Digital inclusion challenges case study: Motivation

CLASP - a local charity in North Ayrshire, runs a project for over 50s called HOPE in the Community, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.  Alongside our vision of increased health and wellbeing and reduced social isolation, HOPE aims to get more older people online so that they can help themselves stay safe online, stay in touch with family, friends and their communities, and make informed choices on matters that affect them.    

One of the ways we do this is by using people’s hobbies and interests, using this hook to make learning online fun, interesting, and relevant to them.  We work with the local libraries to promote fantastic free resources available to everyone with a library card – showing people how to download books and audiobooks from BorrowBox and how to access 2,600 English-language newspapers and magazines from across the world using PressReader. We offer presentations to groups on how they can use websites and apps to develop their creative knowledge and skills for example using a StitchFiddle website to design your own crochet/knitting, needlecraft, and craft picture designs, or how to access a forum of like-minded crafters to ask questions and share advice on how to use your woodturning tools better. We all know how YouTube can help us fix just about anything also.