly, and welcoming environment for everyone at any stage in their digital journey. The sessions are going so well that Trust Leeds is going to continue the sessions beyond the Summer and is opening the sessions up to anyone who is interested. Contact Liza for more information and the meeting link at info@trustleeds.org.uk.
“There’s no judgement. Nobody rolls their eyes or says it’s ‘intuitive’ or ‘easy’. It was so lovely when everybody clapped when I told them I’d learnt how to make a logo on Canva.”
Trust Leeds SRG member
Multiply
Thanks to Multiply funding Trust Leeds was able to extend its numeracy and digital support to members. Using its regular market stall as a focus, members of the Wellbeing Warriors SRG learned to use Excel for the first time to catalogue product costs and pricing of their handmade items, and income and expenditure from the market itself. The funding also enabled Trust Leeds to gift smartphones and tablets, depending on need, which meant they had many more tools and apps to explore to improve their digital skills and confidence.
“You can’t get away from digital, even if you wanted to, and once you get to grips with small steps you realise how helpful it is: for managing money, benefits, keeping up with friends, and even the doctor!”
Trust Leeds SRG member
Next Steps
Trust Leeds is starting its online 12-week Be Your Own Boss SRG programme this month and is also running three SRG Day Camps with specific themes and target members in mind. The charity has trained 65 community development workers, peer support workers, and members in how to facilitate SRGs themselves, so they can share the value of this international model and enable others to adopt it in their own communities of need, geography, or interest. As holder of the SRG Hub in Leeds, the team – who are also trained Digital Champions – are always on hand to support members and potential members facing barriers due to a lack of digital skills, connectivity, or a digital device. 100% Digital Leeds will continue to work closely with Trust Leeds to develop their digital inclusion support offer to fit the ever-changing needs of the members that make the organisation.
“Trust Leeds puts digital inclusion at the heart of our work because we know that the people we support face multiple challenges – and those challenges can be faced even more effectively with strong digital skills. Poverty, financial exclusion, and poor mental and physical health can all be made just that little bit easier if people are confident and empowered to find their own solutions through digital means. We know that when our members are digitally included, they feel more in control, more knowledgeable, and more powerful.”
Liza Kellett, CEO, Trust Leeds